Discovering the Surf: From Childhood to Now

Back before I knew about surf fishing, my mom would take my brothers and me to La Jolla every Wednesday. We’d pack a lunch or plan to make a stop at Subway before meeting a couple families from our school around 9:30 am. Beach days were my favorite part of summertime, and that wasn’t going to change… ever. Every Wednesday for as long as I can remember we did this. Looking back, it’s funny how I had no idea about this other world at the beach. If you asked me back then what came to mind when I thought of the beach, I’d tell you, “Boogie boarding, body surfing and a field to play whiffle ball.”

Little by little, unknowingly, I was honing and crafting my skills to become the surf fisherman I am today. Activities that nearly every kid partook in while enjoying a day at the beach, for me, became a head start into the world of surf fishing. Playing in the sand, making an entrance into the water while watching for stingrays, getting yelled at by the lifeguards because I was in a “rip current”… whatever that was, and looking back to the sand for my mom’s umbrella with the funky pattern on it as the ocean swept us from one side of the beach to another. Without the slightest clue at the time, these memories would lead to the classic “aha!” moments as I progressed in learning the art of surf fishing.

Playing In The Sand – Finding Sand Crabs

Whether we were building a sandcastle, digging a tunnel, or making a seagull trap (that’s a story for another time… then again, maybe not), we were smart enough to understand we needed wet sand for some architectural aspects of our designs. It was only a matter of time before I discovered sand crabs. It only took a few weeks to learn what to look for, which indentations correlated with bigger crabs versus small crabs, and that they made great additions to the pond/moat around our sandcastles. The subtleties like finding soft-shelled crabs, the seasonality of them and the fact that fish actually ate these things were not made aware to me until later, but it was only a matter of time and exposure.

Shuffle your feet” – Sight Casting… and The Sting Ray Shuffle

It’s always astonishing watching swimmers and surfers sprint from the sand into the water having zero awareness of where they’re placing each step. Looking back, I can’t say I didn’t do the same exact thing a few times as a kid, but it didn’t take long for me to be more careful. Luckily, I never had to learn the hard way, but I’ve come close for sure. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve been fishing, standing in ankle-deep water, watching dozens of rays swimming around me. It’s definitely eye-opening, but at the same time, very rarely do I see anyone get stung. One day, I saw what had to be hundreds of stingrays swimming in ankle-deep water! If you watch the linked video (2:47 – 3:02), you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Nonetheless, during these beach days, my mother would always warn us to do the Stingray Shuffle as we entered the water to make sure we didn’t step on a sting ray and get stung. Occasionally, as I entered the water, I’d be shuffling my feet and looking down and if I was lucky, I’d see some good-sized fish scurry off. The times where I didn’t spook them, I noticed that they appeared ghost-like and somewhat translucent in the water. Some of them even looked to be close to 30-inches long.

Sight Fishing… By Hand

As I became more familiar with seeing these fish, whether I was walking in the shallows or riding a wave and watching the water from my Boogie board, I’d try to chase them and catch them with my hands. While trying to catch these fish, I learned a couple things. One, it probably wasn’t worth it trying to grab them (although I did touch a couple of them). And two, the further away I was when I spotted them, the less likely they were to scurry off. This would allow me to get into closer before making a move.

Later on in my life, I realized there was a much more productive way of catching these majestic fish. I’d fished before and loved fishing, but for some reason, I never thought of fishing at the beach. Too many people and way too much

“Attention swimmers, please exit the water… you’re in a rip current”

As a surf fisherman, it’s pretty easy to become frustrated with swimmers and surfers. And to be fair, surfers should have a little more awareness than swimmers. Growing up swimming in La Jolla, I never had to be aware of fisherman so I can’t say I was aware enough to stay out of their way or not, but I’d like to think I would have been. At the very least, I wouldn’t have entered the water on one side of a fisherman and walked diagonally across his/her line pretending that I didn’t see him/her. However, I did get swept away with the current just about every time I went out swimming as a kid. And I was certainly guilty of not having realized how far I had drifted before looking back to spot our umbrella again.

Although I didn’t formulate the greatest awareness and ability to spot rips back then, I did learn one thing. If lifeguards were kicking swimmers out of the water, it likely meant there was a rip there. To this day, if a lifeguard strolls by and kicks swimmers out of the water, I’ll usually try the spot. It’s a free spot that won’t have swimmers in my way and it’ll likely have some sort of structure.

Putting It All Together

Bottom line, going to the beach as a kid helped me to understand a lot about surf fishing before I even knew about surf fishing. Everything I picked up was very rough knowledge that would need to be fine-tuned later down the road and there were and still are a number of things that would have to be learned through experience and time. The first step of that much needed experience and time on the sand would come in the form of a buddy of mine in the summer of 2014.

Summer of 2014

A couple of days earlier, I was at the beach on our typical Wednesday beach day. My brother wasn’t with us though. He was planning to show up later that afternoon. Apparently, he was out fishing with a friend of his. Later, I’d learn that they’d gone surf fishing… without me!

