Tough Week of Surf Fishing… What Lies Ahead?
The bite can’t be fantastic all the time guys. If that were the case, would a good bite even be “good”? The same goes for happiness. Anyways, today, I want to talk about the productivity in the overall bite as September rolls around. I’ll go over what this past week was like for me and compare it to this time of year in the last three seasons.
Surf Fishing Report 9/5
This past week of surf fishing was one of the slower weeks I’ve had this summer season. I hit four different beaches and two were very slow while the other two were mildly productive. The southernmost beach I tried had heavy seaweed problems which resulted in nearly unfishable conditions.
I fished a combination of rising tides, falling tides, and extremely slack tides. The tides didn’t seem to make a huge difference, but it appears that rising tides were better. I will say, the most successful session of the week was on a rising tide that peaked just before 7 pm as we finished off with a little bit of a sunset bite.
Gear and Tackle I Use:
- 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
Tuesday Morning
I got a quick hour and a half in with a friend and tested the waters. The session slot was from 9:30 am to 11:00 am and the tides were as follows: (3.4ft at 8:04 am) (3.3ft at 10:27 am) (4.7ft at 5:02 pm). The majority of the session was during a slack tidal set that was barely falling. The results were a nice spotfin croaker and a yellowfin croaker but still relatively slow. I liked the way the structure looked, but the bite just wasn’t really there.
Wednesday
Wednesday morning was another frustrating session as conditions were decent but the bite was non-existent. We fished from 7 am-11 am and the tidal sets were as follows: (0.8ft at 1:03 am) (3.6ft at 8:17 am) (3.1ft at 12:02 pm) (5ft at 6:05 pm). The result of the session: 0 fish. Conditions were overall good. The one thing that didn’t look good was the lack of significant structure. Did a lot of wandering in search of solid structure but didn’t find any.
Luckily, my day wasn’t over. I took a break and made it back out for a quick early-evening session. We got a nice croaker and guitar in a matter of about 45 minutes. The tide was now rising to 5-feet at 6:05 pm. Although I didn’t stay through the high, the bite was good as I missed a couple and the structure was very prominent. The best way I can describe it is that it had that good, low surf, high tide look to it and there were some nice troughs.
Thursday
Thursday morning was absolute garbage as the seaweed overtook my morning. Didn’t bother to switch beaches as I knew I’d be fishing later that day so we called it early and took the loss.
Thursday evening was a different story. It was easily the best day of the week. Although we didn’t catch a whole lot, the bite was good, the structure was good, and it just felt good again. The tides were as follows: (2.9ft at 12:53 am) (5.3ft at 6:53 am) (0.1ft at 2:12 am). We fished from 4 pm – 7:30 pm and found awesome structure right away. The first 30-minutes were a little slow but after that, we found two good spots that produced well. The first spot produced a tank of a corbina and a tiny yellow. We found another spot and began getting action that wouldn’t quite stick for the most part.
It was time to set up the shark rod so that would take some mobility and focus away for the remainder of the day but we maintained steady action with six more fish. Although the shark rod didn’t produce, it was a beautiful evening and the spotfin and corbina were active in the shallows. An angler to my left had also hooked up a few times on what he thought were big spotfin but he, unfortunately, lost them all on ultra-light tackle.
Mornings were not productive for me this week while evenings resulted in decent productivity overall. It’s safe to say the rising tide produced a little better than the slack and falling tides too. While past results certainly don’t dictate future results, for the time being, I’d be more confident in the evenings. Let me know in the comments if any of you have had similar success/lack of success.
Surf Fishing Forecast 9/5
A lull in the bite is always a little discouraging, especially when August has passed us by already. Water temps have remained between 64 and 68 degrees which is slightly lower than the last few years at this time. On September 4th, 2018, I logged water temps at 75-degrees Fahrenheit. On September 5th, 2019, I logged San Diego water temps at 74-degrees Fahrenheit. And just last year, I logged 68-degrees Fahrenheit. Personally, I think each of the last three years provided better fishing (in terms of corbina and croaker etc.) than this year. Nonetheless, let’s not take it for granted that this season has had a lot to offer. We had a fantastic early spotfin bite and a good recent bite despite the huge drop in water temps.
