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