Surf fishing does not get any better than this...

Just like a broken record: Surf fishing has not been this good in a very, very long time. If you are at all thinking of going to the beach or to fish in the bay—NOW is the time.


This week, again, was phenomenal. Fishing both the bay and the beach were very good. My first step was to collect some ghost shrimp and head down to the bay. With such a calm, quiet place it seemed nothing could be living there.

First cast yellowfin croaker

Then Mark hooks into this corbina

Followed by a spotfin

Followed by Behdad’s corbina

In a matter of two days we racked up 16 corbina, 11 spotfin and countless yellowfin croaker and turbot. Amazing fishing in the bays. Doesn’t matter if you are in San Diego, Newport Harbor, Long Beach or Pedro. Just amazingly good.

But that’s just the half of it. The water temp at Orange County beaches is now 66 degrees. That’s warm for this time of year—a good 2-4 degrees warmer. The last time this happened we had 70 degree water in the first of June and corbina fishing was so good they actually had to make it illegal for a few weeks! Just kidding…

Here’s my suggestion for this weekend and upcoming week. 1. Go fishing. 2. Look for fish at both the beach and in the bays. When fishing the bays the best time to fish is on the low tide going to a high tide. As with the beach there needs to be water movement so if you are there at slack tide it might be better to collect bait then and wait for the tidal change. For beach fishing try two hours before high tide to about two hours after. Corbina prefer a medium tide going to a high tide so plan your visits to the beach around those times. 3. For bait, ghost shrimp are great in the bay and both shrimp and sand crabs (especially sand crabs) are your best bet at the beach. 4. One last thing, fish both areas on the Carolina rig with a number 2 or 4 hook. For the bay use a very light 1/4th oz sliding sinker and use a ¾ oz at the beach.

Good luck out there and send me a fish report with a few pics. Would love to have you on our site or in Western Outdoor News. So get out there! You’re just wasting time here!

Bill

WWW.FISHTHESURF.COM

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit

Surf fishing this last week was nothing less than excellent. Sand crabs are everywhere along the coast and have really ignited the bite. Over the winter we had fantastic (which seems an understatement) surfperch fishing. Some of the biggest perch ever caught seemed everywhere from Ventura to Orange County. Now the yellowfin and spotfin croaker have filled in from Long Beach to Newport and the bite is on!


Smaller surf this week made for some great conditions. I first started by going down to my favorite mud hole and picked up some ghost shrimp. The next morning I put my crab rake in the car and headed down to the beach.

Sand crabs were everywhere and in all sizes and hardness. Tons of bait in two minutes and it’s off to fishing.

First bait, a nice perch

Next a very hard hitting yellowfin. You always know when this fish is biting. There is no fooling around with a yellowfin—it’s bite, not nibble and run, run , run

I had one very soft sand crab left before I had to go. I threw it out and had a few small perch nibbles before it was reeled to shore. I took a quick look at my bait and it was somewhat still intact so I sent it back out. Within a minute my rod loads up, I set the hook and the fight is on.

I can tell this is nice fish--as it take me up and down the beach then slides to shore—a hefty spotfin. I had to sit down and put it on my knee to get far enough away to get a picture. Probably about 6lbs

This next week has some marginal tides but will no doubt produce good fishing. Both beach and bay fishing is red hot now and with several grunion runs coming up in the next two weeks (it's a no take grunion period now), I can only guess that halibut fishing will remain great or even get better—can that be possible? Wow YES, it’s been that good!

Thanks to everyone, and especially Bill and Ken for helping at the Crystal Cove seminar this weekend. What a perfect venue, beautiful day and fantastic fishing. We used sand crabs, ghost shrimp and lug worms to catch surfperch, leopard sharks and corbina. I didn’t have a fish count but I would guess that about 200 perch and a handful of corbina and leopard sharks were caught and all released.

Thanks everyone for coming. We’ll see you next month at Bolsa Chica—which should be (I’m going to say will be) on FIRE!

Bill

www.fishthesurf.com

Home of the All-in-One Surf Tackle Kit