After slurping up my quota of ghost shrimp, I went home to play with my little “Marineland memorial” and season the bait for a few days before fishing. The next night I went down at a great high tide to collect crabs and they were there in big quantity.

The surf had been growing this week from the Southwest and a strong uphill current was going to make fishing a bit tough. I switched to a 1oz egg sinker--but it still wasn’t quite enough.

Each cast the rig seemed follow the flow into the current, begin to pull out to sea and get bit. Had a nice bite on barred and walleye perch, leopard sharks and a single corbina.

After bringing the perfect aquarium sized leopard to the beach I noticed this little guy stuck on his head. He had quite a tail on him. Dr. Love’s book Fishes of the Pacific Coast seems to think it may be a copepod. What would be your guess? Just glad it’s not on me!!

Took a second to pull the little bastard off with my forceps and sent him on his way.

This upcoming week has some weak morning tides but much better tides in the evening that will be good for both bait collecting (especially sand crabs) and fishing. The water temp is up about 5 degrees in one week so once the surf calms down we’ll be back in business!!

Looking out a bit farther, the following week has some unbelievable tides that will provide good water movement for both fishing and finding every kind of bait.

Keep your eye on www.fishthesurf.com as I will be putting up the seminar schedule that includes on-the-sand seminars at both Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach and Crystal Cove State Beach.

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

Good tides made it easy to find bait this week and it only took a short time to put together a bunch of crabs, ghost shrimp and razor clams.

I reached the beach at sunrise to find fog, wind and the bucket brigade. The meat fishermen were in my usual spot so I moseyed down the beach and took my place at a new spot. This is where I have many time found sand crabs so I knew the fish probably liked this area too.

By the time I took my first cast my buddy KV was already on…

My first bait was snapped up immediately and another corbina rolled up the beach…


Fishing the clam was an instant slam on the perch…


Time and time again we were both on fish--getting bit on every bait….

To keep things interesting we had a mix of perch, shovelnose, leopard and smooth hound sharks. The corbina are small and up in big numbers now--just like you would see in early June. Once again, it seems we are late this year with everything..

As the beach became more crowded with early July 4 revelers we decided to pack it up and make our way home—but not before seeing the bait boat set up just outside the surf line and pull in a net full of chovey. Can you say halibut? With the amount of birds crashing bait along the central OC coast there's no doubt why fishing for flatties has been so good. Maybe there’s a Lucky Craft in my future????

Starting on Sunday we have some great morning and evening – low to high tide periods which will make for some great corbina fishing. The high evening tides will also provide some good sand crab collecting and perch fishing. Hopefully, the West winds will finally abate and be replaced by the gentle Southwest mornings we are familiar with here in Southern California.

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit