Surf Session Planning

[Luc42]

I’m looking for some advice when it comes down to planning a surf fishing session. What conditions do you look for and what conditions do you stay away from. Any app suggestions that are pretty accurate in tide, swell, KJ, predictions ? Over the last few weeks it seems like every time I went out the surf was rough.

[Mike M]

I primarily look at the tide, wave height and wind. For beaches with webcams, I'll look at those too. Here's what I like at my local beaches (Palos Verdes to Manhattan) for corbina and yellowfin croaker with sand crabs:

1. Tide: I prefer to fish around high tide, although if I only have time to fish at low tide, I'll fish anyway.
https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/To ... des/latest
2. Wave Height: 3 or more feet is when it gets uncomfortable. If I can cast over the breaking waves, then I feel like I still have a good chance of catching. Smaller waves less than 1.5 feet are ideal for me especially if there is no wind and crab beds are visible.
3. Wind: 10mph is the white-cap threshold. I like to fish when it is 8mph, or less.

Season matters the most. Fish really start to bite in June and it slows down quite a bit by October. I suspect this is water temperature related. I don't fish other beaches, but I it's probably similar from Long Beach to San Diego.

Now there is no "weed predictor" but by far this is the most annoying condition. Weeds can make a beach unfishable even when the other conditions are ideal. I'll usually text my buddies for the latest weed report and hope they have some first-hand info.

[Midnightpass]

I agree with Mike.. Less wind is important to me.. Unless it’s off shore, then I don’t mind a heavier breeze.. Weeds are a pain to deal with… I usually just fish when I can… Mostly mornings until noon, tides are what they are, even though they do affect the bite…
Butch

[PBChris]

I agree with Mike M with one difference. I prefer low tide, but I will fish any tide because I fish mornings 99% of the time. I’m relatively new to the area and have only fished pacific beach for the last couple summers. PB gets crowded on summer evenings so I’m almost always fishing early mornings.

[iCatch]

I wish there were more underwater cameras like this one to monitor grass in the water
https://coollab.ucsd.edu/pierviz

[Carpkiller]

Yeah, it's hard to get a multi-species bite in winter....but this is when the bigger barred surf perch can be caught more easily.

Also, having a backup plan is a good idea when possible.

Mission/Pacific Beaches afford bayside options if the surf side is unfishable.

Same goes for Carlsbad...Hedionda Lagoon is just across the street.

Both of these are better in the summer.

Although sometimes just getting to the surf can be challenging....like when the El Nino of '83 scoured four feet of sand off of Mission Beach...(pfa)

[Perch killer]

Agree with all the earlier comments & just to add my 2 cents. I try to always fish 2 hours on both sides of a high or low. My experience has been the bite slows /shuts off during the middle 2 hours of the tide swing. I usually don't fish if the swell/wave interval is forecasted to be less than 10 seconds.