San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Hi all, just recently joined this fourm and excited to be a part of this community. I've primarily been fishing on piers or on a charter boat my whole life but just recently started fishing San Diego Bay from the shore. I've primarily been fishing off the rocks in Harbor Island and have tried a little bit of Mission Bay mostly targetting spotties and sometimes halibut. It's definitely a different type of fishing from what I'm used to and I'm having a hard time landing fish.

Sometimes it can take me an hour or two to get a single bite, and when it happens a large percentage of the time I end up losing the fishing. I typically fish a weedless setup either a texas rigged swimbait or a swimbait with the weed guard. Sometimes I'll throw a swimbait on a dropshot setup. Most of the time I'm using a 3-4 inch Rage Swimmer swimbait all on a 3/0 hook with a 3/8 oz weight. I've tried different retreival techniques from slow retrieve, twitching the rod while I reel, and pausing after reeling a bit.

I tend to fish either in early morning or a couple hours before sunset. I've already taken a look at the pinned threads and have tried going to the places marked on the guide. Any advice is helpful, thank you!

TL;DR
New to shore fishing and having hard time getting a bite and landing the fish. Any advice is helpful

You will be catching fish soon, there are some great San Diego Bay fisherman here, hopefully they will have you catching soon.

Sounds like you’re due for a fish or two! I fish predominantly from a raft but techniques and gear are similar. You can try downsizing on your drop shot set up to a 2.5” curly tail grub. If you’re missing fish you may be getting short bit. A smaller presentation can get them all the way on the hook. My favorite lure is a crankbait, something in the 6-10’range should keep you near the bottom. No subtle bites on the crankbait! Also a trusty metal jig(30g is a good size for spotties) jigged off the bottom gets aggressive fish.
Not sure how frequently you’re moving but from shore I probably move every 15 minutes or less if I’m not getting bites. Bass don’t swim too far, better for you to find them than the other way around. I’m guessing you will connect in your next few outings. Keep at it, we’ve all had slumps.

I posted this a while ago, has tips that should help: viewtopic.php?p=18882&hilit=spotted#p18882

You are probably fishing too fast, you want the lure to touch bottom often for maximum effectiveness. If you are not feeling the line, you may be missing bites. Hopefully you are not one of those guys using 30 lb mono for spotties, that will reduce effectiveness too.

Try a curly tail Gulp! grub on a drop shot. You could even throw it out and not move it, just let the current work it. If it doesn't get bit, you are in the wrong spot. With a Carolina rig, you might get a bat ray, small shark or other species. Gulp is nice for beginners who are not as good at feeling the bite as the fish don't usually spit it out.

Everyone loves the hard strikes you will get with a crankbait but be prepared to hang up a lot in the weeds fishing from the shore.

Getting a bass out of (or through) the grass when fishing from shore can be a challenge.

You might try going with thinner baits, and smaller hooks.
Even a small spotty can totally inhale a lure on a 3/0 hook, but sometimes if they don't grab it just right, that hook's too big and they only have the tail of the bait in their mouth. Or the bait's sitting in their mouth sideways, with the point of the hook outside the fishes mouth, facing forward.

You might try going to a smaller hook...which means a smaller/skinnier bait that won't fill up the bend of the hook with plastic. The fat ribbed red/clear swimbait in the pic is too big for a small hook.

A three or four inch grub (top) pairs well with a size 1 hook....or a small (bottom) worm...or a skinny 3 inch swimbait (Yellow). Small lizards can work, too. These will all slide through grass fairly well behind a bullet weight. With everything downsized, you may have a better chance of the fish getting the whole lure inside its mouth...and the hook has a better chance of, well, hooking.

A implied message from Carpkiller's post and my post is that the bass like grass. You might be tempted to fish off the rocks in grass free water but there will be a lot more bass in weedy areas. In some spots, you might even want to wade out to fish.

galen wrote: Thu Jun 12, 2025 7:48 pm You can try downsizing on your drop shot set up to a 2.5” curly tail grub.

Thank you, I'll definitely try this out. It's a different type of fishing but I'm still having a good time being outside even if I'm not catching!

Gotfish? wrote: Fri Jun 13, 2025 5:57 am You are probably fishing too fast, you want the lure to touch bottom often for maximum effectiveness. If you are not feeling the line, you may be missing bites. Hopefully you are not one of those guys using 30 lb mono for spotties, that will reduce effectiveness too.

I'm using braid with a 12 lb fluoro leader. I'll give the Gulp! baits another try. I had one pack leak all of it's juices in my bag and the smell it left inside my bag just turned me off from wanting to use it again.

Carpkiller wrote: Fri Jun 13, 2025 5:06 pm A three or four inch grub (top) pairs well with a size 1 hook....or a small (bottom) worm...or a skinny 3 inch swimbait (Yellow). Small lizards can work, too. These will all slide through grass fairly well behind a bullet weight. With everything downsized, you may have a better chance of the fish getting the whole lure inside its mouth...and the hook has a better chance of, well, hooking.

Thank you for adding the picture, it's really helpful! Like others have mentioned, I'll give the curly tail grub a try my next outing. Hoping this breaks the streak.

getting off the shore will increase your catching tremendously. Lots of channels and flats out of range from the shore that hold lots of fish.

In terms of the Rage Swimmer, I'd never throw bigger than the 3.25 from shore. In fact it's the only size I'd throw. My primary texas rig bay bait is the 3" Zman Minnowz just because they last forever, nothing special about the bait otherwise. I use a 3/16oz weight the vast majority of the time. I only use 3/8oz from shore if it's high tide in a deeper area with very strong current. I recommend a 2/0 hook. This said, I use a standard jighead+plastic for the better hookup ratio any time I can get away with it. Always try to keep your bait effectively brushing the bottom or the top of the grass line. Rocks suck, grass is king.

