San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Went out on the Old Glory and it was super fun...we went all the way to Tanner on an overnight boat (big thanks to the Captain). Got there about an hour after first light and there were 30+ boats there already on anchor. we did the same and in short order I hooked (and subsequently landed) a BFT ...

So I butterflied out a dorado to cook for my family's early labor day party. It's not a true zarrandeado since I didn't do it over hot coals but 45 min on the smoker and a few on the grill for some color does the trick.

Epic trip. El capitian Josh hunted them down....We pulled em in...

Left the dock with Captain Frank in the galley and head deckhand Riley in the wheelhouse, it was his first trip at the helm. Grabbed bait and made the steam due west towards the zone. We made a feeble attempt at dropping jigs once we got to the area around 0400. Nada til greylight and then we went ...

galen wrote: Sun May 14, 2023 7:02 pm Looks as though you’re eating the rays? How do you prepare them?

I have never prepared it myself, but I give them to my relatives who like them. They used it as a replacement for catfish in Canh Chua (Vietnamese tamarind-based sour soup). It has a clean, white-meat flavor to it.

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 ...

The biggest fish I caught from the surf was from North Torrey Pines right in front of the parking lot.

A buddy called and said he wanted to fish, and who am I to say no. ;) ... When I got to the spot he already had a limit of humungous sand crabs... Probably too big, but full of eggs and some soft shells... We used those and I pealed some to make them more appetizing... Any way I picked up 6-7 BSP ...

My guess is mackerel.

Interesting, although I don’t think so. We heard a few splashes that were too big to be mackerel. Only way to know for sure is to go back and actually land one!


It's a guess based off of observing macks attacking the surface way back at the Liberty Station boat ramp at sunset. It doesn't take a ...

Probably Jack Mackerel. Nothing too exciting. Try tossing a top water plug around the big bay or mission bay for Corvina. Try walking and casting for hours on end and eventually maybe you will get a look. Likely not though so try to just enjoy being outside

I've caught 5-8lb bonito in there before on top water while they ran along the rocks next to the bank but that was during the day when they schooled up a bait ball

Could also be YFC. They're definitely in there.

Interesting, although I don’t think so. We heard a few splashes that were too big to be mackerel. Only way to know for sure is to go back and actually land one!


There are a lot of Mullet in there. They can get big, and they frequently jump out of the water. It's possible that is all you were ...

If they were mullet, that might explain why they weren’t hitting my jerkbait. I was working it right through them , maybe what I thought was a strike was just me running over one with my plug.


On the old SD forums I think I only ever saw one mullet that was caught (lipped) with bass baits. Most ...

Caught few mullet on a swimbait in the past

I haven't been out for a while and decided to take a 30 min hole shot at RAT today. I found 3 soft shells and converted all 3

Seeing 30 foot surf from the beach will just look like lots of whitewater almost everywhere, unless you have a pier, or surfers for perspective. Up there, go out to Mavericks(HalfMoonBay) or Santa Cruz (Steamers Lane) to see the surf display. Sunday(today), you can tune into the Eddie Aikau contest ...

Sight-fishing between Blacks and Del Mar has been "excellent" this season, except for the whole catching part. This year is the first time I've seen spotfin tailing in the surf, but almost like a first-cast-curse, I've only been able to catch the first one I spotted (pun intended) in late May, using ...

I finally decided to sign up after watching this new forum for awhile and taking a break from internet discussions.

User CraigSmith on the old SDFISH website.