Rough Surf Ahead: How Long Will It Last?

Southern California is getting pounded by high surf right now and it has been for the past 7-10 days. When this is the case, the fishing can be tough. Just how long will these conditions last, and how fishable are they for the time being? Let’s take a look and go over how to interpret the surf conditions and forecast.

A Little Bit About the Conditions

I get my data from a combination of a few different sources, but Surfline and Magicseaweed are my go-to’s. In my experience, Surfline over-predicts and Magicseaweed under-predicts. Meaning, if Surfline predicts 4-5 footers and Magicseaweed predicts 2-3 footers, I’ll usually expect 3-4 footers. Either way, there have been plenty of instances in which both were way off or vice versa.

The Swells

With relatively larger swells registering at somewhat lengthy swell periods, the surf has been huge lately. If you’re a surfer, good for you, but for us surf fishermen, this isn’t the most pleasant of conditions.

In case you aren’t familiar with swells, swell periods, swell directions, and how they all intertwine to affect surf height, here’s a really informational video that I found helpful: “Understanding Wave Sizes and Surf Reports”.

Given all the forecasts I’ve had access to, it looks like we should expect a mild taper on Thursday (1/14). From then, we can still expect slightly higher surf than desirable with the following Thursday (1/21) being the next glimmer of hope. After (1/21), we’re hoping to see the surf die back down into the 1-2 and 2-3 foot range, but, we all know how unreliable 2-week forecasts can be.

So How Clean is the Surf Right Now?

Although the surf has been up, the individual waves have been pretty clean. By this, I mean that the section of water inside the break (which is what we fish 99% of the time), is relatively calm and fishable at a lot of beaches.

While the length of a swell period doesn’t necessarily dictate the duration between waves crashing, our local beaches right now are sporting some clean and lengthy intervals (given the surf height).

Which Beaches Look Fishable?

With a quick look at the surf at some local beaches, Torrey Pines is offering some of the cleaner more fishable surf. Mission Beach looks really messy, with broken surf, but it still looks better than one might expect with 6-8 foot surf.

Blacks Beach might just be too big all around to fish while Del Mar through Oceanside looks to have a really clean inner break section.

Another intriguing aspect of the surf we’re experiencing right now is the swell direction. Given that the swell is coming out of the WNW right now, Coronado and Silver Strand are positioned perfectly for some diminished surf.

What’s Working Now?

It’s still early January and I’d expect mussel meat on a C-rig to be the most productive option regardless at the moment. Even more so, throwing a lure in high surf can be really tricky. Timing becomes all the more important, and I’d just say it’s best right now to stick with your C-rig, use mussel meat and maybe try Fishbites. Below is an updated copy of the gear and tackle I use. I still use the Pursuit Combo on occasion but unfortunately, they’re tough to come by.

• Rod: Okuma Celilo (8’6″ MA) or the Okuma SST (8’6″ MA)
• Reel: Penn Battle II or III 4000 series
• Mainline: 15-pound monofilament
• For Bait: Carolina Rig:
  • Leader Line: 15-pound fluorocarbon
  • Swivels: 15-19mm barrel swivels
  • Hooks: size #2 or #4 owner mosquito hooks
  • Weights: 1-oz egg weight
  • Beads: 8mm fishing beads
• For Lures: Lucky Craft FM 110 and Shimano WM 115 SP
• Other best surf fishing rods and best surf fishing reels

What to Look Forward to?

One thing I can already see forming when I take a look at some of the surf cams across San Diego is a ton of structure. With such high surf, these large waves will crash into the sand and form “indentations” if you will. This new structure could make for some really great, “fish-holding spots”.

For example, I was able to look at the surf cam for mission beach via surfline.com on Saturday. At a tide of about 0.5 feet, there’s some really good structure right now (at least in front of that cam). Thanks for reading and good luck out there guys!

Show your support and purchase some of SFSC’s newest Gear and Apparel!