This week's weather roller coaster at the beach started with warm weather that cooled to strong west winds followed by warm weather followed by a cool coastal eddy for the weekend.

Water that almost reached 60degrees last week rolled over by the wind and cooled to 57degrees by mid week. Yet even though the water was a bit discolored and quite a bit cooler the fishing was still good and promising to be great once warm water settles in. Small surf this week and next should help to make this happen

Some good news is that the coastal eddy that's happening today (sat.) will bring a southwest wind that will push warmer water up from the south and get us one step closer to a full-on spring bite.

Sand crabs still remain plentiful in areas where the sand is soft and free of pebbles and broken shells. Although we fished exclusively with crabs this week (because they're free, of course) that doesn't mean that other baits like grubs, mussel, worms, rock crabs etc. wouldn't work great. Last week a nice 8lb spotfin croaker was caught in Newport Beach on a inn keeper worm--It's the worm that protects beds of blood worms.

Fishing both the evening and morning high tides offered opposing results.

Think about it... We have had clear nights this week, the moon is almost full and we have both a morning and evening high tide. What does that mean? Well in surf fishing that means that the fish will be feeding at night (as we learned by catching some nice perch after dark) and most importantly, that fish will be feeding in the afternoon on the upcoming high tide. Why? Because when fish can see from the moon at night, (they can see a small shadow cast from their food caused by the moon) this makes food easy to catch---So fish will then wait until the next afternoon high tide to eat again.

With that said, evening fishing was great on the sand crab with a good bite on yellowfin croaker, barred perch and walleye.

For the beginning of next week we have some decent morning and evening high tides giving way to a smaller period of tide swings all the way through next weekend. I would fish this weekend and early next week on the beach and work next weekend toward jetties and rock structure, provided the swell stays small. This is where you can make use of the small tide changes to find some rock holes that are holding fish.

Thanks again to all the folks who came to my recent seminar at Sav-on Tackle. Let me know if you have a favorite tackle shop or fishing club where you'd like to have a light-line seminar.

See you at the beach,

Bill

www.fishthesurf.com

This week's beach weather ranged from sunny and calm to windy and rough.

And although we had some wind and waves the sea temps continue to rise and good fishing is even going to get better.

It's easier everyday to find areas of crabs. Your best time for collecting is during high tide and its important to look for areas of soft sand with no shells or rocks. Dig here at high tide from the top of where the wave ends to about knee deep and you'll find crabs. It's good to keep them in a plastic container with a small piece of kelp on top of them. Be sure not to keep them in water or the fridge as they will die. Crabs will last about 3 days in your garage at 60degrees.

Had the pleasure of fishing with Team 57 on Sunday. I pre-fished all of central Orange County on Sat--and after battling the wind and fog found a good bite on perch and a 16" corbina. Sand crabs on the carolina rig were working best that trip.

Sunday we met and had a great time catching walleye, barred and buttermouth perch. The conditions were great in the early morning but the fish were lip-locked. By 11am the bite went wide open as the high tide was over and water began moving offshore.

All of our fish were caught on the carolina rig. We used mussel, sand crabs, lug worms and grubs for bait. Had to leave around 12:30 with fish still biting full speed. Thanks Team 57 for a great time!

THIS UPCOMING WEEK OF SURF FISHING

Well, this weekend is going to give us some ok tides but some great weather for fishing and for helping the water to warm up. The swell is small (check it out at: www.fishthesurf.com and click on live cams) and the winds will be light so this will help the water to warm and clear up.

We have some great tides coming up later this week and into next weekend. A good time to fish for corbina and croaker will be as the high tide is coming up--And a good time to fish for perch is as the tide is dropping away from high.

Thanks to all the folks who came to my "Introduction to light-line surf fishing" seminar at Savon Tackle in Santa Fe Springs.

Do you have a favorite Tackle Shop or Fishing Club you'd like me to speak at? Let me know...

fishthesurf@mail.com