Shot down to the beach late Friday to catch some bait. The sand had been moved and reshaped by the recent storm and I wasn’t sure what I would find. Looks like everything is still in great shape…

Reached the sand well before sunlight and decided to cover as much of Huntington Beach as possible. Layers of clothes in the morning gave way to stripping down as the sun belted the beach. Wow, it’s warm for December…

My buddy Ken and I took our first shot at fish off the rocks. Tides seemed perfect for this spot but bites were slow with only a few walleye to show for it.

We decided to move up the beach to an open area that always holds fish in the summer. Who knows, maybe we’ll have some luck today. First few casts some nice yellowfin and small perch jump on the hook.

The bite seemed to slow as the high tide approached so it was off to our last spot. When we got there things looked good. There were perch, yellowfin and a nice spotfin couldn’t resist our baits. I’m coming back here soon…

Finally we ran low on bait and it was time to head home and work on our holiday chores. Who knows what the weather and surf have in store for us over the next few days—but one thing’s for sure--fish are spread out and ready to bite!!!

This upcoming week may present some challanges if the surf comes up as expected. Otherwise, with just small changes in the weather we should see some nice tides lead to some even better fishing. I hope everyone has a great holiday with time to enjoy your family and do some much needed surf fishing!!!

http://www.fishthesurf.com/

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After weeks of tortuous seas I’m finally back from my trip down the coast of Baja to the port of La Paz. My ship mates forced me to fish almost every day offshore but I did get two afternoons of surf fishing in along the way. Our first stop was Magdalena Bay.

Inside the point I paddled to shore on the kayak and headed up the point. It was lucky the south swells were down as this beach can have some pounding shore break. I decided to start out with 6lb mono and the lucky craft. In no time I was on to my first fish--one of many 5-8lb yellowtail caught from the surf.

Over the next hour it was a fish almost every cast with needle fish filling in between. Some casts there had as many as 20 needle fish following my bait. Every so often they would be scared away by something huge and new fish would jump on my line.

That evening we set again to the open ocean and made our way down to San Jose Del Cabo. As we waited for the mechanics to fix our motor I had a chance to fish this beach near the harbor.

As the sun began to go down the bite picked up. Here I decided to use heavier line and a bit larger spinning reel. Casting the 3/4th ounce mackerel kroc rewarded me with some quality fish including this 15lb rooster.

Other fish keep jumping on until dark.

Once I get the pictures and video organized I will post a report of our entire trip. Thanks to the folks who gave tips and words of encouragement!

This week, and going through the weekend, we have some great tides for both fishing in the morning (at high tide) and collecting bait at low tide in the afternoon. Now that the surf has subsided the water will become cleaner and the fish should return to their structure areas.

I'll be out in the local waters later this week and will post a new report with whatever I find--until then tight lines and good fishing...

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Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

Cruised down to my mud hole and picked up some bait for fishin.’

Had a jolly time reporting poachers fishing inside a closed area—and I hope this works to finally rid OC of the kind of people who took more than 1,000 ghost shrimp to sell to the market. The place I once collected them has been completely decimated and now they have moved on to fishing inside a closed area with snagging rigs. It’s nice to know that they now will become the victim of a dragnet that includes state police, fish and game and regional biologists. Adios amigos!!

The clam and ghost shrimp seemed to work best this week with a nice bite on perch, yellowfin croaker and a lonely corbina.

Fished the Carolina rig with great luck under some super high tides and pea soup fog. I don’t know where the spotfin were this week—but they’ll be back—and I’ll be waiting!!

Took a few minutes to fish the BC inlet, and although fishing was slow, there were thousands of smelt. One was almost 24” long! If you’re looking to find halibut I’d try the LC and Rapalla there first as the butts are sure to be underneath looking for food.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend--posting some good reports to keep us stoked about the fishing… Thanks to everyone who gave me some good tips on fishing my way down Baja. Just a few days left before we leave. I can’t wait!!!

Great tides again throughout next week--and really, this whole month. Grubs and natural baits are working great right now. Look for sidewinder crabs to be the bait of choice in December or whenever the water finally cools. I've seen large schools of spawning smelt so I've got to believe halibut fishing must be great. Take a trip down to the beach with the rapalla or lucky craft and track them butts down--it's sure to be fun!!

When my son came home from surf practice and told me that a girl on his surf team had cut her face on the bottom I wasn’t surprised—you know that happens with surfing. But when he told me she cut it on clams a light went off in my head. After dropping him off at school, I went down to the beach and noticed that millions of tiny clams were everywhere.

I pride myself with being a somewhat quick learner so I went down and collected some littleneck clams for bait.

The surf has been up, and eventhough there were some breaks between sets, a few double overhead waves still crashed to shore

I slipped on the clam. Took my first cast and I was on. I don’t think my bail was over before this yellowfin jumped on.

Here’s a couple more. I tried other baits: sand crabs, crack and even a sidewinder crab with no bites. It was all on the clam and for this farmer (lost a few there) almost wide open.

