San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I have been hitting the surf in all my normal hali spots last week because of great negative tides at the right time but even with everything in my favor in four outings and two lost LC's i only got 2 tiny shorts. I was thinking i may never be able to catch a saltwater fish again and was sulking ...

That's fishing. You can feel like you really understand something and then it's all blanks. Nice job getting through and catching fish. Looking forward to getting out there with you.

Sometimes I wonder if launching my boat at Glorietta and trying to find parking is worse than launching at Shelter Island and motoring all the way up to the bridge. I hate going over or getting stuck on that bridge towing my boat with traffic. What are your thoughts.

The bridge traffics isn’t bad on the weekend and if you go early enough. Another option is the boat launch at Pepper Park, it might be a bit closer to the bridge than Shelter Island.

professionull wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 9:05 am If you buy squid bring a sabiki and tip the hooks with it, you may be able to catch smelt or the preferred mackerel to use as bait

Thanks for the tip. May daughter had so much fun catching jacksmelt that she didn’t want me to put a hook through them. Spotties saved the day on curlytail.

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.

Thanks for the update and report. Cheers!

I grabbed my boat and made it to HB for my grandsons birthday. Ryan just turned 5 and I promised to take him fishing with his much older brother Caleb who's now 8. We traveled over to Newport Bay to try our luck so we launched in the back bay by Newport Dunes . As we left the ramp and it hadnt been ...

Packed the float tube and my new ghost shrimp pump and headed to Carlsbad lagoon for the first time.

Forgot to glue the handle on the pump, so there goes that plan.

Launched the tube at 6:30, it was very slow until sunset, then it was wide open until 8:30.A small ned rig Zman trd tossed in the eel ...

Those spotties fight well for their size, and you getting the quantity all the better....
Butch

Nice Gramps.... Nothing a bigger pain or more rewarding than fishing with little ones... Ain't it great???
Butch

Spent the weekend on my gayak. Covering serious miles ither n' yon. Trying for halis and veens mostly. Not too much success there. Lost a big one this morning in some rich person's backyard.

Spotties bit constantly on cranks, chatters, and worms.

Heard a noise hit my kayak and then splash while ...

Lemon lime fat free shad was silly for spotties, which was fun even though I was trying for halis. Throw it far, use rod angles to keep it just off the bottom, when it starts climbing back to the boat, stroke it and pause it ever few feet. Boom!

Put a new nut on the 20 year old reel. Didnt have a ...

Checked off the necessities... Anything more would have just been gravy... WTG..
Butch

Thank you for the update!

Mission Bay Channel Fishing: Fishing New Baits!
https://youtu.be/lNyS76NrmF8

Hey all!
I got a brief window to head out to Misson Bay for a 3 hour session. The last time I was out there I lost a massive halibut in the channel and was looking for some redemption. I also had an idea that I wanted to ...

You need a bigger net 😜

Seriously, great work as always and love seeing MB. I pass it by to fish the big bay and that’s probably my bad. I need to learn it living right up the hill.


I do have net issues. I’ve at least managed not to lose this one yet. I think I have to at least catch a fish ...

You need a bigger net 😜

Seriously, great work as always and love seeing MB. I pass it by to fish the big bay and that’s probably my bad. I need to learn it living right up the hill.


I do have net issues. I’ve at least managed not to lose this one yet. I think I have to at least catch a ...

Dusted off the shrimp pumps and fished with a couple new friends Sunday.
It was their first time shore fishing Mission Bay, and we did pretty well through mid-day. We got six or seven YFCs, couple spotties, a small sandy and two round rays.
I stayed through the afternoon and got another croaker and ...

Started throwing at grey light. Literally in the middle of nowhere. Threw a bass jig a couple times to check depth, 12-15'. Nice depth for the chatterbait, so I changed rods. 1st cast on the chatter. Boom! Gaffed her, stepped on her, stabbed her in the brain,threw in the ice box to die. 20 minutes ...