San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Congratulations. You are a serious angler and deserve it.


I'm honored, as you are truly the panfish master! Your experience, knowledge and information sharing over the years is inspirational to many in the panfish community.

I hope that we'll all be surprised at the size of fish caught this ...

It's officially a pattern at this point! :D

Really fun panfishing again today and upped gear to 6 lb. braid with 6 lb. leader, found the fish in the same areas. Targeting around 15 to 18 feet deep on nightcrawlers at the outer edge of the brushlines, similar to Friday's catch but added a fat 2.2 ...

Sorry to hear about your flat and glad you caught some bluegill. I must admit that is a nice sized bass!
Thanks for sharing and tight lines

After getting stuff done at home, I ditched the beach gloom for beautiful San Vicente and fished on both Sunday and Monday afternoons in the kayak. Overcast weather with slight breeze. This is trip 4 and 5 to SanV following the same panfish pattern. Its a slam dunk to take the kayak with the ...

foulhook wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 5:52 am Nice panfishing, I still have a hard time telling the difference between big bluegill and redear

Thanks! Yes and I wonder if there are any 'purebreds' left in there. I highly doubt the people that keep the lake records(?) could properly judge one way or the other on species.

So,

As everyone knows Hodges opened last week. I've been starving for a crappie bite all year. I had to go. Plus the kids have been asking to get out as well. Thought it was the perfect opportunity for both.

Got there in line before it opened to ensure we got a rental.

The ramp is now the parking ...

Hard to believe that today was my first time out this year. After going my whole life with excellent health, things have gone from bad to since I turned eighty. I really wanted to get out, actually I needed to get out. I got my boat out of mothballs and found that my trolling motor wasn't working. I ...

Went back for 2nds.

This time I got Dave out of his nice cushy crappie machine and into a good old fashion flat bottom rental. Fished moved on me but it only took a hour or so to re-locate them. Live scope not needed. Then we proceeded with the beat down.

daves crappie.jpg

Hammered them until ...

Started the day in cold and windy conditions. The water level is way down. One of the tree lines I like to fish is up on the beach. Moved to a different area and found a few willing to eat. Ended up with 6 Coppernose and 1 Hybrid.

Got this guy as bycatch during a recent trip with a crank bait. 7lbs on the boga probably the biggest I'll ever catch. Thought it would be cool to share.

Have fished successfully at Santee Lakes for bluegill and bass lately. The hotter the better. I'm fishing my UL trout rod, usually no weight or float and getting some on the micro-popper too. If you have kids this is an easy place for catching fish, 4# or 6# fluoro line and small #10 mosquito hooks ...

Saturday was full of raging rainstorms. Finally got a chance to go fishing Sunday. I wanted to try bluegill fishing after some trout fishing because I often run out of trout to catch. Right after Saturday's storm, catfish would be biting better. The panfish and bass were pretty lockjaw even on live ...

They are in there and I tend to try for them with very light tackle (my sierra trout setup). If you can get away from the turtles you may find some nice ones.

Turn them on their back and carefully use a pliers, it is often quite a battle with them biting the pliers. If they swallow it, I just cut the line. Last week I caught one with 3 hooks in it and was able to remove all of them (one was mine...)

After several coming unhooked and losing a few at the net, I finally landed my first carp today. They are surprisingly good fighters! 4lb main line to a 3/4 egg sinker, bait spring with dough and 2 hooks with corn kernels.

Really solid Halibut fishing in the bay the last couple of weeks from skiffs, kayak, and shore. Using sardines, smelt, and double rig with underspin and white gulp swimbaits.

Been fishing fiesta island on the way home from work the past month for the magic hour around sunset and and catching a few bass on lucky crafts every outing while trying to dodge the weeds, and while not many, I get 3-4 every night with most of them are nice ones in the 12-15 range(the top one was ...

Been a while since I checked the new site. Here's a couple small ones from this past weekend.

I was fishing South shores. In the morning between 6:30 and 11:30, caught a lot of bass. Over 15 at least lost count. I used z man TRD bugz Texas rigged. And a trolled chartreuse, white spinnerbait.

Fish Mission Bay Father's Day caught two croaker and a bunch of bass nothing too big to brag about.