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.

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 ...

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.

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

1st one for this season at MB, 21.5" on 2 small sc's, near high tide this am. So far, the crabs have been either very small or golf balls. Good fun also to run into Jusbigguns on the sand.

Mike,
I think that is a black croaker, also known as a china croaker...
Butch

https://www.pierfishing.com/black-croaker/

They're not, but their eggs are poisonous.

Seaweed was forbidden for the last few weeks, at least for the spots I usually fish. I hauled many giant piles up, even broke my Uglystik Bigwater rod... The only upshot was that those sessions were fine workouts.

This weekend the seaweed was more accommodating. They were still there, but I can ...

UncleJose wrote: Mon May 27, 2024 1:46 pm Anyone know if you're able to eat fish during red tide?

No idea… But it cleared up on the out going tide, but was back with the incoming… Today here in Pacific Beach…
Butch

Went out to TP yesterday for the incoming tide and water was way cleaner than down south.
Not much action but did manage to get another short Hali. One of these days I’ll catch my first keeper.

In case anyone has thought of hitting MB, you might want reconsider. Just got back from what was going to be a mid afternoon - early evening sesh. Red tide all the way from Jetty up to PB + heavy salad. Lifeguard said it started creeping in yesterday; today was real bad. Shame, water was so clear ...

Mission Beach was full of red tide again so took a chance on finding a parking spot at PB & got lucky. Low surf inside & good conditions, a bonus.
Usual dinkers around & leader was getting short from cutting loose several hook swallowers. Contemplated packing it in but decided to put on a new 2 ...

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My PB halibut from the surf at just over 27"... I don't really fish these guys as I prefer corbina and SFC but have caught a ton of them as by-catch, but mostly non-legals... Only a couple of legals... You would be surprised how many you can catch with sand crabs ...

Got out to PB on Tuesday this week. Tide was about an hour coming in off the earlier -0.1 low; water temp was probably about 58. Found a decent hole straight out from PB Drive (about 1/4 mi south of pier). Started with a jerk bait for hali's but too much salad, mostly heavy grass. Before going to a ...

2nd day… 6-8 BSP. Mostly hand size… 2 bigger at 12-13”…My back has been wonky the last 2-3 weeks, so I’m not pushing it much. Only fished for an hour this am. Found a decent hole, but nobody home… The eel grass was a pain, kelp no so much. The rest of the conditions where about the same as yesterday ...

Usual bait stealing critters this morning. Lots of sc's again, but mostly small, none with roe but quite a few soft shells. Water temp felt around 64-65, no grass problems, just a few kelp floaters. Got a half dozen hand size perchies & one small ray. Nice to see a different species showing up ...

I fished south of Crystal pier this morning from around 8-10. Tide was very low and rising quickly, holes and guts moved around and current was switching. Sand crabs plentiful all along the beach, two scoops with my colander got me all I wanted, mostly soft shells and a couple with roe. Waves were ...

I fished the surf south of Crystal pier this morning from about 8-9:15. Still a good bit of wave action. Grass and junk are the same, lots of it but manageable. Sand crabs everywhere.

Took 1 minute to catch a BSP. After another 20 minutes I caught a 19 inch SFC. The SFC was enough motivation to ...

Hadn't been out to PB in almost a month so gave it a look this AM. South of pier half way to LG station; what a mess of junk on the beach and in the water. If didn't get bit in 3-4 minutes, line loaded up with grass/lettuce. Lots of sand crabs though everywhere. One perchie and after half hour ...

I've gotten four of these in three trips and pulled the hook on about the same number. Frustrating. Using bigger-than-average sand crabs, which are a lot of work to find. But there doesn't seem to be an alternative.
Lots of other fish to catch. This morning, I tried the negative tide with a ...