San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I will kick of this forum with the 1st post. I had been fishing South San Diego Bay for the last few month, had the quantity but not the quality of spotties. Got 29 spotties, 1 mackerel, 1 corvina and 1 halibut (18") float tubing yesterday. The spotties were nice sized for a change, several in the 14-16" range. Beautiful day to be on the bay, we're back to the classic San Diego weather.

Key to doing well is to use a depth finder and note what features (depth, water flow, channels, weeds, structure, etc.) hold fish and fish those areas. There is a saying that 10% of the area holds 90% of the fish and that often seems to be true. And the areas that hold fish will change from day to day and within a tidal cycle. A depth map of the bay is good to have when getting started in an area but I have most of the areas I fish memorized by now. I will also save dropped pins on my phone so I can go back to the same spots in future outings or even the same outing.

Most of the fish were caught on 4" curly tail grubs fished slowly on the bottom using a standup jig head. Not to say other lures wouldn't work, I just stuck with what did. Saw bait fish several times near the surface where I caught most of the fish so maybe that is what attracted the bigger spotties.

Nice chunky spottie! Did most of the fish come during the rising or falling tide?

At the beginning of the incoming tide, 7am to 9am was the best bite. I left about an hour after high tide.

Not that you are asking but I have the same apron on my tube and you can cut a tiny slit at the corner end in the front part of the apron that’s folded,
Slide a small diameter tube in there, like 1/2” aluminum tube/pipe and your apron stays square. It won’t fall out either. Game changer for those aprons.

camobass wrote: Mon Apr 10, 2023 4:14 pm Not that you are asking but I have the same apron on my tube and you can cut a tiny slit at the corner end in the front part of the apron that’s folded,
Slide a small diameter tube in there, like 1/2” aluminum tube/pipe and your apron stays square. It won’t fall out either. Game changer for those aprons.

Thx. I had put in a piece of cheap plastic sheet that was about 3/32" thick and 1.5" wide into it a few years ago but it has taken a set. So I just pulled that out and put in 2 bamboo plant staking poles cut to length, seems much better now. I considered some 3/16 steel rod that I have laying around but I expect it would get rusty in the saltwater.