When my brother met back up with us, he pulled me aside eagerly wanting to show off his catch. As he popped open the cooler, he reveals two nice corbina laying on ice! They didn’t look anything like the “ghostly” fish swimming around in the shallows. I guess they look a little different when they’re out of the water… and dead. A few days later, I heard they were headed out again, so I tagged along for the day.

Greg #1 and Greg #2

At the time, my brother, Greg and his buddy, Greg worked together at the local YMCA near my house. We met there, piled into the car and headed to the beach. It’s worth pausing here and making a note. Between Greg (my brother) and Greg (his buddy), they’d had an ongoing battle of who was to be called “Greg #1” and who was to be called “Greg #2”. For the sake of the story, we’ll call the buddy Greg #1 and my brother Greg #2. To this day, I spend more time on the sand with Greg #1 anyways, so it’s fitting in my mind.

But back to the story, I had no idea what beach we were going to, no idea what to expect, and no idea what I was doing. Like I mentioned earlier, I’d fished before, but never in the surf and maybe once in a river. Either way, I wasn’t the most experienced fisherman at the time. As for the gear that I brought, I had a 6-foot Ugly Stick, spooled with something like 6 or 8-pond test.

Going in Blind

Upon arrival, we unpacked our gear and made our way toward the sand. It was then that I noticed the rod that Greg #1 had brought along with him. Not the 7-footer that looked just a little bigger than my 6-foot trout set-up, but the 13-footer that was broken down into four pieces! I didn’t know Greg #1 very well at the time, so I don’t think I asked what he was planning on targeting, but later that day I’d find out… partially.

The movement of the water in the surf was something else. I was speculative as ever and I definitely lacked confidence. I don’t think I was ever frustrated, but if I hadn’t caught a fish nor had our buddy reeled in his final catch of the day, I don’t know if I would have kept at it all these years later.

One of them set my rod up with a Carolina rig while I took the liberty of gathering sand crabs. I knew how to do that part at least! Years of practice even though I was only 15 or 16 at the time. A couple hours in and both Gregs had already caught a couple fish. Being slightly embarrassed that I hadn’t caught anything yet, I didn’t pay much attention to what their catches were. After all, they looked pretty small from my angle.

The First of Thousands to Come

I stood there as the current pulled my line left. I felt all sorts of things on my line but I couldn’t make out exactly what I was feeling. A tug here, a pull there, lots of slack all the time. I felt a couple taps that seemed different, but nothing happened after that. I left my line out after those initial taps and I kept waiting. The so-called “taps” continued maybe three more times before I decided to reel in and recast. Halfway through my retrieve, it became apparent that maybe I did have a fish on. It’s hard to believe, but that little barred surfperch was my first fish of thousands to come.

Whether I got any more fish that day, I honesltly forget because later on, Greg #1 would hook something that made me come back the very next day. I was up on the sand grabbing a bite to eat while Greg #1 soaked cut bait on the long rod. I looked over to see him fighting something big enough to make that 13-footer bend pretty hard.

The Beauty of the Unknown

He didn’t have to land it for me to know that I was hooked for life. After watching how hard it fought, I knew I needed this in my life. Nonetheless, he landed it to reveal a 4-foot guitarfish to which my jaw dropped. From that day forward, the surf has meant so much more to me than I can explain. I’d later learn during another light tackle session (fishing with sand crabs) that sharks were a possible catch too. Day after day, year after year and the surf is still full of surprises. A few lucky surprises that I’ve been a part of include my 28-inch corbina, a 31.5-inch halibut, a leopard sahrk on sand crabs, a 23-inch corvina, a lobster on hook-and-line, a 58-inch bat ray… and let’s not forget the 57-inch, 53.5-pound yellowtail from the surf! You literally never know what you’re going to come across.

One of the beauties of life is that no one ever truly knows everything about anything. It’s frustrating for many people, and some areas of life still frustrate me for that same reason. But with the surf it was different. I came to an early realization and deep understanding that I didn’t want to know everything about it. I couldn’t be more content knowing that no matter how many times I’ve fished a spot, no matter how many fish I’ve caught, I truly never know what might be on my line next.

Surf Fishing Report and Forecast (6/20)

This past week was fairly slow all week. The corbina bite has continued to pick up little-by-little though which is nice to see. For this deep into June, I was hoping to see a better bite, but maybe next week is when it’ll really make that leap. The spotfin are still biting for sure and man, are they fun! Kelp has been a big story this past week as it took over a lot of the central San Diego beaches. The surf sat down nicely for the first time in a while and hopefully that continues as the kelp dissipates.

Sharks are out there in good numbers right now but the overall concentration of leopards (in terms of the bite for me) has been very low from years past. Just the other day, we landed one leopard (50″), while we lost 3 soupfin. Soupfin fight much more aggressively and they can be tough to manage… especially at night.

Most predictions point to little change in the surf conditions. If anything, expect slightly calmer surf toward the middle and late part of this week. Water temp is sitting right where we want it at 66-67 degrees and it should continue up into the 70’s sometime in mid July. It’s possible that while 66-67 degrees is usually a solid temp for the summertime bite, that maybe we need it to edge past the 67-68 mark for things to really heat up. That’s my best guess at the moment for the slightly slow bite right now.