August Surf Fishing a Repeat of July ?

[Perch killer]

Well, surf fishing just sucked (for me anyway) last month & looks like more of the same into August, so far. Based on the relative inactivity on this forum over the past month I'm assuming others may be having the same experience ?? Haven't been posting as there's really been nothing note worthy to share. Hit 6 different beaches, some more than once, over the past 6 weeks. Either skunk sessions or a small perch or two and more sessions with increasing amounts of kelp & grass. No quality fish, although saw some good size corbina in close a few times but were not taking. The only place I found sand crabs was under the PB pier and a few small patches close by but again, just perch takers. Some predictions the bite will start to pickup by mid August but I don't believe it, not unless water temps drop to at least 72 or below, and remains there. Or, maybe September & October will be great when the temps do drop. Any thoughts ?

[kastmaster]

I haven't been out on a sand crab (or other bait n wait) surf session yet, been distracted by freshwater exploring. It's about time I tried some early AM sessions and will certainly report any activity, skunk or otherwise. Is anyone getting decent sized perch this summer, or have the dinks taken over?

[Perch killer]

I haven't been out on a sand crab (or other bait n wait) surf session yet, been distracted by freshwater exploring. It's about time I tried some early AM sessions and will certainly report any activity, skunk or otherwise. Is anyone getting decent sized perch this summer, or have the dinks taken over?

Been just 6 - 8" models for me. Know there been some 10 - 12's taken.

[kastmaster]

It does seem like the 'wait until the sand crabs show up' hype of Apr - May, 'then we will slay 'em' was reflected in a brief flurry of corbina, spotfin, perch, guitar fish catch reports, then things dropped off the cliff .

[Mike A]

Only small perch while fishing north county. Tough going to get even a couple. Could see the corbina up close, I tried LC and gulps, no luck. Crabs are micro if I can find any. On the beach yesterday, not fishing, just chillin. Saw corbina right up close to the beach. Only thing I saw caught were rays. One dude caught 6 and 1 perch.

[Perch killer]

It does seem like the 'wait until the sand crabs show up' hype of Apr - May, 'then we will slay 'em' was reflected in a brief flurry of corbina, spotfin, perch, guitar fish catch reports, then things dropped off the cliff .

Yeah, I got a few during that brief flurry end of June going into July. Spot fin at Solana followed by a good size corbina at MB first week of July, That's been it.

[Perch killer]

Only small perch while fishing north county. Tough going to get even a couple. Could see the corbina up close, I tried LC and gulps, no luck. Crabs are micro if I can find any. On the beach yesterday, not fishing, just chillin. Saw corbina right up close to the beach. Only thing I saw caught were rays. One dude caught 6 and 1 perch.

Frustrating for sure seeing those beans in close & you can't get a sniff. Only guy I saw lately bag a couple was with an bow & arrow at PB ! Two good size ones.

[Mike A]

Wow, bow, that’s has to be wild. Also saw 3 fly guys sight casting last week in the evening, they didn’t connect either. Tuff going

[pseudoMoGil]

Same story for me, caught my PB corbina and broke that PB 2 days later early in summer, only caught a few SNGF and perch since then. thinking about grabbing a float tube and hitting the bay or something.

[Nelson 1]

Only small perch while fishing north county. Tough going to get even a couple. Could see the corbina up close, I tried LC and gulps, no luck. Crabs are micro if I can find any. On the beach yesterday, not fishing, just chillin. Saw corbina right up close to the beach. Only thing I saw caught were rays. One dude caught 6 and 1 perch.

Frustrating for sure seeing those beans in close & you can't get a sniff. Only guy I saw lately bag a couple was with an bow & arrow at PB ! Two good size ones.

I was in PB wednesday morning at Kono's, I saw a bow hunter fishing. Don't know if he caught anything. There was a lot of kelp on the sand. The only time I saw a bow hunter fishing was at Hodges for carp.

[Neuroshima]

Blacks was less than stellar this week. I saw more spotfin than corbina, which is unusual for me at this time of year. About a dozen spotfin, I believe, we're keyed in on bean clams. I only saw about 5 corbina, only one pair, the rest were all singles. Kelp was horrible.

