San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

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.

Fishing for bigger bluegills has been decent at Murray lately. A few on topwater but mostly on weighted flies, generally cast into deeper water. For reference, distance between end cap on butt end of reel seat and the front edge of the grip is 11". Rod is a 3wt 7 footer fiberglass custom built for ...

Another bluegill outing this morning. Decided to go with some old school gear (older than fiber glass)

Decided to fish bamboo (fine Tonkin cane) today. Vintage Orvis "99" 7' 6wt made in the 1960s. Though marked for a 6wt it casts a 4wt line nicely. Fun rods. Paired with a Scientific Anglers System ...

TaBASSco wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 7:36 am I can still hear the little smacking sound they made when they ate the bug.

I love that "smacking" sound.

So far only two topwater smacks this year.

While I have no proof, I certainly think the fluctuating water has messed with the spawn for both bass and bluegill. I have been hunting bigger bluegill while on foot. The lower water has made more shoreline that I can work with a fly rod accessible, and also made the drop offs more reachable from ...

Nice fish!

Smartphone pic? Way over saturated and when I look at a luminescence and color channel histograms for the image they show big spike on both the left and right side. Looks like something the computational enhancements stuff built into phone cams over the last few years would do (yea I'm ...

My local lake has the same problem. I believe there was just too much Fertilizer washed into these lakes. The Algae blooms in the daytime but sucks Oxygen out of the water at night. Low Oxygen slows the Bass way down and more or less shuts them down. We are putting our offerings on the Fish but ...

That red eye looks very smallmouth-like!


Spotted bass can have red eyes too. And they can hybridize with largemouth.

Both largemouth and spots can interbreed with small mouth. The result is often referred to as a "meanmouth". My understanding is that this hybridization is much more rare.

Looks like fun stuff.

I love fishing water like that. My body doesn't permit it as much any longer though. I have a couple of 6'6" rods, a custom fiberglass 4/5 wt and 2wt graphite that are perfect for small water. I also have an old J. Kennedy Fisher 4'8" brush rod that casts a 5wt line well. I ...

"You can't fish here!" - yes it was legal

"Your torturing fish" - my right to fish without harassment is codified in law

"Give me your phone and wallet!" - happened to someone else

"Do you have any extra weed? What about a cigarette?" - if I had weed I wouldn't be employed.

Good work.

Like the old Fenwick and the Pflueger Medalist. Both are fun to fish.

The Medalist looks like a model 1494 made sometime between 1950 and 1970 in very good condition. I can just make out the "No1494" I think on the frame between the reel foot screws. From about 1970 this what have had ...

Pflueger made some left hand wind versions in several sizes in the 1930s. This was the 15XX series (e.g. 1594, 1596). These are not the same as the 15XX series reels made in china in the 1990s through early 2000's with a rim control spool. By the 1940s through mid 1950's the only left hand wind ...

Most of the rods wearing the Scientific Anglers label over the years have been pretty decent rods. Same with most of their reels. The old SA System glass rods were built on J. Kennedy Fisher blanks I believe. The later graphite rods were made by U.S makers then later in Asia. The Scientific Angler ...

Good Question. I have a simple answer for you. You (and anyone else reading this) can wade through the following and skip to the end.

Fly line sink rates are generally measured but putting 1 to 2 inches segments in a tub of freshwater in a lab and using a suite of instruments to measure the rate ...

The surfzone is an ever changing environment where the best locations on a beach can change from day to day, tide to tide, or even during a tide. Storm surges or heavy surf alter beaches quite rapidly. Some beaches, or even sections of beaches, will fish better on outgoing tides and others on ...

@admin any way to retrieve the sticky by @Tailingloop from the old SDFISH.com forum?


What was the topic title, do you remember?


"Surf Primer" something, I think?


I couldn't find it. Try to check this archive and see if it's there still:
http://web.archive.org/web/20230201194058 ...

I prefer to hit these areas on an incoming tide though the top when bait will be pushed up and gamefish follow. On outgoing tide you have the falling tide combined with any outflow that can often produce a pretty fast current that is difficult to fish, and might not have any fish to catch except ...

Topwater fishing for bass in the local lakes can be great at times. I use the term "topwater" instead of "poppers" because the range of topwater patterns that I use includes hard body poppers, foam poppers, deer hair bugs, deer hair diving bugs (e.g. Dahlberg Diver, Umpqua Swimming Frog, etc ...

I have seen fish that look like tilapia in Murray - emerging from reeds, cruising around, and then tucking themselves back into the reads. Not many. Two to be exact.

This is a good question that never comes up, as rain during the Barrett season is rare, but is this venue rain or shine?

I'd love to be out there in the rain in the middle of the summer, considering the alternative.


It's rained on me this year once, and kind of drizzled another time this ...