San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Lots of small bonito locally in the ocean.

Troll a small crocodile lure until hooking up, put engine in neutral, cast the fly. Catch one or two or a half dozen. After a few casts with no grabs rinse and repeat.

If you fish with a light drag this size will take you into your backing.

Haven't seen any birds diving or fish busting on the surface.

All you need is a 6 wt or heavier rod, sinking fly line, and some size 4 or 6 clouser minnows in your favorite color. And a boat or kayak too.

I fish this with 8lb tippet, but if 'cuda show up I will add about 8" of 30lb as a bite tippet with a Slim Beauty knot.

Hoping some bigger ones show up.

Calico bass on the fly remains decent with days varying from just a couple of fish to a couple of dozen per rod.

Beautiful fish.

What a blast! Would surface poppers bring them to the surface?

Rattus wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2024 8:37 pm What a blast! Would surface poppers bring them to the surface?

Yes, under the right conditions. Went out again yesterday and caught a bunch on a crease fly in addition to a clouser. A couple of dozen each.

Fish a crease fly, pencil popper, or small foam popper on a floating or intermediate line.

The crease fly worked when there was a little breeze on the water and the sun was lower. The fish were showing 15 to 20 feet down on the graph.

This grade of fish requires a smaller popper. Size 4 crease fly or smaller. A size 2 still got blowups but a lot of misses.

Just getting the blowups is a hoot.

Later when the wind died, the surface got glassy, and the sun higher, the crease fly or popper didn't bring them up. Water was really clear. Fish shifted to about 30-40 feet down. They were still hitting a fly allowed to sink about 15 feet down. And they still came up for trolled crocodiles.

Sport boats were getting bunches of them. Chumming would have kept them shallow.

When we troll we have the fly rods ready to go with line layer out in buckets so they can be cast immediately after clearing the trolled lines/fish.

Yep, went out this morning (Sunday) and got into them BUT LEFT MY FLY ROD IN THE TRUCK!! Arghhh, had to settle for using a baitcaster and a Battlestar plug. They were busting the plug as it sat still on the surface, so I'm sure a popper would have worked well (when they're running like that, I think just about anything would have worked). Also caught two Calico Bass. Fun, but I'm bummed not to get some on the fly rod.... next time!