Bean activity has been less than it was in May, and way less than previous years, where I would see multiple groups of 4 to 5 beans. I was talking with angling friend and we speculate that since the crabs are so small, the beans have turned to other food sources.

[Andrew_WOT]

No crabs on TP, couldn't even find micros.
One session tried swimbait around reefs, Flat Rock, not even a single nibble, C-Rig with dried lugworm produced single undersized yellowfin croaker. Saw few jumbo corbinas roaming shallows though, not sure what they are feeding on.
Next session just few perches, only one of a decent size, again no crabs, used gulp worms and dry lugworms.
Moderate to low kelp/grass presence.

[Fullmetal37]

I’ve been doing alright on Calicos on lures. But yea in general the surf fishing has really sucked. Other than a random corbina here or there not much going on. It was decent for me in March/April/May. June/July/August has been pretty bad. Mix of high temps and high swell. A lot of the zones I fish has had sand stripped away. Literally one zone has turned into all rock within casting distance from a mid ~2ft tide.

I wouldn’t count on temps dropping. NOAA forecast has temps increasing and peaking in Oct. I think we’ll have an odd year where Nov/Dec is our best shot

[Andrew_WOT]

And it will only get worse as it seems.
https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... r-recorded

[Calmwater]

Thanks for the post, Perch Killer. I was wondering how everybody was/wasn't doing... Up here in the South Bay, with the exception of the kelp and the eel grass, my post would would mirror yours for these past 2-3 months. A "good" session is maybe four BSPs these days. Otherwise, I'm looking at 1 or two fish. It has been difficult to find sand crabs, and when I do find them, I'm rarely getting bit! The gulp camo with added scent has been the "best" bait for me. I'll keep at it, but it doesn't look promising. Oh, I should mention that I hooked and broke off a bean on a Rapala X-Rap, two summers ago. Just an idea. I was actually hunting for perch with it. There's a bunch roaming around up here, too.

[Dona]

I have seen a fair amount of quality beans. Problem has been water conditions last couple of weeks tides for my spots has been unfavorable the kelp and grass has also made it impossible. I’m a ultralight tackle guy so the weeds and shore break are a no go. I was body surfing last night and had tons of bait and corvina in the waves with me

[bdb74]

A few weeks ago I saw a spear fisherman with a YFC that was easily 18" and maybe bigger. He said there were hundreds of YFC out there but I would not catch any because they were too far out. Other spear fisherman I talked to have found few fish. I switched from the surf to the lagoon. The surf is dead. I went this morning because the lagoon was low tide. Huge waves, lots of seaweed. No bites. No fish visible. No birds eating fish. Two other anglers, both on a jetty catching nothing. The beach is depressing because it has been ruined by the surf. The sand is gone, the barrier rocks are in the ocean now, and the parking lot is partly gone. Every person there seemed glum and down and depressed instead of "that beach feeling". Since there is no more beach where I go, it makes sense that people are not feeling "that beach feeling". It was unsettling, the energy was bad. I think people know that, while this summer has been heavy surf, this is actually the relative calm before the storm. This morning the water was near the parking lot at low tide. We can see that this El Nino is going to take more of the beaches and more things like parking lots this winter.

I was looking forward to summer beach fishing all fall, winter, and spring. I am switching to the lagoon and I am going to resume fly tying and go back to fly fishing. If I'm going to catch nothing I might as well have a good excuse.

[Mike M]

There are fish at my local beaches, but they just don't seem to be as active - especially the yellowfin croaker.

One note of concern is I don't seem to be finding many crabs with eggs. They should be full right now. Not sure how this is going to affect the coming years.

[bdb74]

I found a few crabs with eggs and left them alone. It's actually scary how few there are.

[TravelingMatt]

I went out this morning around La Jolla at 6:30am and tried my luck with a keitech swimbait. The waves were very big, lots of surfers out. Not ideal conditions but I don't mind giving it a shot. I had something on the line for about 5 seconds, maybe I didn't set the hook, but not even a bite after that. Lots of kelp and high surf probably didn't help. Will try Torrey Pines next weekend.