Rocky Shorelines - Calico Bass May 22

[blackcloud9]

Walked down to a favorite beach spot to fish a weighted weedless swimbait (shown) along the sand/rock shoreline here, with much smaller surf today.

The recent south swells have migrated tons of sand north on my beach, and have unburied the local acres of eel grass - which is all dead and drifting now after being buried with sand all winter.

Washed-ashore rotting eel grass clumps support entire food chains including sand hopper shrimp and beach flies, smelt, schools of perch! The summer food chain is kicking into gear this week.

Within 10 minutes and 10 casts at sunset, I caught two calicos, with the biggest about 14 inches. Surprised by the violent aggressive strikes in shallow water on both of them.

There were lots of birds diving just offshore earlier in the day, and I just may get the Ghostbuster speargun out and go have a look around tomorrow!

[Hook1fred]

Love seeing your salt reports again. Really enjoy your LJ kayak reports

[vdisney]

The water is starting to warm up

[Perch killer]

Nicely done; thanks for the report.

[foulhook]

Nice fishing, pics and report

[foulhook]

The water is starting to warm up

@vdisney would be nice to see some of your famous surf fishing shark reports

[blackcloud9]

Addition - Sunset Calico Bass May 23

Three more fun little calico bass last night, fishing the weedlines until after sunset missed a few short strikes, one of these days there may be a halibut around ....

[vdisney]

The water is starting to warm up

@vdisney would be nice to see some of your famous surf fishing shark reports

This was last Sunday, first time in three years I chased the 'toothy critters'

[nanewnanew]

Walked down to a favorite beach spot to fish a weighted weedless swimbait (shown) along the sand/rock shoreline here, with much smaller surf today.

The recent south swells have migrated tons of sand north on my beach, and have unburied the local acres of eel grass - which is all dead and drifting now after being buried with sand all winter.

Washed-ashore rotting eel grass clumps support entire food chains including sand hopper shrimp and beach flies, smelt, schools of perch! The summer food chain is kicking into gear this week.

Within 10 minutes and 10 casts at sunset, I caught two calicos, with the biggest about 14 inches. Surprised by the violent aggressive strikes in shallow water on both of them.

There were lots of birds diving just offshore earlier in the day, and I just may get the Ghostbuster speargun out and go have a look around tomorrow!

This was really helpful, thanks for the info on how all that eel grass washes up this time of year.

Did your weedless rig in the photos manage to cut through it pretty well (besides the obvious success), or do you just move around until you find a relatively clean patch?

[blackcloud9]

This was really helpful, thanks for the info on how all that eel grass washes up this time of year.

Did your weedless rig in the photos manage to cut through it pretty well (besides the obvious success), or do you just move around until you find a relatively clean patch?

The main reason I use this rig and the dropshot fluke around here is that they're not only WEEDLESS but also GRASSLESS. A Warbait head is weedless but picks up dead grass like crazy. Grassless is another level of weedless - for when there is a lot of floating or drifting dead eel grass. Occasionally I'll get a piece of rotting grass that wraps the line and holds onto the bullet weight, but, its 90% clean casts. If I feel any drag, I can rip it clean with a rod-tip 'snap and slack' and then, resume swimming.

For lighter rigs, I use this Owner 1/8th "Bullet Type" hook with smaller baits.

[nanewnanew]

This was really helpful, thanks for the info on how all that eel grass washes up this time of year.

Did your weedless rig in the photos manage to cut through it pretty well (besides the obvious success), or do you just move around until you find a relatively clean patch?

The main reason I use this rig and the dropshot fluke around here is that they're not only WEEDLESS but also GRASSLESS. A Warbait head is weedless but picks up dead grass like crazy. Grassless is another level of weedless - for when there is a lot of floating or drifting dead eel grass. Occasionally I'll get a piece of rotting grass that wraps the line and holds onto the bullet weight, but, its 90% clean casts. If I feel any drag, I can rip it clean with a rod-tip 'snap and slack' and then, resume swimming.

For lighter rigs, I use this Owner 1/8th "Bullet Type" hook with smaller baits.

Makes sense. Total weight (bullet + hook) around 1/4 oz?

[blackcloud9]

The smaller bullet type (1/0) hook has a fixed weight at the eye like a sled head. I use those for the slimmer profile baits and when there is no wind. Total weight 1/8 oz.

The bigger profile rig uses a combo of a slip bullet weight and the Gamakatsu (3/0) weighted hook. The slip weight I use depends on conditions, obviously lighter goes through sunken grass better. Light is 1/8 slider + 1/8 hook, heavier is 1/4 slider + 1/8 hook. Casting with 8-strand 15 lb. braid for distance.

[vdisney]

The smaller bullet type (1/0) hook has a fixed weight at the eye like a sled head. I use those for the slimmer profile baits and when there is no wind. Total weight 1/8 oz.

The bigger profile rig uses a combo of a slip bullet weight and the Gamakatsu (3/0) weighted hook. The slip weight I use depends on conditions, obviously lighter goes through sunken grass better. Light is 1/8 slider + 1/8 hook, heavier is 1/4 slider + 1/8 hook. Casting with 8-strand 15 lb. braid for distance.

Thank you for the info, great information

[blackcloud9]

Thank you for the info, great information

There are lots of HowTo tips and videos online, and while I have created a lot of kayak-related content, I have shared little about 20 years on my slice of shoreline paradise in south La Jolla.

However, there is tons of good surf-fishing content online:

http://www.fishthesurf.com/

https://surffishingsocalsd.com/

Specifically, for weedy conditions ideas, check out the article here:
https://surffishingsocalsd.com/5-tips-f ... h-seaweed/
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[blackcloud9]

A few more calicos yesterday, and again tonight. With the evenings having progressively higher tides toward the full moon Saturday, the saltwater washes into new dry sand and seaweed each evening and abundant sand critters wash out as chum for the baitfish.

Even mixed it up a bit with the finesse dropshot

BTW, I've been posting a bit more on the freshwater side lately all of these very recent: