San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Congrats on your first catch of the year. I got no luck for the past couple of weeks, casting metal jigs and plastics. Did you guys catch those corbinas and jack smelts with bait or lures? I still don't see any sandcrabs at all here in San Diego..... It's been hard since like November last year ...

Glad to hear you got out to enjoy the early sunshine and clear skies. Cool that there's homeguard corbina cruising around.

Got out to PB on Tuesday this week. Tide was about an hour coming in off the earlier -0.1 low; water temp was probably about 58. Found a decent hole straight out from PB Drive (about 1/4 mi south of pier). Started with a jerk bait for hali's but too much salad, mostly heavy grass. Before going to a ...

I cleared it all out for you this morning Butch, real good conditions, low surf, temp about 60 on an ebbing tide. Unfortunately, still no action, just a few soft bites around mid tide. Still micro crabs under the pier. I'm sure they'll show up and the bite turn on when you get here ! So can you ...

Just an update, got out to Mission 2 days ago. Water conditions real good, sand crabs showed up finally. Lot of small perch, a few larger 8-10 models. Only slabs caught that I was aware of were by-catches from guys tossing LC's for hali's. Water 60+ and with crabs now showing, won't be long for ...

Bummed about your favorite beach, Butch. I hope you find another tanker Corbina at your other favorite beach in a few weeks

Reminds me of King Harbor in the early 90s.

Back in the day, Edison had a plant that pumped out hot water into the middle of the harbor. It could be the middle of January and the water in the harbor was warm. Stories of people catching big yellowtail off the small pier where common.

But, the ...

Got out for an early AM sesh Friday. Good size swell & outer breaks but very fishable inside. Water clean & felt about 61. SC beds not visible but scraped up half doz small ones. Got hit first 3 out of 4 casts, perch were biting non stop from 5:45 - 7. About half way into it crab beds appeared. got ...

https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Torrey-Pines-State-Beach/forecasts/latest . I have been using this site for a few years . Never a certainty just predictions gives a lot of info in an easy graph type format . The locations are easy to change . HD On Tap give access to live beach cams for quite a ...

I typically use multiple websites to plan.

Tide: https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Torrance-Beach/tides/latest

Wind: Windy app on my phone, or https://www.windy.com/

Surf: lots of sites for wave heights, I haven't found one I like yet

Webcam: Google to see if there is a webcam close to where ...

I fished south of Crystal pier a couple hours Friday morning. I found good-sized sand crabs under the pier but there are plenty of beds along the beach as well. Grass and junk were annoying, not unfishable. Small BSP were hungry, lots of action in spurts. I landed 9, most hand-sized, biggest maybe ...

Very practical and good answers. I have used braid a lot, and it has failed when I wanted to bomb relatively light, or wind-catching baits, long distances! I will try both, though, with the jerk baits. No way I will go to the beach from Jamul with one reel with braid! Seems like 10 or 12-pound mono ...

I caught two small yellowfin croakers and some good-sized perch in South Del Mar about 10 days ago. The bait was shrimp and /or sand crabs. High tide, Washing machine conditions.

12lb mono works great throwing lucky crafts. I throw them on conventional bass rod. No problem with distance on any jerk bait style with weight transfer system.


12-pound pulls in a legal halibut in surf pretty well?


From experience I can say that a quality 12 lb mono is pretty tough ...

One of my buddies exclusively fishes big halibut on 6-12lb. He has countless fish over 40lbs. on 12lb. Obviously those big ones are not surf.

12lb is strong. I always fish new mono. Using braid or mono for backing ; 1/2 to just under 3/4 of spool so fresh line change doesn’t break the bank. Try ...

Usual bait stealing critters this morning. Lots of sc's again, but mostly small, none with roe but quite a few soft shells. Water temp felt around 64-65, no grass problems, just a few kelp floaters. Got a half dozen hand size perchies & one small ray. Nice to see a different species showing up ...

You were not kidding about the stingrays, Butch. I was at Del Mar again, and there were a lot of them, about the size of a dinner plate.
Not a ton of other fish. I farmed a keeper halibut, which just came unbuttoned in the last little wave, and got a 15-16 inch Calico. And just one perch and one ...

True confession, I did have trouble with the leader to braid knots in some reels. I have not been having that; I've gotten past it with extensive freshwater fishing. It had to do with the wet and sloppy conditions of fishing in the surf, as well as my poor line-spooling technique. I will be ...

Wow, nice hook up, Butch! Bummed the spotfin sawed you off, but glad to hear your balance held out and you didn't tumble into the surf!

I fished the surf south of Crystal pier this morning from about 8-9:15. Still a good bit of wave action. Grass and junk are the same, lots of it but manageable. Sand crabs everywhere.

Took 1 minute to catch a BSP. After another 20 minutes I caught a 19 inch SFC. The SFC was enough motivation to ...