Orange county Surf

[DaDTaughtMe2Fish]

New to the modern surf fishing techniques of lighter gear, grew up doing the bait and wait with heavy sinkers on the Camp Pendleton breakers with my dad back in the 70's. Have never stopped fishing, just mostly by boat, until now.

Have been watching all the You Tube stuff and finally picked up new modern gear at the Pacific Sportfishing show in Del Mar. Have fished 3 times so in the last week and half, and am working on getting confident on the methods and were they work.
Tried the Lucky craft and Warbaits neck breakers at Bolsa Chica on incoming tide, no luck.
Went to Crystal Cove and really worked the Warbaits neck breakers hard mostly because of the "Salad", cormorants and pelicans drove bait onto the beach, but all I got was missing tails on my plastics to the cormorants.

I was reading up on this forum and saw the postings from Kastmaster, it reminded me effective that lure has been for me in the past, so tried it this morning at 19th Street Newport Beach this morning. Once tide starting coming in at 8am the nibbles started, got a 40+ inch guitar shark and my first Barred Perch, I really liked the fight on light gear and am now officially all in on this form of fishing. Its funny how the rear Dorsal fin on a Guitar shark look like a large corbina tail when your hooked up and want to believe its really a HUGE Corbina.
Just waiting to find the Sand Crabs and will give Carolina rigs a shot.

Question do you like fish the structure exposed by low tides, are the high tides more productive?
Anyone else up in this area?

[kastmaster]

Wow, nice work pulling in that guitar on the iron! Surfperch are fun on the km also! It's gonna be a fishy spring and summer for all I hope. I look for structure whenever I'm on the ocean, but lately, my tide strategy has been either fish 1st thing in the morning or when the mood suits me, whatever tide. My recent keeper halibut came at a low tide, but I was there simply cuz I'd finished chores.

[foulhook]

Nice guitar fish in the surf

[Mike M]

Very nice shovelnose. I've never seen one caught on a lure before. Wait until you accidently snag one on the fin... as you pull they will turn and pull you sideways down the beach.

As the water continues to warm and the crabs surface, you might consider trying a soft shell crab. Who knows, you may be a bait convert

Welcome back to California surf fishing!

[jwacky]

Very nice shovelnose. I've never seen one caught on a lure before. Wait until you accidently snag one on the fin... as you pull they will turn and pull you sideways down the beach.

This happened to me last weekend!! Snagged it near the tail. I'd figured I'd caught a ray and the thing pulled like crazy.

[Midnightpass]

Welcome back to surf fishing… You seem to be doing pretty well..I’m a North OC/South LA surf fishing guy… Bolsa Chica and Huntington are pretty much my home beaches.. I usually fish week day, 1st light, until about noon….. I look at tides, but fish when I can not depending on much else.. BC can be difficult on a low tide.. Structure is key.. I was at BC this AM, for a short session, and structure was hard to come by… So were the fish.. Saw a few of the sand spike brigade fishing way out, with maybe 10 rods, and they had a couple of very nice SFC…. Other than that, I talked to a couple of guys slinging stick baits for a couple of dink halibut… Me, Nada…
Butch

[DaDTaughtMe2Fish]

Welcome back to surf fishing… You seem to be doing pretty well..I’m a North OC/South LA surf fishing guy… Bolsa Chica and Huntington are pretty much my home beaches.. I usually fish week day, 1st light, until about noon….. I look at tides, but fish when I can not depending on much else.. BC can be difficult on a low tide.. Structure is key.. I was at BC this AM, for a short session, and structure was hard to come by… So were the fish.. Saw a few of the sand spike brigade fishing way out, with maybe 10 rods, and they had a couple of very nice SFC…. Other than that, I talked to a couple of guys slinging stick baits for a couple of dink halibut… Me, Nada…
Butch

Weekdays are best for me as well, just retired so plenty of time and fishing is going to fill a lot of that. Just got the State Parks Senior Golden Pass so that opened up a lot of coastline at minimal cost. Lots of structure at Crystal Cove but will also require time to learn, I'm going to go snorkel the rocky areas for additional recon when water is clear and visibilty allows.
Hope to see you out there, thanks for the info.

Brian

[Bendo]

I’ve been fishing OC Surf for 63 years. It has changed but can still produce like the old days. Try to hit the times around the Grunion Runs for the next several months. The Sand Crabs are up, it is just a little tougher to get a bunch right now. Searching and moving a lot is not wasting your time, when you get on a group of Fish, it can be fun for a good while. While I throw Sand Crabs 90% of the time( Free and effective) sometimes Ghost Shrimp or Lug Worms can really turn them on. Squid will work for Leo’s and Rays but chunk fresh Sardines or Mackerel will work much better. On a long stretch of Beach, fish the Birds, either the Sand Pokers or the ones chasing Bait. Gamefish are always near the Bait and so are the Birds. Good luck!

[Calmwater]

Bean.pdf

Great pics and a good report, DaDTaughtMe... Regarding your question, here is what I was taught. It has worked for me no matter what time of day it is... Since you're retired, you have the advantage of going to one of your favorite spots during low tides. Maybe bring your pole, or maybe not... The idea is to take a look at the structure that is exposed during the low. Check out where the holes and troughs are... If you're unfamiliar with structure, then take a look at Benjie Kim's youtube video regarding that subject. Now, once you see the structure that could be fishy, turn around and check for a landmark that can get you back to it...a telephone pole...a particular color of house... Now, I fish during the last 2 -3 hours of the incoming high tide. Use your landmarks, that you noted, to get you where you need to be. LOOK at what the water is (not) doing in your fishy spot. That will help you when you fish an area that you have not previously scouted. Two weeks ago, I fished during what is normally the worst time of day to catch fish. I caught limit of small BSPs, plus my pb Bean. The bean was caught, during the incoming, at 2 p.m. In fact, all my beans have been caught during the "worst" time of day. I use this method when I am fishing for BSPs and YFCs. Halibut are an entirely different story. Stay with it, and it will start making sense to you. Good luck!