Thanksgiving Surf Fish Road Trips

I just wrapped up a great week of surf fishing up and down the coast.

Earlier in the week we went camping just south of Vandenberg Airforce Base above Santa Barbara. This has always been a premiere surf fishing spot and we weren't disappointed.

Weather at Jalama can be unpredictable. The ocean on our first day was flat glassy calm. Although the waves were head-high and above we still had great fishing on 10-12" barred perch. The grub up here is like crack to these fish and you can catch one every cast.

One interesting thing was the large congregations of sand crabs that were easily collected at low tide. Even this time of year you can find crabs up north. Nature is impossible to figure out sometimes--down here in So Cal when the water drops to 60degrees you can say goodbye to the sand crabs--up north there still on the top of the sand waving to you!

I'm trying to wrap my brain around the reason why--and I'll let you know if I ever figure it out. Do you know?

The last two days still produced a great bite on small perch but the winds picked up and made fishing, and at times camping, difficult.

Our next stop after returning for Thanksgiving was Newport Beach.

The weather was just unbelievable. Not a breath of wind, small surf, clear water and shorts at sunset--is this November?

I decided that because the tide was so low--check out the crazy roller coaster on my tide chart on www.fishthesurf.com --that I would collect some mussel in Newport for fishing Sunday.

I couldn't resist taking my pole. I did wonder though, if there would be any fish--seeing that all the structure was well out of the water. Well, low and behold on my first six casts six yellowfin croaker in the 12" range in a row!

Spent the next hour catch and releasing as many as I could. At one point they were so balled up outside the surfline that the birds began to crash the schooling yellowfin. Once the sunset came it was time to head home and prepare for fishing Bolsa Chica on Sunday.

Sunday came and it was dark and cold!

I was ready to go well before sunrise and had a great assortment of bait: Lug worms (great bait at Big Fish Tackle in Seal Beach), grubs, mussel and sand crabs from Jalama. I was excited about the huge 7foot high tide and couldn't wait to get down to the beach.

To my surprise the surf was much bigger than the day before--but besides a few sets of waves everything else was perfect for surf fishing. We fished the entire length of Bolsa Chica, moving in the car several times, and found great fishing. We had a great day catching barred perch to 12&1/2", a healthy halibut and a dandy corbina.

All in all, a great week of surf fishing up and down the coast. I hope you take a bit of time yourself to enjoy the surf--the fishing can't get much better!

Be sure to do your Holiday shopping early at my surf fishing store www.fishthesurf.com.

Some items have limited quantities available so shop early before they sell out!

This week we had some great weather at the beach in Orange County but that was little consolation when the fish didn't bite!

A great report of a 15lb halibut being caught in Huntington Beach on a swimbait was the only really good news coming from the surf this week.

Although the water is clear the large surf along with the cooling water has slowed fishing. Look for the surf fishing to improve as the surf size diminishes and the fish begin to settle into the cooler water.

I'm off right now to fish near Pt. Conception in central CA and will report back this week with a catch report and pictures. Until then good luck and let me know what you catch!