San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

It's all far from me...and I am a creature of habit , so it's been north county for now... The presence of the reefs provides options at all tides and a good range of sea states. I can walk back to my car and put fish on ice, or switch up rods and tackle.

I find that I get wind knots if my lure is too light for my braid so that when I reel it in, the line is loose on the spool. The brand of braid matters too. I would get wind knots with suffix 832 30 lb braid with the lucky craft 110, but not with 20 lb braid. I switched to power pro super slick v2 30 lb, and get no wind knots with the luckycraft. I also am pretty careful about reeling it in to make sure there is always some tension on the line so it doesn't wind loosely onto the spool.

I didn't see your post, FishnDive. I trust what you're saying, and you've found a way to make it work.

So far, most of the bugs have been worked out for me. I am using mono on baitcasters and braid to leader on spinning reels, and that's worked fine for the C-Rig. As others have pointed out, you need some give in the system somewhere, such as the line, the rod, in combination with the drag,

I prefer braided and spinning reels for the Lucky Craft, but I will tie it on to anything that will get reasonable distance on the cast if it's a matter of convenience.

If I need to tie on a heavy leader for rocks or kelp, especially for fishing where breakoffs are more of a problem, I might as well have 30lb or larger braid behind it. That's usually going to be a swimbait or bait.

Other observations since I got into the lighter style of surf fishing.
The deep-diving crankbait rod and my bass fishing c-rig rod have been excellent rods for c-rig.

Everydog wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 9:04 am

camobass wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 7:14 am 12lb mono works great throwing lucky crafts. I throw them on conventional bass rod. No problem with distance on any jerk bait style with weight transfer system.

12-pound pulls in a legal halibut in surf pretty well?

I have pulled a couple of barely legal halibut out of the surf on 6 lb line. Just fish in the part of the ocean with no kelp stringers.... heh heh. Good luck, Russell...

Lots of good stuff here. For Surf fishing I fill 1/2 my spool on a 2500 size spinning reel with 20 lb braid and tie on with your knot of choice, some quality 10 pound Mono.(I use a glued Albright) I fill the reel as much as I can without it spilling off. Then go launch some casts with a 4 ounce sinke to wet pack the line. I have Landed 30 pound Roosters off East Cape with this setup as well as Black Snook, and White Seabass/Halibut/Stripers locally on this set up. I was having a problem getting spooled on straight Mono. I was getting Wind knots in heavy wind, with straight braid. So now I fish the combo. My casts are all Mono, the braid is for line capacity. You can pull hard on 10 pound too and it really breaks around 13 pounds. I have no problem with casting distance and the stretchy nature of the Mono means I don’t straighten out my hooks like many do. The beaches I fish don’t have obstructions to worry about so I just let them run and then reel them in. I try to leave several rod lengths of line out when landing bigger fish and back up the beach when the waves allow it. My fish usually end up sitting on the sand when the water drains off. CPR for my fish…Recent Halibut/Striper Pics, all off Newport Beach.

Nice catches & photos !

The casting of a bare heavy weight to “wet pack” the line is a great idea… my wife used to fish spinning a lot in the past and when we would leave the dock, I would let all her line out behind the boat (nothing attached) and pack it back on, pretty much solved any spinning reel issues throughout the day. If it was a long day, I would do it again.
Even on conventional, I’ll throw a cast as far as I can randomly throughout the day to clear the line. Rod tip down, sometimes submerged, pinching line tight to repack the spool.
That’s a great tip Bendo.

Some good ideas here…
Butch

Thank you all for your new and continued contributions to these topics. Some I use, or have dabbled in, have set a few things on more solid footing. Like Bendo's, walking a fish to the beach with a few rod lengths of line out... the half spool of braid and fishing the mono half is something I have and will see as applicable at times.

Perhaps someone can clarify what this is about: I notice many people fighting/reeling in fish, with the rod positioned to the side and horizontally, rather than perpendicular to the beach. (point up). I do it too sometimes, on intuition, or to protect myself from getting pulled hooks in my face. Maybe it keeps the waves from pounding on the line downward while bringing the fish in? Are there other purposes to this?

The less line in the water, the less weeds you get hanging on the line during the fight.

Everydog wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 11:16 am Thank you all for your new and continued contributions to these topics. Some I use, or have dabbled in, have set a few things on more solid footing. Like Bendo's, walking a fish to the beach with a few rod lengths of line out... the half spool of braid and fishing the mono half is something I have and will see as applicable at times.

Perhaps someone can clarify what this is about: I notice many people fighting/reeling in fish, with the rod positioned to the side and horizontally, rather than perpendicular to the beach. (point up). I do it too sometimes, on intuition, or to protect myself from getting pulled hooks in my face. Maybe it keeps the waves from pounding on the line downward while bringing the fish in? Are there other purposes to this?

Maybe trying to “surf” the fish in with the waves…Using the waves to get their advantage… I do this with larger fish….
Butch