San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I woke up early this morning with plans on fishing Otay. I poked my head outside, and it was wet and cold, so I almost wimped out.

I'm glad I sucked it up though, because I ended up with a 26 fish day! Granted, most were clones and a few drinks, but catching numerous fish on consecutive casts is still mighty exciting.

I wanted to share a rig that has really been slaying for me recently. It consists of a tiny 1/8 oz. skirted punch weight made by Nako. I use a 2/0 round bend worm hook in a Z-Man TRD. (See picture) It's incredibly weedless for what amounts to a jig. I can cast it right into the tules, let it fall to the bottom and twitch it back, with that Ned standing up. It's been a killer for that application.

Now back to Murray tomorrow where hopefully that topwater action is still going off (wrings hands with excitement).

Sounds like you had one heck of a fun fishing day.
Very nice!

VinnyBass wrote: Wed Mar 26, 2025 5:20 pm Sounds like you had one heck of a fun fishing day.
Very nice!

BFS is a challenging way to fish anyway, but fishing tules with BFS takes a lot of finesse and a bit of luck to get them out.

For the second trip in a row @otaymichael was getting on the water as I was leaving. How'd you do Mike? How was the afternoon bite? Inquiring minds want to know.

I know you read Vinnybass reports, so everything I said goes for you too.

Dannicus wrote: Thu Mar 27, 2025 4:54 am For the second trip in a row @otaymichael was getting on the water as I was leaving. How'd you do Mike? How was the afternoon bite? Inquiring minds want to know.

Man, I was so impressed with your report I couldn’t wait to start. Went topwater (getting top for the last three weeks, but it’s not been wide open). Got into them right away, and
like you, fought the cold and rain during “my shift“ all afternoon. it didn’t bother the bite whatsoever. I only ended with 15, averaging 2#. Poppers, buzz baits, boot tail flukes, gliders, and dog walkers. Threw a lipless just for fun and got a five pounder second cast, he got off under the boat. Took a while to warm up after leaving.

Awesome Mike!!!! Yeah for me it was all on the bottom yesterday.

Looks like a finesse punch rig! Definitely a fish catcher it looks like. Even though I've never punched real vegetation in my life, I value those skirts as they add bulk to your bait, without weighing them down. It almost seems it does the opposite by providing drag when your bait sinks.

Good job out there!

Otay sure sports some pretty fish!

Thanks for the new bait info! Looks very catchy. Am I so out of it that I had no idea that weights have skirts now?