After publishing this article, I checked the water temps again and there seems to have been more significant upwelling. Water temps have dropped to the mid to low sixties and could drop further.
Look for higher surf in the early portion of this week with Monday and Tuesday being the roughest conditions. It shouldn’t be anything “unfishable”, but Wednesday through Friday (and even Saturday) look to offer the best conditions of the week. If the rising tide is what’s producing, the mornings look better but with evenings producing better for me lately, the sunset bite could be the best bet as the tide will still have already begun rising well before sunset in the early portion of that stretch.
Given So Cal’s weather tendencies, I don’t think the summertime bite is over. We should be getting another warming here soon and hopefully, it sparks the bite back up again.
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Thanks, Nick. We have experienced similar conditions and results this week around our local LA beaches. You know it’s slow when even soft shells aren’t getting bit.
Very true and very tough. Whenever I pick up a soft shell, I almost count it as a fish because I’m so confident in them.
Great article. This week was a mixed bag for us as well. Friday morning my friend was on fire from 9:30 to 11 am. 6 fish including 3 giant spot fins. Follow that up with a complete bust Saturday and Sunday morning . Water colder, current way too strong, and zero fish.
Gonna try sunset tonight.
On a side question. What rig do you use when the current is pulling super hard? The Carolina Rig seems to just get rolled down the beach when the current is going.
I like to stick to the Carolina rig. I’ll end up walking along the beach with the current per my bait. If it’s terrrrrrible, I’ll switch the weight to a 2 or 3 oz pyramid with a slide clip. But very rarely do I switch it.
Pyramid w slide clip? I’m very intrigued. Could you please post a photo of this? Thanks, Nick.
Check back by tomorrow and I’ll have either a solid description or an image.
Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/3n8fV1x
What you would do is replace the egg weight with this clip by sliding your line through the blue portion of this clip. Then attach your bead and swivel as usual, then your leader and hook. The pyramid would then clip o to the slide clip and you have yourself a Carolina rig with a pyramid.
There is a guy named “Ed” who uses this rig with a 2 ounce pyramid to catch corbina at Torrance Beach. When I first saw him with his 7′ rod and heavy weight I had doubts, but he is very good fisherman and this rig catches! He told me he waits for 3 taps before setting the hook.
-Mike
RAT Beach Casting Club
The three taps is actually a very good way of describing the perfect time for a hook set. I’d say I fish along those lines too.
I tried the 2 oz pyramid.weight set up on a 7′ reel and had a hard time managing tension and discerning bites as the weight bumped into rocks. Would you use the 2 oz set up with a little bigger rod?
I, personally don’t use a 2 oz weight or a pyramid very often for light tackle. If I ever do that (maybe twice a year), it’s in a rod holder, bait and wait style as my target is usually a big spotfin or guitarfish with the biggest possible sand crabs.In nearly all conditions, I use a 1 oz sliding egg weight. If the current is incredibly rough, I’d consider it with the slider that I mentioned to Kurt earlier, and I would use my 7-foot penn pursuit because it has better backbone for the larger weight. You could use a longer rod, but you do need a little bit of backbone to cast that much weight too.
I’m looking forward to being on the beach in January. The last place in the world I get frustrated even if the fish aren’t biting.
Very true. It’s for sure a blessing just to get out there.
Hi, may I ask why January? It will be measurable condition, cold and windy.. just curious. Thx
Hi Nick, I can relate to the lack of success but mine was far worse. Fished 6 sessions over the past 2 weeks, 5 in the early am & 1 afternoon spread over 4 beaches. Only 1 of the first 5 was there good conditions. The others plagued by the cold water, swell from Nora, heavy salad & lack of sand crabs. Nothing biting except small perch nibblers. Mussel meat, blood or lug worms, didn’t matter, no interest. The final session last Friday went back to the 1st beach visited earlier. Almost perfect conditions and loads of crabs. Bite was constant for a good hour. The oddity was I did not bring one fish to the sand. A lot of rod bending hits but then letting go – – figure large perch or YFC’s? Had one, felt like big corbina or SFC that did not let go & was half way in when it came unbuttoned. That’s the breaks sometimes but it was a fun session despite the results.
Man! That’s a tough series for sure. It’ll only make the next successful session that much more satisfying.