Good Friday brought great weather and calm seas back to the Orange County beaches.

After what seemed like forever, we finally have calm winds and warm days at the beach. Just two weeks ago I found this year's first sand crab. So today, I decided to go down to the beach at high tide and try to find more.

I first noticed the water had turned over and was cloudy and green. The strong winds that have blown over the last couple of weeks have really churned things up and cooled down the water. Crabs were hard to come by even using the sand rake, but I did get ten of all different sizes and one nice soft shell.

This weekend promises some very warm weather and calm sea conditions. I think in the next two weeks we are really going to find some good fishing and many more crabs who have made it back up to the surface after their winter hibernation.

After spending forty-five minutes catching bait--let's see that's about a crab every 4.5minutes (not very good!)--I moved up the beach and found an area where rocks meet sand and did a bit of fishin'. I used both sand crabs and sidewinders and caught a couple of nice fish.

A nice walleye perch

Conditions were still not exactly right. Without question the water has to clear up a bit and settle before we're back to the great fishing we had before all these storms.

This weekend through next Wednesday gives the promise of some great surf fishing. We have some beautiful morning high tides and some deep afternoon low tides. Next weekend we'll see some very flat tides--tides that always send me to the jetties--especially when the waves are small and I can get a good shot at the perch and croaker who live in the rocks.

A forktail barred surf perch

Don't forget about my upcoming "Introduction to Light-Line Surf Fishing" seminar at Sav-On Tackle in Santa Fe Springs on April 10th at 6:30pm. Space is limited so please call the store (562) 864-2911 or drop us an email to: fishthesurf@mail.com . Let us know your name and how many guests you'll be bringing with you.

I'll be discussing what equipment to use, how to rig for fishing the surf, baits and how to find fish on the beach--and the best part is that it's FREE!

See you there!