San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Anyone know if shiners are back in stock? Is it a "time of year" thing that they tend to dry up for spawning? Still getting into fishing and they're a nice way to ensure at least some attention from other fish, haha. I was suprised when I went to the nearby tackle shop a couple months ago only to be told they were out.

And I realize a quick phone call could answer this but why not contribute to activity on the site...

Well, back in the day when I worked at a sporting goods store that carried shiners, I don't think that we were ever out of them, except maybe on a rare occasion. We were more likely to hit dry spells on crawdads. But shiners don't come from local suppliers. Places like Alpine Fisheries has to get them from some other state, so there could be problems caused by that, associated with droughts, floods, less people farming them due to cost or less demand, etc.. Lots of things could affect shiner availability.

You can always bypass the middleman and hit up alpine fisheries. Their schedule makes it hard sometimes. If you wanna fish early, they aren’t open early so it’s either fish a late morning/evening or buy the night before

I believe lemon grove bait and tackle carrys them also try otay lakes they usually carry them

Pond_prowler_619 wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:04 pm I believe lemon grove bait and tackle carrys them also try otay lakes they usually carry them

This is my nearest place with live bait. They were the ones that told me they were out a couple months ago, haha. I’ll call them this weekend and see what’s up. I’ll update here for anyone interested.