San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Been having fun with the ghosts this spring. second photo fish just squeaked by 35”. 3 legals for me from shore this year.

Nice! I definitely feel like those early season corbina are more opportunistic later in the season. I got one this year on a red perch fly and another one on a Texas rigged swimbait. I’ve caught a couple on LCs during grunion runs too. Not sure how they think they can fit one in those sucker mouths ...

I got one a few weeks ago on a red perch fly as well. Hooked in the gill plate so I let it go with out a picture or measurement. Caught right after this lunker.

I am starting to understand why low tide, especially negative tide, is so prized. Unfortunately, crazy low tides during day time are pretty much behind us...

Anyway, last weekend had negative tide in the afternoon. Waded in and casted with heavy gear to get over the edge. And...

A couple smaller ...

A couple nicer ones

Some even nicer ones...

Had an afternoon and an early morning session. North county reefs. Mostly used 13 ft rod and 40 lb mainline to cast over the reef edge. #2 and #1/0 circle hooks.

The best fish is always the one that was lost. How true! This morning I felt some smaller fish biting, some were fairly strong. Then Bam ...

Now let's get to the basses. A small sand bass:
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...and some nicer calicos (forgot to include the measure of the 2nd picture. It was 16 in):

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Cabbie also came to play:
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My very first ...

Last but definitely not the least, a couple sheeps:
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Later this morning, my lower back was suddenly "locked up", when I was simply walking. I guess all the pulls this week put a toll to my back, and it is telling me to stop. Aye aye Sir Body ...

Fished the incoming tide this morning using my new rod. Lots of Salad in the water for the big skunk. Momma said theyll be days like this.

Back felt better. Wrap a back brace and let's do some moderate casting in the reefs. Again lost a big one that broke my 1/0 hook, but did land a few sheep over two sessions last weekend.

Start with "barely legal"
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This one is legal for sure
PXL_20230430_203031377.jpg ...

I went to the Shelter island pier last week but it was dead. Out of couple dozens of poles only a few macks and some smelt in 3 hours. I don't know if it's the water temp or something else that is affecting the bite. Gonna try again when the water temp gets above 65.

Took a break from studying for finals and went out on the beach for 2 hours this afternoon, fishing the incoming tide. There were a ton of man-o-wars. It was very slow until ~6 pm, then the bass hit less than 30 seconds after a cast. Got the spotfin shortly after, then it was dead again until i ...

I was out there a couple weeks ago and saw some guy catch a legal halibut on a Lucky craft sardine. I was able to catch a couple small perch on sandcrab flies. I was fishing north Carlsbad north of the power plant

Went by Hogan's Tackle for some fresh lugeworms. Went over to the jetty for a quick 90 min trip. Ended up getting 1 sand bass
and 3 spotfins, 2 of the spotfins were a really nice size, I didn't get a pick of them. Had to climb down the rocks to release and didn't have phone on me then.
pic.jpg pic ...

Went back out to the beach after getting a larger setup and boy am I glad I upgraded. Fished the incoming tide, about an hour after peak low. It was slow for a bit, only got that short 12" bass for the first hour. After moving down the beach a little, as the tide was coming up, I hooked onto ...

Have caught a few dinks in the surf recently. Nothing impressive at all. But today one short hali maybe 20” spit up this thing which i learned is a queenfish. Pretty cool

Walked down to a favorite beach spot to fish a weighted weedless swimbait (shown) along the sand/rock shoreline here, with much smaller surf today.

The recent south swells have migrated tons of sand north on my beach, and have unburied the local acres of eel grass - which is all dead and drifting ...

Addition - Sunset Calico Bass May 23

Three more fun little calico bass last night, fishing the weedlines until after sunset missed a few short strikes, one of these days there may be a halibut around ....

I've been on other forums for years, just found this one. None the less, figured I would post something. This was last Sunday, it taped out a tad over 100" (largest male I've seen). Quick measurement and returned to the water, swam away strong. Always good to find a forum, hopefully you guys don't ...