For what it's worth, San Diego Bay fishing is a shadow of what it was 10+ years ago, and shore fishing makes it painfully obvious. I used to catch 5-10 fish in <1 hour every shore session. These days I'm shocked if I catch 3 in an hour and am always fully prepared for the skunk. I also used to regularly catch legal fish from shore and this year I've caught 1, maybe 2 from a boat and definitely 0 from shore.

so its been a week. curious, have things gotten better for you?

spicy mayo wrote: Fri Jun 20, 2025 8:54 am so its been a week. curious, have things gotten better for you?

I managed to get 1 small halibut to bite. I think I found out a possible reason why I've been missing out on bites. Whenever I cast out my lure, I noticed I had a hard time keeping tension. I had a big backlash on braid and ended up having to cut part of my spool and once I casted from the untouched line beneath I was able to keep tension pretty well. I think my line was very twisted which caused me to lose sensitivty which prevented me from knowing if I had a fish on or not. I plan to respool and try again this weekend to see if my theory is right.

Gotfish? wrote: Fri Jun 13, 2025 5:49 pm A implied message from Carpkiller's post and my post is that the bass like grass. You might be tempted to fish off the rocks in grass free water but there will be a lot more bass in weedy areas. In some spots, you might even want to wade out to fish.

This cannot be stressed enough. I remember when I first started, I slowly learned to “feel” the bottom with my lure. There was one session that as soon as I felt the snagginess of grass, I’d get bit. “Where there’s grass, there’s bass”

MackAttack wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 8:20 pm

spicy mayo wrote: Fri Jun 20, 2025 8:54 am so its been a week. curious, have things gotten better for you?

I managed to get 1 small halibut to bite. I think I found out a possible reason why I've been missing out on bites. Whenever I cast out my lure, I noticed I had a hard time keeping tension. I had a big backlash on braid and ended up having to cut part of my spool and once I casted from the untouched line beneath I was able to keep tension pretty well. I think my line was very twisted which caused me to lose sensitivty which prevented me from knowing if I had a fish on or not. I plan to respool and try again this weekend to see if my theory is right.

Just keep at it. It’s hard to explain but there’s a whole sense and instinct to develop as an angler. Once you got it, you’ll know it, and it’ll be hard to explain. Just keep casting, reading, watching, fishing info. Check out the book “fish have no hands” by Mike Gardner. It’s a good bay bass read.

Also, try gulp sand worms on a drop shot. That’s like the spotty “in an emergency break glass bait” for harbor island

Glency wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 12:14 pm Also, try gulp sand worms on a drop shot. That’s like the spotty “in an emergency break glass bait” for harbor island

This or a texas rigged 4 inch gulp minnow, 3/16th oz bullet weight. Toss it out at shelter island, let it sink. Reel once, wait, reel once, wait, repeat until fish on.

Fish early early morning or evening or dark. 2pm afternoon, don't bother.

This is the bay fishing forum, so I hope I am not stepping out of line with my post, but I have found during summer months that surf fishing from the beach is quite productive. I get more action on the beach than I do in the bay, but I am mainly a surf fisher. From your post, it sounds like you have not been surf fishing much, so I would highly recommend giving it a try. If you go to pretty much any beach from mission beach up to san elijo, dig up some sand crabs and put them on a size 2 hook with a carolina rig and a 1 oz weight, you will get yellowfin croaker, spotfin croaker, black croaker, white croaker, the occasional leopard shark or smoothhound shark, perch, and other things. Some food for thought.

I usually only fish in the bay in an attempt to find the elusive halibut. The only fish I have caught in the bay are bass and halibut, halibut being rarer, and all have been short so far. Fishing in the surf will give you different fish.

FishNdive wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:28 am From your post, it sounds like you have not been surf fishing much, so I would highly recommend giving it a try.

It's funny that you said that, I actually tried surf fishing at mission beach for the first time last week . Used a carolina rig with a size 2 mosquito hook and a 1 oz sliding egg weight with sand crabs and ended up catching some perch. I definitely will try surf fishing more in the future, but right now I want to try putting in more time in the bay honing my craft before I tackle a whole other monster lol

FishNdive wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:28 am This is the bay fishing forum, so I hope I am not stepping out of line with my post, but I have found during summer months that surf fishing from the beach is quite productive. I get more action on the beach than I do in the bay, but I am mainly a surf fisher. From your post, it sounds like you have not been surf fishing much, so I would highly recommend giving it a try. If you go to pretty much any beach from mission beach up to san elijo, dig up some sand crabs and put them on a size 2 hook with a carolina rig and a 1 oz weight, you will get yellowfin croaker, spotfin croaker, black croaker, white croaker, the occasional leopard shark or smoothhound shark, perch, and other things. Some food for thought.

I usually only fish in the bay in an attempt to find the elusive halibut. The only fish I have caught in the bay are bass and halibut, halibut being rarer, and all have been short so far. Fishing in the surf will give you different fish.

Definitely more species in the surf in summertime.

But...same goes for Mission Bay. I've got 36 different species at last count, mostly from soaking ghost shrimp, squid, and Gulp baits in the Bonita Cove/Mariner's Basin area. Probably half of the 36 have also been caught on lures. Looking at Friday's tide chart....Courtesy of Tides4Fishing...
My best results in that part of the bay usually happen in the steepest part of the curve in the chart...more water movement...and during the last half of the steep part, before the tide slows down closer to the high tide mark. On that day, I'd expect the best bite to be between 9:30 and 11 a.m. on the bay side. Sometimes the bite shuts off as the water movement slows....So I waddle over to the surf side, where sometimes, the bite continues for about an hour or two after the highest tide.