San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I wasn't ready to acknowledge the start of the new work week, so I made a last 'weekend' trip out to Mission Beach for some evening fishing. Not a great move, ha. High tide and the surf was way in, which I knew would be the case, but made for some pretty rough fishing. Between that and being particularly crowded (maybe Comic-Con related??), not a whole lot of action.

It was a good exercise in staying calm between the hoards of people walking into the ocean directly in front of me despite setting up far enough away from most of the people that it shouldn't have been an issue, and then an older couple that set their gear up literally on top of my son and his buddy that was tagging along. Such is life. I took it all as a sign to be grateful that we live in such a beautiful area, let the visitors enjoy our coast, and I'll just come back another time.

All of that said, I did at least avoid a skunk and pulled in a tiny little perch on my first cast.

Perch is perch…. No skunk…
Butch

Been there, done that Joe. First you have to get lucky to find parking & the SMB lot gives you the best chance. I've had fairly good luck with swimmers, boarders & day trippers being respectful when I find an open area. What I've noticed is a lot of these folks/tourists leave about 4-5 pm. Then the after work dinner/picnic folks arrive to set up their blankets and stay to watch the sunset. Don't blame them, I did the same in my working years with family. Re the big high tides, I try to pick an incoming that's not going to be over 4-4.5' by sunset. Never had much luck with those bigger tides over 5'; the kelp/grass up on the beach gets sucked back into the surf and there goes the fishing !

Perch killer wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 9:53 am Been there, done that Joe. First you have to get lucky to find parking & the SMB lot gives you the best chance. I've had fairly good luck with swimmers, boarders & day trippers being respectful when I find an open area. What I've noticed is a lot of these folks/tourists leave about 4-5 pm. Then the after work dinner/picnic folks arrive to set up their blankets and stay to watch the sunset. Don't blame them, I did the same in my working years with family. Re the big high tides, I try to pick an incoming that's not going to be over 4-4.5' by sunset. Never had much luck with those bigger tides over 5'; the kelp/grass up on the beach gets sucked back into the surf and there goes the fishing !

That has definitely been the pattered I've observed over the couple of times I've ventured out in the evenings. I'll get there around 5/5:30 (to south parking lot), which tends to be crowded with folks in the water. It'll clear out, and then I'll turn around and everyone is in place getting ready for the sunset. Really is a joy to live here and very easy to take it all for granted.

But yeah, anything over that 4-4.5' range I'm learning is best to just avoid, or at least leave the fishing gear at home!