Surf Fishing In So Cal

July was another great month for surf fishing. Conditions have been great and it’s been such a beautiful mild summer in terms of weather and surf. Here’s a nice sargo and leopard shark from a sesh earlier this week. I don’t get too many sargo so this was a cool one to see🤙

We had a bit of upwelling two weeks ago that shut off the hot spotfin bite for a week or so. Since then, the water temp is back up to 70F and while the spotfin aren’t back and biting as strong as they were, the big beans have made their first appearance in numbers and size🤙

Corbina in this photo taped at 24.5”

Swipe ➡️ for some throwback pics.

Every year I like to experience (atleast once) holding the shark rod waiting for one of these guys (more likely “gals”) to bite. I had the pleasure of doing that for this one right here and I think I caught it on my GoPro (I’ll have to check). But even with this being one of the smaller leopards we typically land, they’re all incredibly fun to feel as you sense them pick up the bait and begin to swim away with it before absolutely taking off as you hear the “tzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!”

Brings me back to the good ol days when and I had just discovered leopard shark fishing and we’d slap a chunk of surfperch on the same setup we’d used to catch that very surfperch… hoping for the best but usually getting snapped off just before getting spooled time and time again as we had no idea what we were doing😂

Gosh it was fun not knowing what was out there and being filled with the adrenaline of every thump! When we had no responsibilities and our biggest concerns were how to figure out how to eventually land one of these beasts before having to eventually go back to school the next fall🥲

Just a bit of a reminder not to rush your accomplishments or goals to learn something. Most often, the real reward is the experience itself and the journey of getting there. Enjoy life🤙

I have never had a year this filled with . Take a moment to scroll through these. This is just a handful of what some of my recent outings have produced. 🤞the hot bite continues!

Showed up to some pretty yuck conditions as the kelp die-off has begun😬 but per usual, Brooke still crushed it. In case anyone was wondering, it’s a good time to catch spotfin croaker and leopard sharks right now.

When conditions have been good, the fishing has been good lately. Enough sharks to go around for everyone in a recent outing as the bite continues to improve🤙

Last Friday seemed to mark the beginning of the summertime species showing up in numbers🤞 Hoping they don’t disappear again. Spotfin croaker, corbina, yellowfin croaker and leopard sharks are all biting nicely!

This shark was the first catch of the day on the long rod, followed by 4 other hook ups (all being bat rays - 1 being caught twice🙃). Swipe to see how gorgeous the sunset turned out and a couple of the rays.

They’ve been tough to come by through the onslaught of tiny surfperch but this beauty of a spotfin croaker in full breeding colors was an awesome catch for .lines.n.lures

.sd

10 years together you’d figure she’d have caught a shark by now (not counting those baby leopards). Nonetheless, her first was an absolute beast of a fish going airborne off the hook set!

Thanks for the good company, good times and for the help landing this one .lines.n.lures (and shout out to my brother Greg for making sure didn’t let my rod fly into the ocean🙏

“It was a YUGE bass” Had an epic sesh yesterday for the month of November with too many bass for me to count. It’s hit or miss out there this time of year but you never know until you get out there.