Surf Fishing Report March 2025 – Having a Slow Start?

Alright guys! It’s been a bit since I published a surf fishing report so I’m thinking I need to commit to publishing one report every month or two to keep reports in the cycle. In this surf fishing report, I’ll talk about how the fishing has been, what’s being caught right now, general conditions and availability of sand crabs, seaweed, and what to expect going forward.

What’s Being Caught In The Surf Right Now?

It’s been a slow start to the year with the traditionally reliable surfperch bite being rather unreliable this year. In years past, larger spawning females have bit really well on mussel meat, jerkbaits (LC FM 110 and Shimano WM 115) and even on paddle tails and Gulp Sand Worms. This year, the larger surfperch are tough to come by and the overall quantity of catches is down.

One surprise upside to the beginning of the 2025 season is that larger model fish like corbina and croaker are out there and feeding in the shallows. They aren’t here in huge numbers, but I’ve seen more spotfin croaker tailing in the shallows than in either of the last two March’s.

The way a typical light tackle session has gone for me thus far has been pretty slow with lots of perch nibbles and if I stick it out long enough, about 35% of the time, I get lucky and land a nice spotfin croaker or corbina.

I haven’t done much lure fishing lately but from the few sessions I have had and from what I’ve heard, it’s been fairly slow as well.

I’ve only tried sharking once so far this March and it resulted in a small shovelnose guitarfish. Given that very small sample size, sharks haven’t arrived in number yet either.

Some Catches From March 2025

Sand Crab Status

Sand crabs are definitely beginning to roll in as I’ve been able to find enough good-sized sand crabs for the day in a couple sessions this March already. They aren’t reliably here yet, so I’m still bringing mussel meat, clam meat and squid to most sessions. While most are still beds of baby sand crabs, the larger beds are around if you look hard enough.

Conditions Report

While the overall weather this winter was mild, the surf has been rough and the water temps are still cold in the high 50’s. It’s been slim pickings for good conditions to get out there and get on a bite between rough surf and rains in the last two weeks prior to this past. One bright spot in conditions has been seaweed. Obviously the water temps are still cold, so much of the kelp die-off has yet to begin, but waters have been very clean (aside from run-off contamination and the algae bloom coming from up north).

Surf Fishing Forecast: What To Expect Going Forward

As we enter spring and the weather warms up, we should see water temps rise and the bite begin to turn on. A couple things to keep an eye on, however, will be if the seaweed starts to roll in with the warming temps and if we get a bad red tide this spring.

Given the activity level of spotfin croaker I’ve seen thus far, I’ll be looking/hoping for an early start to the spotfin croaker fishing – similar to what we saw in 2021. Spotfin croaker typically show up in numbers in July shortly after corbina do, but we’ve had a couple years where they almost have two minor peaks in their peak season – the first being in April and the second coming later in July. The latter is what I’m expecting this year but it’s more of a hunch than anything.

Statistically, the next fish to begin biting really well will be the yellowfin croaker and the leopard shark. Yellowfin croaker are usually the first summertime species to show up in numbers and their usually one of the most frequently caught fish for most anglers in a given year. Leopard sharks and other shark species usually become productive in San Diego a month or so prior to the light tackle bite really getting hot. So, I’m expecting April and especially May to produce some really good shark fishing.

Keep an eye on the surf report. We’ve had some rough surf the past month or so, but the current two week forecast shows a little bit of easing. It’s not looking great, but it does look much better than the last few weeks so if you’re itching to get out there, some decent opportunities should be out there this next week or two. That said, it feels like we still have at least 2-3 weeks before the fishing gets much better. Between the lack of perch this year and cold water temps, something needs to change for the bite to turn on.

Comment Below

If you have any questions about the bite so far this season or if you’ve experienced a different start to your season or you just want to share something, feel free to drop a comment below!