San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I don't have a boat, but I was thinking to try bank fishing for halibut in the bay. Is there a place in SD area that sells live bait like anchovies and such?
The ones I found are only accessible by boat.

It’s hard to manage from shore. If you want to get close to live, drop shot frozen chovies. Or even a 3way swivel with weight on the bottom and hook on top. For casting, I would do about 2’ to the weight and a foot or so to your hook. Cast, slowly drag back and repeat

camobass wrote: Mon May 15, 2023 9:05 pm It’s hard to manage from shore. If you want to get close to live, drop shot frozen chovies. Or even a 3way swivel with weight on the bottom and hook on top. For casting, I would do about 2’ to the weight and a foot or so to your hook. Cast, slowly drag back and repeat

Thanks for the info. I think I might have to use dropshot with plastics instead. The whole frozen chovie thing is probably gonna be a huge fiasco for me. They don't usually stay on the hook very well and I'd hate to have to replace the bait after every other cast. Maybe another option is to try to catch some macs first and use those as bait.

You gotta brine them. Also you can try some light rigging wire from Dana and secure them to the hook

Sometimes you can chum up smelt with bread then catch em with a sabiki.
Sometimes not.

You can almost always catch them with little pieces of Mussel rind or Bacon on a small (#14) hook off any of the docks. Set up a chum bucket with a few holes drilled in it off any Public Dock, and put some Bread, Crushed up Mussels, wet Cat Food. Hang out a few minutes and it should be WFO on the Smelt. If not, try another area. Once you find them, they will always be there all Summer. A five Gallon Bucket will keep a dozen alive indefinitely if you change the water from time to time.Now go whack a Sand Grouper and Post a Picture.