San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Shrimp...fresh or frozen...works well. Stays on better than anchovies but not as well as squid.

My old friend Ed Reiss, RIP, used squid strips pretty much exclusively on orange plastics in the bay. His belief was ghost shrimp were a universal bait. Adding squid was added inticement. He caught every species found in the bay.
Yes it works and you dont lose much bait.

I can't help you with which SD beach (I'm up in OC), but good luck with surf fishing.... It's my favorite type of fishing...
Butch

People don't swim as much around the reef sections, so on weekends you can try that. You could catch many different species. Fishing in crowds has sometimes worked out well for me for fun and for catching, even on sandy beaches. A little flexibility is needed, that's all. You have a right to be ...

Hello, I am going out to SD to try the surf for the first time this weekend. Most likely Friday and Saturday. I have kayak fished the bays a couple of times, but I want to try the surf just to experience it. I have been researching the best I can. Just wondering if there is a particular beach that ...

Good comments above. I’ll add that fishing early can work even on a normally crowded beach since crowds don’t usually arrive until mid morning. I only fish busy beaches (PB, north mission), so to avoid crowds I only fish mornings and I finish up by 10 or so before the beach gets packed and swimmers ...

YouTube is your friend here. Watch the line of videos about Surf Fishing in Southern California. This will let you know what to expect. I think about how similar Surf Fishing here is to River Fishing for Trout. You fish the backwashes, edges of current, dirty water behind reefs with light line ...

Phxangler wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 8:52 pm Thanks for the help guys! I had a great day! Got to Carlsbad around 2:00pm. Ended up with 11 surf perch, 3 YFC, and a baby sand bass. Couldn’t have even asked for that much luck

It was great to see this update from you. Great job... lots of fish!

Fantastic!… Excellent 1st try.. And thanks for the update….
Butch

Nice going. did the pile of kelp/grass come in with the bean ? LOL

Wrapping up the morning at Mission Beach, arrived around 6:30 with pretty much the entire beach to myself. Caught a croaker early on (my first!), a walleye, and then around 8:30-8:45 pulled in 4-5 BSP in the span of 10–15 minutes.

Must’ve been getting bites after that rush because I was pulling in ...

Long haul but some decent fish...
Butch

This is also my first Fall. I fished year-round and sporadically when I was a kid/teen, but this is the first time I have been fully engaged in Surf Fishing mentally in San Diego. It's starting to have an effect. Crab beds are shrinking, and they are no longer available at as many tide levels in the ...

I have caught some of my largest corbina in the fall.. They may not be as fat as summer corbs, but they are still around...Can't say I've caught as many SFC as in the spring or summer, but the perch and YFC still seem to be as abundant.. And as it cools even more the large, mama perch start showing ...

Past years I've had some good sessions in October into Nov for corbina & spot fins. Haven't been out for over 2 weeks due to conflicts on the home front so can't give you any fresh intel. Hope to soon.

I did catch a nice spotfin around 20 inches this morning, and other than that, all perch.

Everydog wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 1:41 pm I did catch a nice spotfin around 20 inches this morning, and other than that, all perch.

There you go, nice ! What did it bite on ? With crabs all but gone, I'll be armed next time out with mussel & clam meat, maybe some freeze dried lug worms also.

Hi PK, There are still crabs in Del Mar, at least with today's tide. They are thinning out, though. That's what caught it. Also, throughout the summer, I have not caught a spotfin, of 15, or one corbina, of about 25 or so (small to large), on shrimp. Everything else eats the shrimp, or robs it.