San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Been fishing since May. First two weeks I went every day to Torrey. Skunked. Since then,I have caught close to 100 fish at my favorite beach. Occasionally would come back to TP to try again... skunk. The other day finally caught my first fish... three small corbina which were released. Lots of kids playing and started to get too close so I had to move from the hole.... Moved a little and saw a couple of large corbina cruising the shallows for food. One had to have been at least 20' and fat. Anyway, happy needless to say. Can't wait for winter and no crowds.

I've got skunked at Torrey Pines every time I went there over the last couple months. I watched other guys fishing there and they hardly ever catch anything. Does this beach ever produce?

Of course...gotta ask...what "other beach?"

jzirlin75 wrote: Fri Jul 21, 2023 6:16 am Of course...gotta ask...what "other beach?"

I've been having much better luck in Carlsbad and farther north.

I have not fished TP much in recent years. But if I was going to pick a day with the best shot of getting cruising fish in the shallow water, it would be the last few days of July and a few days into August and fish the hours right before high tide, up between North TP and Del Mar City Beach. The water will be up covering the beach all the way to the base of the cliffs. No guarantee that the fish will be there....but I have seen a crap ton of spotfin, corbina, and guitarfish in the foam under those conditions. Didn't mean I was catching 'em...but sometimes. There's also a lot of dead kelp and grass to contend with.

"Does this beach ever produce?"
It changes from year to year. My best day there involved 94 perch, yellowfin croaker, and a couple small corbina, fishing north of the northern parking lot. The day before, I had fished going south....and caught next to nothing. Butcha can't win if you don't play...

The biggest fish I caught from the surf was from North Torrey Pines right in front of the parking lot.

That's the TP Paradox. Sometimes the fish are right where the people are. And sometimes you hike up the beach to find so many weeds that you can't fish....
What's right between the parking lots at TP? the widest, flattest section of beach for miles. And people, too. Corbina in particular don't seem bothered by people...they can be seen swimming within a few feet of waders...
" Lots of kids playing and started to get too close so I had to move from the hole..."
Never got a big spotfin in the parking lot area...but got an absolute pig of a yellowfin croaker right at the mouth of the river. But it was a cool overcast day and not too many people splashing around...
This spotfin was up north, nearly to the Del Mar city beach boundary

my spotfin above was caught in September of 2019 around 7 or 8am, overcast. pretty empty beach and medium surf. Probably my 3rd cast, I was actually kind of disappointed that I started off so well on that session I knew I wouldn't be getting anything else of that quality, ended up packing it in after about another 15-20 minutes.