2025 was the my first year of surf fishing after many, many years of fishing freshwater around San Diego. It all started on a camping trip at South Carlsbad State Beach before Memorial Day Weekend. I'd joked that I was just going to eat what I caught, and brought a couple small poles and some squid to see if anything would bite in the ocean. Perch took the bait, and without realizing surf fishing was much of a 'thing', I quickly realized this would be a great way to get to the beach more often, still get in fishing time before the rest of my house woke up, and indirectly lead to healthier lifestyle habits because that pre-dawn alarm on a weekend can be brutal without one.
I thought it might be helpful to start a thread of some lessons learned from the past year to help others who, like me, may be dabbling with surf fishing, as well as some things I hope to accomplish in 2026. I'll start.
Lessons Learned
1. Ask questions/listen to others. This goes for any fishing, really, but going back to my freshwater days I really struggled getting started simply because my setup was all wrong. Hooks were too big, baits for the fish where I was fishing weren't appropriate, etc. You can't just throw a line in the water and have any sustained success. It took swallowing some pride and asking for help to really have any sort of success, and success makes it more fun.
2. Don't listen to others. Sometimes the best way to learn is to fail. I know fishing in high tides and high surf isn't ideal because you all have said so, but dammit if I'm not stubborn and like learning lessons the hard way! Learning why conditions are bad and seeing it first-hand has been immensely helpful.
3. Give back. I am by no means and expert and will keep picking the brains of everyone here, but I hope to also start to become a resource for others, be it for parking advice, baits, setups, locations, etc. The beach is big! There is room for all of us. No need to gatekeep any of this information
3. Good vibes are real. When I'm flustered or frustrated, I swear the fish can sense it. Pacing up and down the beach desperately searching for a bite isn't my style. Staying calm and waiting things out has been good for me.
4. Sometimes, the fish just aren't biting. A slow day shouldn't mean changing everything from location to setup, it just means it was a slow day and things didn't line up. Oh well. Appreciate the opportunity to have gone fishing at all and try again another day. I've seen almost no correlation to one day being slow and catching fish with every cast the next (assuming similar conditions for both days).
5. Get the right equipment. There are tons of resources out there to help with this, and any budget can work. But having the right gear makes things a whole lot easier. I've also learned that the fish don't care how much your rod and reel cost. Any gear within your budget is perfectly fine to get started!
6. Spend some time maintaining the equipment. Nothing is more frustrating than having things break down on you while you're on some fish! Take care of your gear and it'll take care of you.
Goals for 2026
1. More quality fishing time. Meaning, recognize when the bite has died off and be done for the day. I've spent a lot of hours just standing at the shore, pole in hand, catching absolutely nothing and getting no bites whatsoever. I can probably fish more often if I get more comfortable with only being out there for an hour or so. I've gotten better with this over a bit of time.
2. Branch out from live baits. I'm still enjoying just catching anything/everything but I'd like to start getting a bit more picky about what I'm pulling in. It's funny how in just a little over a half a year I've gone from being excited by catching multiple fish (even just two!), to now hoping for closer to double digits, to starting to hope everything is on the larger side. Maybe not every time out, but a couple times a month, focus on using lures of some sort and targeting something bigger (i.e. halibut) knowing it might result in a skunk... and be OK with that.
3. Get one person out to the surf for a fishing session. I have a lot of buddies intrigued by it, but they're a bit intimidated by the early hours, not having gear, etc.
4. Catch something from a pier. I've tried Shelter Island before and walked out on Crystal Pier a couple times, but these were all when I had no clue what I was doing and, as such, had zero success. Now that I've at least got a better setup, I'd like to catch something from just a bit beyond the surf.
