San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Got my best fish of the year (so far) today. Nice 22" vina. Knew it was a vamp when it went nuts on the surface. Fly fell out of its mouth at shore. Also tagged my first midshipman and smallest halibut.
The fish gods like a fly rod in my hand

Well losing the last website was definitely a sad day for me. I had just started tying some new flies and they worked pretty well. However immediately after tying them went to post on the old site aaaaaaand it's gone.

So having it back up is nice. Tied up several fly fish food belly scratcher ...

For what it is worth - been trying to catch a carp on the fly - I am getting closer - anyway, hit Henshaw yesterday - the cats were very open to taking a fly - good time

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 ...

Good to see you posting on here, Craig.

I have a spot in my boat if you are interested in joining me. I will primarily be fishing for bass but plan to mess with the bluegill a bit as well.

Look in the Barrett Trading post for details.

I love my 3 Wt. Makes small fish big and big fish huge! I landed an 8 pound Brook Trout on it at Irvine Lake on a Black Woolley Bugger.. That particular Stock also contained Brown Trout to 10 pounds. It took all I had to get that bushy fly out there with that little 7 foot rod. I couldn’t land the ...

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 ...

Believe me, I wasn’t using 6x tippet. I knew there were big fish there and ran hand tied 12-10-8-6 pound leader for a solid turnover of the Woolly Bugger. After that it was glorified handlining. The hard part and it happened on one of the Browns was not stepping on the line during their fury and ...

Bravo! I used to use a 8 ft Horrocks Ibitson tonkin cane rod. It didn't have a line weight on it it, but I tried a 5 weight, which worked out well. I used to roll cast little rubber bugs near the tulies in the south end of Cuyamaca for gills with it. I can still hear the little smacking sound they ...

Such pretty fish. Those sierra Brooke trout are something else. My buddy in NC has gigantic Brooke's in the stream next to his house but they aren't nearly as pretty. Probably just genetics or the fact their stocked.

Fished the thanksgiving weekend for trout in Hot Creek Canyon and Bishop Creek Canal between climbing sessions

!Warning: im not good at fly fishing!

Hot Creek Canyon
Fished with a bead headed flashback with a midge below (size 18/20) and got 1 hit. I didn't have much space to fish as there was a ...

Cool report, I love visiting Bishop on fishing trips. Too bad the Lower Owens is running so high because that would have been another good option…. Maybe next year the flows will be better.

Been hitting San Diego one to two days a week for the last couple of months. Mostly between Fiddler's Cove area and south end of the Coronado Cays and from east to west.

Fishing has generally been good. A few slower days where the fish ate plastic grubs much better than flies but most days about ...

Craig, what are your general tips on how you change your approach to fishing the bay during the Fall/Winter seasons vs. Spring/Summer?

As the water cools down I will utilize slower retrieves more often. I use slow retrieves in the summer too but also faster retrieves. But the faster retrieves tend to be less productive during the colder periods. Still, I experiment to see what is working. But when the water is measuring 56º at the ...

Fly pattern colors haven't mattered as much most days with fly action seeming to be the discriminating factor on some days when a fly that had a greater tendency to drop vertically worked better than one that dropped slowly fell more on a slope.

Curious what factors influence how a fly drops in ...

Nice perch... Those shovels must have been a tussle on the fly rod....
Butch


I snagged so many last year, the first one I knew it was a SNG and fouled in the tail the way it was fighting. It was about 2 feet long. Second one was smaller but hooked underneath the nose, looking like it was almost ...

... improving shore based bluegill fishing

Water is warming. Fish should begin spawning over the next few months.

If you are limit to being on foot and unable to fish deeper from a boat/tube/yak then the fish will be more accessible in the shallows in the morning and evening.

A couple from a two ...