San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Nice late season bean there bud. Crabs pretty much history on our SD beaches. No beds and blind digging might get a few hard shells but no roe. Alternative baits . . . mussel, clam, worms & ghosties bait de jour now. Gulp camo & sand worms are getting good action, lot of perch being taken on them.

Hey fellow surf anglers,
I'm going to be giving a surf fishing seminar at Tackle Day, November 1 at Fisherman's landing. I'll be covering the equipment I use and will demonstrate how I hook and fish baits like lug/bloodworms, sand crabs, ghost shrimp, mussel... and whatever other baits I can find ...

I use uni knots all the time. For surf fishing, they're strong, and they're quick and easy to tie, especially when you're in the middle of a bite. I haven't had one of those knots fail me, yet. Go get some more!

About the same time frame, conditions, and results for me in Bolsa Chica with freeze/dried blood worms... I should have done a report, but was too lazy...
BUtch

Hey, your fishing, catching and eating.... What's not to like?... You're my hero...
Butch

O.k. It's done, took the first of probably several skunks at Del Mar—a few bumps on the grub, which I could fish open hook no problem. A few bumps on a 2" fake blood worm. Surf was 4' high/high-slack tide churned up in the middle of the day.

I hear you. I was out this morning from 7 to 9:30 farther up the coast. From 7 to 8:30 nothing, no even a bump. 8:30 to 9:15 only 2 perch, both about 5”.

Just have to remember all the Flotsam up at the high water mark will be in the water . Hit it at slack may not be to bad . Good Luck

My high tide limit is 5 - 5.5 ft. I'll fish an incoming up to say that range but not over, end of session. Never had anything good come out of fishing 6 - 7' tides.

Got out this morning for couple hours just before the high tide. Usual bait stealing critters hard at work, just nibblers for almost 2 hours without a single good hit. Finally one committed, an 8" bsp on mussel meat. Fish seemed to like the dried lugworms better but just tail biters, even tipped a ...

The secret to the big Tides is to fish the smaller of the two Tides that day. The fish are still all worked up from the big Tide but the smaller Tide with less current is more fishable.

A local beach friend of mine said he saw a corbina right in front of him. I pinned on a fresh crab and just a few minutes later I felt the familiar tap-tap, tap-tap-tap and then bam! Another late season corbina.

I fish when I can so I may end up in it. My plan is depending on current direction I'll probably end up on the pier just to check that off my curiosity list.

At least you got out & gave it a go . . . those bigger hi tides can be a challenge. Thanks for the report

No skunk and on the beach.... Plus, plus... Thanks for the report...
Butch

You could always fish in the afternoon when the tide is lower
https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Mission-Beach/tides/latest


Yes, I think that’s what I’ve settled on doing. Not sure why this didn’t occur to me, haha. Day off, breakfast, and then hitting the beach for some later morning ...

Sounds like some good outdoor time .
The picture conveys the sense of a beautiful day .

Try adding some Cotton to your Mussels. You can really “ bag it” in the threads. Stays on plus grabs the Perches teeth upping your hook set ratio.

There is a product called spawn net . Small mesh fabric , mostly used for salmon eggs ,but should work for Mussel as well . One brand I remember ,Atlas Mikes .

Try finding some bigger mussel and use the lip. You can feed it up the hook, like a worm, and it will both stay on the hook well and look like a worm as you retreive it slowly toward shore. I've also found that if you crush mussel you can use the meat with a bit of shell attached...as this is how ...