San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Went fishing about five or six times over the past few weeks for my first time in years. Happy to say that there are plenty more fish biting these days than two years go, when I left off. I've only caught BSP and Walleye SP, but I'll take it. Each session has been yielding at least a fish every 20 minutes, but I've also had sessions with 10 fish in an hour - including time spent unhooking, retying from snags, etc. I've been fishing a C-rig - 3/4 oz SS barrel weight, bead, barrel swivel, 12-18 in of fluorocarbon, #6 or #4 baitholder hook (planning to try mosquito or even an octopus hook to reduce the rate of gut hooking), 2 inch gulp camo sandworm threaded on the hook.

Beaches that don't normally produce are producing this year - even with not having much sand.

I haven't tried targeting halibut yet. I wanted to get several no-skunk days for my re-introduction into surf fishing before I started fishing with lures again. I'll probably start throwing the LC and some spoons or a kastmaster in my upcoming sessions and will hopefully land some flatties.

Pics with some of the nicer sized ones - my son with one of them, and the other was a big girl, but I didn't have a ruler for size. I'll have to pick up a ruler ...

WTG on getting back out there... At least someone is fishing... I was gonna go out today, but punked out.. I agree with you, that fishing is better this year than the last couple..
Butch

Perch fishing definitely much better this past winter/spring than previous couple years. The big 14-15" slabs will hit LC's so a nice by-catch when going for hali's.

Picked up some sand crabs in the morning at a beach that has nice sized ones for fishing - not too big, not too small.

Took them out to my normal spot and they produced 7 fat sirflerch, all 8.5-9.5 inches. I also caught my first YFC of the year. It’s only been perch so far, so it felt great to feel that hard slam of the YFC. They have such a stereotypical bite. A hard tug followed by either no fight (feels like pulling in seaweed) or in the rare case, they will keep fighting and pull some drag.

Still haven’t gotten any beans, spotfins, or leopards … but that’s not surprising this early in the season.

On a roll… Very nice….. If you haven’t picked up a ruler yet, I use one of these.. Nothing to rust, or rot, don’t have to hold it open… Only 5” X 1/2” X 3/4” and very light..
Butch

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TXRTKO?re ... _m_5_i_atc

Forgot to add a pic

Midnightpass wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2024 12:35 pm On a roll… Very nice….. If you haven’t picked up a ruler yet, I use one of these.. Nothing to rust, or rot, don’t have to hold it open… Only 5” X 1/2” X 3/4” and very light..
Butch

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TXRTKO?re ... _m_5_i_atc

I picked up this one https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Claw-ECTAP ... B076Q8J9WM

But if it fails, I'll check that one out. I'll try to get more pics. I just like to get the line back in the water right after landing a fish and forget to take them unless if my son is with me...

The YFC are here in north county. Caught a few yesterday on the good ole' morf big hammer grub. Love how hard they hit.

Otherwise, the water was chock-full of salad. Took me about a half-mile of walking to find a spot clean enough to fish.

Fished with sandcrabs on Friday and Saturday. Caught a few small leopards (one of them featured in the photo) and several perch. On Saturday I hooked up with something huge. Peeled my drag, so I tightened down on my drag a bit. Got it into the surf break zone. I should've loosened up my drag b/c the fish made a run for it at the same time that the swell was pulling away from the shore and the combined force popped my hook of the line. I saw its tail flapping out of the water. Pretty sure it was a larger leopard shark or a guitar fish. Super bummed about that one and have been replaying it in my head about 50 times since...

Still, it was great to feel that stereotypical leopard bite (feels almost like the swell or a snag, but then you feel your drag peeling and realize it's either a leopard, guitar, or a ray) as opposed to the nip nip perch bite - which is great, but that's all I've been feeling for a while...

Hind sight is 20-20… You’ll get him next time..
Butch