Much of this week waves from a strong south swell crashed the Orange County beaches and made fishing a bit tough. Thankfully, the waves calmed down and the water heated up (73 degrees in Orange County) to produce some very good bites at the beach.

The evening tides seemed to hold the most promise for both collecting sand crabs and catching fish. We made it to the beach and spent twenty-minutes to find soft sand crabs. This year has been unusual with the beaches loaded with millions upon millions of sand crabs. Fish now have so much bait to choose from that they are only eating the softest crabs. With the largest fish only eating the largest soft shell crabs.

It seems like a complete army of perch are guarding the beach with bites and swipes of bait on every cast. After a few cast this nice perch made it to the beach. Many eight inch fish with two around thirteen inches.

Down the beach my buddy Mark is hooked up and he pulls this nice corbina to shore

Not too much later I toss out a large soft crab on the Carolina rig and hook into this beautiful spotfin croaker

Just one bait left cause it’s getting late and I’m tired! Cast out hook into a fish. This nice corbina slides to shore and bring the end to a perfect day at the beach!

Next week has some improved tides with later in the week giving us both a morning and afternoon high tide. It now looks like a sizeable South swell should be hitting the coast early Thursday and holding in the five-foot range until late Sunday. The following week has very little swell action so the beach should recover quickly and because of the big swell the water will be even warmer. If you do plan to fish during the peak swell period, try to find a spot near a jetty or harbor where you (and the fish) can find a bit of protection.

Fish reports this week came from up and down the coast with a 15lb striper caught in San Diego by Robert Gudger , a thirty-four inch halibut caught by Dan Morita of Culver City also on a Lucky Craft, and nice Spotfin showing for Jack in Newport Beach. Surf fishing has been good at most every beach in Southern California with perch and corbina to the North and spotfin, halibut, yellowfin and corbina to the South.

Don’t forget about my upcoming on-the-beach seminars—our June seminar at Bolsa Chica and San Diego, Carpenteria and more Bolsa to come. Until then I’ll see you in Fish Taco Chronicles, Western Outdoor News, Florida Sportsman and on the beach!

Bill

www.fishthesurf.com

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