Surf Fishing the Summertime Bite

I want to point out that this will be a fairly quick post directed towards this past week of fishing as well as the upcoming forecast. While the post itself will be short, I’m going to drop this link to my page on the California Corbina. If you have yet to read this page, I strongly encourage you to. Even if you just give it a quick glance, TAKE A LOOK AT THE CHARTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

I’m sure many of you are seasoned anglers who know when the bites improve per species in terms of seasons, but these charts illustrate personally collected data from the last two years. While it is just a small sample size of only my catches… I do fish a lot.

Now, I’m a big believer that each summer brings about a different story when it comes to the surf. Last year, corbina were everywhere! So were guitars. This summer, we’ve had an unusually large number of spotfin croaker. But, if the last two years are a mirror in any way of this season, this next week will push us into the peak of corbina fishing.

So, I highly recommend reading that page on the California Corbina. But, before (or after) you do that, here’s my highlight from last week and my forecast for the next.

Sharks In So Cal

Towards the beginning of last week, I made it out for an evening session. I fished an outgoing tide with my usual fishing buddy (Kyle) and it was a fairly memorable evening.

As we arrived, the light tackle bite was pretty much dead. Luckily, we had some bait from our last session. So, I rigged up my shark set-up and threw on some chunk-bait. While my bait was soaking, I set up my light-tackle rod and began searching for sand crabs. Just as I got my second scoop, I turned back to check my rod to see it in an awesome full-bend! Standing next to my rod was Kyle… completely oblivious to the fact that my rod was sporadically bent over.

Oh, I was also fishing with my girlfriend’s uncle so as soon as I ran to my rod and made sure the shark was on and the hook was set, I handed the rod over. Fighting big sharks never gets old, but a first shark for anyone is tough to top, so I felt it was necessary. Maybe 10 minutes later, Faustino beached his first big Leopard. Of course it ended up being a whopping 59″ female! But… I think I had some good karma headed my way.

Feel Good Finish

For the next 4 hours, the bite for light tackle was tough. To be honest, I only got about an hour of light tackle fishing in, but it was still pretty tough. I think Kyle ended up catching some 6 or 7 fish on the light set up, but bottom line, it was slow. What wasn’t slow was the shark fishing. by 8:30 pm, we had racked up a total of 7 leopard sharks! That’s an awesome day by all means, but you had to be there to truly understand how weird and slow of a bite it was for light tackle.

So, we decided to wrap it up right around 8:25 pm. As we were cleaning up and de-rigging our set-ups, Kyle’s rod started to tip. Little-by-little at first and then it finally went full bend. After a decent fight, we realized something weird about the fish. No, it wasn’t any sort of rare species. It was a leopard shark, but it looked as if it were tagged… but not in the correct place. There was algae growing on it, so it’d been there for quite some time already. I took a closer look (as I had the chore of beaching Kyle’s shark) and realized what it was.

My heart sank as it became clear. It was a fishing line; wrapped around the girth of the shark with only the knot exposed. Nearly the entire line was overgrown and buried beneath the skin of the shark. Luckily, my pliers did the job and we were able to remove all the fishing line so the shark could go about healing itself properly.

Whomever’s fault it may have been, in some cases, sometimes there’s no preventing such occasions. To be honest, I’m not too sure how it would have even happened. Regardless, do your best to use proper gear and techniques to avoid situations that may result as such. And, if you’re presented with the opportunity we were presented with, I urge you to take action. These sharks are beautiful creatures that play a huge role in the ecosystem here in So Cal.

• Rod: Fiblink Moonsniper (12 or 13 feet)
• Reel: Penn Battle 6000 or 8000 (II or III)
• Mainline: 50-pound braid
• Top shot: 100-pound nylon coated mono
• Shark Rig: (Buy Here)
  • Wire: AFW 90 lb Nylon Coated Wire Leader Line
  • Hooks: 7/0 Circles
  • Swivel: 3-Way Barrel Swivel
  • Crimps: AFW #6 Crimps
  • Weight: 8-ounce pyramid or 6-ounce sputnik

It’s About Time I had Some Soup

As if that wasn’t an unforgettable and humbling finish to an awesome day, this happened. As we had begun to walk back to our gear, my rod tips. No, it just about topples over! I sprint over and slide it out of its holder.

It took maybe 7 or 8 seconds for me to get to my rod. All the while, in complete full bend. After picking up my rod, line continues to scream off the reel for the next 8 seconds. That makes for more than 15 seconds of an enormous run. My line capacity was down to about 25%! This is somewhat typical of a big bat ray, but this was no bat ray. I felt head shakes immediately. As the initial run slowed, I leaned into it and made sure the hook was set nicely. As I did so, the fight nearly died. I could still feel some weight, but this felt weird.

By now, I’m thinking Soupfin all the way. This was nearly identical to my first ever Soupfin fight. Strong initial run, a swim toward the shore, and then another crazy run and possibly some surface breaking jumps. It was dark out, so I don’t know if she went airborne, but sure enough, just as I get back to about 2/3 capacity on my reel, that run hits! From 2/3 capacity down to 1/3 in only 7 or 8 seconds. For reference, that’s between 80 and 100 yards of line.

After working her back to the shore, Kyle wades out to begin the beaching process. As I get my first glimpse, I see what appears to be a much larger and more pointed dorsal fin as well as a pectoral fin than you’d typically see on a leopard. I yell out, “Is that a Soup?”, I hear no response, but I see Kyle jumping up and down excitedly. That was all the confirmation I needed.

At 68.5″ she wasn’t my biggest Soupfin, but I waited quite some time this season for my first Soupfin. With over 30 Leopard Sharks in between this and the last for me, she was a beauty.

Surf Fishing Forecast

If you enjoyed the content thus far, be sure to enter your email address in the box below and hit subscribe. Read below for the forecast.

This upcoming week, is predicted to be an awesome week in terms of conditions. The swells will remain minimal and the sun will be out all week long. Along with that, we are in the midst of a grunion run with tonight being day 2 of the run.

If you have the time, I’d recommend fishing the run either tomorrow night or the next night. All in all, the fishing should be peak season right now for most So Cal surf species. Expect to catch lots and lots of fish!