San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Got out in the dark with Chuck and Steve around 0430. Air was chilly at 55F, but water had cooled a bit to 71F. Chuck went along our usual path and did quite well, I'll leave those details to him. I went to Wilson's creek and along that shoreline, throwing the rat in hopes of a nice large surprise ...

Got there @3:30 and already 8th in line,felt like opening day because the line went out the gate. Someone blocked the gate so Jose had to walked in. Met Dave, Steve and couple new friends, Dave went to Pine and I went to Hauser, hoping it won’t be the last Wednesday for me. Started across Pigs on ...

Another extra special Barrett day, especially on the jig! Pics of the main weapons below but it was almost impossible to get off the jig. Lots of doubles and steady action. All in Hauser today got 49 on the jig, 10 on the minnow mostly crisscrossing the arm but also dragging along banks, then two T ...

Tried a different approach to Barrett—family outing. It worked!

Problem statement: we were a small group on Sunday with varied interests — me and Theo like both fishing and catching, my other son Julian gets bored fishing but likes catching, Theo’s buddy is a “spirited” 9 year old who likes to ...

On it at 0-dark:30 and soon discovered just how much the water has dropped since mid July. Lots of structure and cover is up and dry with new submerged targets coming into play now being shallower. We had already decided to try a few new items and found yet another Pourboy recommendation is a winner ...

My 3rd ever trip to Barrett courtesy of Dfishin who sold me his ticket. Headed out before dawn with Pourboy , Early release , and CorsoEnthusiast . Always good to see those guys. I had planned on staying with Chris and Dave but after landing a couple of early fish in the dark, I lost them pretty ...

Just wanted to share a pic of a Barrett beauty caught today and PB by the way. Started at 4:40am fishing with my nephew. Ended the day with well over 50 between both of us. All clones 2-3 lb range and many dinks. All on DS, nedrig, small swim baits and occasional senko.

Felt our way out to mid-Hauser in the dark today. Started getting bites on the green pumpkin jig n craws and stayed mostly on that til wrapping it up at 10:30 with 31 for me and a best of 3.2lbs. Didn’t see any busters and tried to stay between 10-20ft deep. The minnow and reapers added a few more ...

Hey guys, I was the one that requested BFS be added as a forum topic. Thanks admins and thanks to @VinnyBass for facilitating the topic add! I figured this would be a great place to share our rigs/setups, gear, baits and techniques. I look forward to seeing what you all are using.

For those of you new to BFS (bait finesse system) fishing, it started in Japan in the early 2000s. Japanese anglers were searching for ways to cast light (think 1/64 oz) lures on baitcaster rods and reels for ultra finicky and pressured fish. Why a baitcaster instead of spinning gear? Because ...

I have 2 $100 BFS setups SOLOKING BMC100 Baitcasting Reel and a Magic Ultralight Fishing Rod, 2PCS BFS Casting Rod. I can feel bites even with slack line and the reel has held up great with lots of fish some big fish too. Time will tell there longevity.

After much research into BFS techniques and equipment I am loving my BFS choices. My reels of choice were chosen partly on budget since I was not sure that I would like this type of fishing. But I do absolutely love this type of fishing on our highly pressured waters. I presently own and would ...

Haven’t been to Otay in ages was one of my favorite lakes back in the 80’s along with Hodges, we used to kill it in Harvey’s arm, I’m going to try and get my friend ( Ramona ) to take his now repaired boat down there. Curious if the trees way down Harveys are covered in water, what the level the ...

Thanks to Dannicus, I have ventured into the BFS world. I bought an ARK Gravity BFS reel. At the moment I have 25lb braid paired with a 10lb fluoro leader. I know I could get lighter but want the extra size to fight the bigger models and high catch rates at Barrett, etc.

Like my reel/line, I ...

That's awesome! Fun isn't it? Even clones are a fun fight and when you get into a bigger one, forget about it! It's like being a kid again. Every time I land a 5+ I feel positively giddy! I can't wait for my DD, which @Pourboy assures me is coming.

Thanks for the input. It is truly hard to beat the Bitsy Bug. The saddest part of that being that they have been discontinued by Strike King. I guess the rest of the world didn't get the memo on how awesome they are. Get them while you can!

Caught 8 fatties at El Cap today. 2 on my trusty standby jig:
IMG_20250419_194651395.jpg
It's a 1/8 oz. green crawfish Bitsy Bug with a green pumpkin Z-Man TRD Bugz trailer.

All the rest were caught on this, which has become a favorite and I have caught a lot of fish on it in all San Diego lakes ...

6 total bass today at Otay, and five of them were courtesy of this:
IMG_20250421_071600065_HDR.jpg
It's a Diawa 3" TD Minnow, and it has definitely become my #1 jerkbait for BFS fishing. It has great action and casts a country mile. Most fish hit a twitch twitch pause retrieve, while two hit it on ...

Caught 11 topwater bass at Murray early this morning on this:
IMG_20250422_090721580_HDR.jpg
It's a cheap Tsurinoya 60f topwater walking bait I got via AliExpress. They were really cheap, like $2, but who knows how bad tariffs are going to effect them.

Now I'm not gonna lie, most of the bass I ...

You guys are over paying for the Bitsy Bugs. $1.58 at Bass Pro, lots in stock. Just ordered a few.

https://www.basspro.com/p/strike-king-bitsy-bug-mini-jig?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=BPS%7CShopping%7CPMax%7CFishing%7CGeneral%7CNAud%7CGoogle%7CNMT&gad_source=1&gbraid ...