In between yellowfin were a few monster hits and a couple nice spotfin in the 20” range.

Let’s hope the big surf doesn’t last too long and that I can find a few more clams to feed the fish.

This upcoming (Holoween) week has some great tides that will begin to develop in the middle of the week and last into the first week of November. If you can find sand crabs try them, maybe for the last time this season. Still a few nice corbina out there with the spotfin bite getting better every day on the clam.

I can't wait to take another shot at the beach next week--until then good surf fishing!!

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

After being away from the beach in the backwoods of Colorado, I was really jones’n to get on down to the beach and do some surf fishing. The weather was beautiful with a bit of fog and no wind. Small surf and just a few surfers awaited me.

I had made bait the day before and had a nice selection of ghost shrimp, littleneck clams and mussel.

The surf was small so I downsized to a 1/2oz slider on my Carolina rig and pitched a shrimp into the surf. In no time I was on with this nice perch--One of several who couldn’t seem to resist the ghost shrimp.

Between a few shovelnose sharks I landed a couple small leopard sharks. I love these small guys because they always seem to jump once or twice during the fight.

Some time passed between the action and I’m always reminded to be patient and wait for the bite. This time I got slammed hard and I knew I was on to a nice fish. It’s good to see that there’s a few corbina left now that summer’s over.

The water is still warm locally with a slight south swell still pushing clean warm water up the coast. It's hard to know what will happen this week with the coming storms. If we don't have a total blow out we may have some great fishing because of next week's great tides.

Now's the time to get down there and catch the last sand crabs and corbina before winter sets in. I'll be looking for them all next week and hope to see you down there too!!

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

Hot weather sent me to the beach on Wed to pick up some bait and get ready for a bit of surf fishing on Thursday. It has been a bit harder to slurp ghost shrimp from my favorite spot ever since I saw the two groups of guys one day with over 200 shrimp each. I know they can’t be using them for bait so they must be selling them. What a real shame it is for people like this to deplete the resource for their own gain. The amount I saw in one day would equal all I might take in 2 years—shame on you poachers!

The weather was a bit overcast in the morning with a bit of wind but in no time the sun came out and it was a beautiful day at the beach.

Fishing has been slower this summer than any summer I can remember—and I’m not sure exactly why but it must be the big water temp changes we have seen with water going from the 60’s to the 70’s to the 60’s back to the 70’s. Started out at one spot that’s been producing at the right tide and had a bit of luck on some nice perch using the shrimp and Carolina rig.

When the people factor grew it was time to leave and try another spot that’s always been good on a rising high tide. Had a nice pick of yellowfin croaker and a few aquarium size leopard sharks. Before long it was time to go home and get ready for an offshore trip.

Took my BayRunner out of Mission Bay and headed south to the 425—found good fishing for 3 yellowfin, 3 dorado and one yellowtail. Always glad to be back on dry land--so after cleaning fish this weekend it’s back to the surf on Monday…

We have closed the registration for the Sept. 19th on the beach surf seminar. I'm working on another date in early October so stay tuned to http://www.fishthesurf.com/ 's front page. Look forward to seeing everyone this weekend!!!

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Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

After spending a few hours catching bait we decided to pack the car and go for a road trip to camp and surf fish at Carlsbad State Beach. The conditions were a bit overcast with the sun poking out when we arrived. After wrestling with the tent we hiked down to the beach to fish.

I had brought along an assortment of bait including ghost shrimp, clams, mussel, sand crabs and grubs—I was loaded with bait and not to be denied!!

The long steps to the beach were fine and gave a beautiful view to the lay of the land. I hoped for some good fishing and knew that a good day in the surf would take the sting away from the climb back up hill

I sent baits here and there with just a few small bites. After sliding on a ghost shrimp I sent it out to sea and waited. In no time I was rewarded with a nice yellowfin croaker. It was nothing big but gave me hope for more.

Over the next two days I had good luck with many barred perch but none were too big. Although I looked, I didn’t see even one corbina sliding the beach. No sharks, rays or other fish what-so-ever.

In mid day I took it upon myself to dive the area and see if I could find fish and structure. Over the years I’ve enjoyed doing this so I get a better “lay of the land” and find the best places to cast from the fish’s perspective. I covered a large area—out to about 30 feet and up the coast ½ mile. To my amazement I didn’t see any fish.

In the surf line or beyond I did find some great rock and sand stone structure that usually holds fish between it’s rocks or under the eel grass. But it wasn’t until returning inside the surf line that I found my first fish. A large school of 200 walleye with all but two 10 inchers. The others must have been mom and dad—with dad about 15 inches and always keeping a BIG eye on me.

Carlsbad is a great place to camp and fish especially if you like doing the stair master to heaven!!

This upcoming week has some great morning and evening tides ( If you've noticed we have good tides about every two weeks). With nice highs and lows we should have both good bait collecting and fishing.

I look forward to seeing every0ne at this weeks upcoming on-the-beach seminar. If you couldn't attend check out my website for the next seminar--it's free and I guarantee you will learn something!!

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit