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Southern California Surf Fishing Report
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This Week’s Surf Fishing Report
11/21/25
November 2025
Important personal note: I’ve been hacked and lost my channels on Youtube and Facebook. I’ve placed all my weekly fish reports and how-to videos on Rumble.com. You’ll find them under: fishthesurf Please click on “Follow” once you’re there and you’ll be notified each time I post a new video. Thanks for your help…I really appreciate it!
November is a month with two distinct personalities. One, the calm, soft winds of a Santa Ana event, with flat seas, small surf and a welcoming warmness. The other a storm, with its whipping winds, cold driven rain, big crushing surf and a beach emptiness that makes you wonder if there’s a hungry bear loose on the sand.
I rather like the former. But only time will tell if we are graced by the calm spotfin filled days of soft offshore breezes or the darkness of hiding behind the jetty from the wind and surf.
As a month of transition, we find that almost all the sand crabs are off the beach and baits like ghost shrimp, lug worms and mussel are now doing the trick. Artificial baits also come into play with grubs, gulp, durascent sand worms, spoons, hard-baits, swimbaits and flukes all doing their part to entice halibut and monster barred surfperch to bite.
November also signals the spawn period of clams, especially the bean clam (Donax), on our local beaches. Years ago, I met a DFW biologist at the beach who told me that during surf fish sampling from Newport to Seal Beach they found that every single fish had a common food in their stomach…clams. So that goes almost without saying, that now is the time to use clams…which I have used in November for some of the biggest spotfin of the year.
Tide swings this month will be dramatic as astronomical tides will create high to low tide swings of 8′ and more. To be a successful angler it’s always a good idea to find days that have a very low tide and try to fish areas, like the end of a jetty or an offshore rock, that you most often cannot reach. On beaches with jetties, these super low tides are also a great time to collect large mussel and sidewinder crabs from the rocks.
During the high and highest tide periods fish near rock structure and beach holes and troughs that are now covered by water. November has always been a month of both conditions and bait transition. It’s also a great month for surf fishing where an angler can find solitude and fish at the beach, while their loved one’s shop… 🙂
Check out my weekly Surf Fishing Reports on Rumble.com—fishthesurf
Have a great month at the beach and please send me your fish reports to: fishthesurf@mail.com
Santa Barbara/Ventura: Santa Barbara is still dealing with off colored dirty water, but perch fishing remains remarkable all along the coast. Most fish are in the 8-12” range with some bigger fish being caught. Sublegal white seabass are still biting near UCSB on white weedless swimbaits and drop shot rigs. North of Santa Barbara several legal halibut have been taken on hardbaits at both El Capitan and Gaviota. With one nice fish taken just north of the Wharf along Leadbetter Beach. At Jalama more stripers were reported caught in the surf on Battlestar hardbaits for anglers willing to make the walk toward the lighthouse. Corbina have again been seen in the shallows but with no biters.
Faria Beach, just north of Emma Woods SB in Ventura, reported in this week with great barred surfperch fishing for fish to 13” mostly on Gulp with reports of sand crabs just not working. Anglers along Hollywood Beach checked in with good fishing on yellowfin croaker to 2lbs and excellent barred surfperch fishing with fish from 8’12” for anglers using lug worms. Be sure to keep your eye on Hollywood Beach/Oxnard this winter because the state record barred surfperch was caught there and I know there are more!
Malibu: Good water conditions reported at Will Rogers State Beach, with excellent barred surfperch and yellowfin croaker fishing for smaller models and a beautiful 4lb corbina taken on a motoroil grub. Water conditions have improved but there is a noticeable ash element in the surf. North, toward Leo Carrillo and Pt. Mugu, is often an excellent area to target calico surfperch, big barred and feisty walleye surfperch. Fish near the rocks with like gear using live baits like worms, ghost shrimp, mussel and sidewinder crabs and you’ll be rewarded with some great fish. Lighten your Carolina sinker to 1/8th ounce and shorten your leader to 10″. This will help keep you from getting snagged and not being in the strike zone.
South Bay:The South Bay had excellent corbina fishing this week. El Porto to El Segundo reported in with tons of small, barred surfperch and several corbina seen in the shallows. Manhattan had a mix of barred surfperch, walleye and Yellowfin croaker on live lug worms. While Hermosa, from just north of the pier to the King Harbor breakwater producing a dozen CORBINA and some 3-4lb yellowfin croaker caught on both live and dried lug worms. Fishing has been especially good along where the breakwater meets the beach. RAT Beach at South Torrance was slow last weekend but picked up a bit this week with a nice corbina caught on a sand crab…maybe the last sand crab caught corbina of 2025.
This year’s calendar has world-class photography, important dates, graphic tide charts, West Coast tide adjustments, moon phase, How-to tips for rock fishing, knot tying, world record catches, landing facts and more. This is the tool you need to plan the very best time to fish and make the most of your day!
Need advice or have questions: Email Bill at: fishthesurf.com
Orange County:Again, the Belmont shore to Seal beach zone has continued to kick out sublegal halibut and WSB with lots of smelt and bait balls in the surf (there has also been squid reported in the area). One angler using a white fluke drop shot rig snagged a 23” halibut near the Seal Beach jetty. Catching the fish right on the edge of where rocks meet sand. Huntington Beach produced quite a few palm-sized barred surfperch this week, while down along the Newport jetties there were tons of small perch, a few small halibut and more bait balls offshore. Newport this time of year often has both bonito and stripers offshore chasing bait balls. 3/4th ounce Kastmasters and Krocodile style spoons often work here to get a bite.
Tackle/bait: Big Fish Bait and Tackle, Seal Beach
San Diego:San Diego waters continue to clear with wads of kelp here and there. In Oceanside, along the stretch from the harbor to the pier, continues to kick out lots of BSP, while down in Del Mar one angler reported a beautiful 32” striper caught on a live lug worm from the beach. Along Mission Beach still quite a bit of kelp but good small, barred surfperch fishing along with a fat 24” corbina, landed by Jay on a Honey Badger Super Slayer grub.
Tackle/bait: Pacific Coast Bait and Tackle/ Seaforth Landing
A series of storms, originating in Alaska, will begin to push swells with cool water down the coast and into the California bight. Look for a major storm around the 14/15th to reshape many of the beaches
Conditions To Watch This Month
Synopsis: November is often a month of opposites. One day there’s a major storm, the next, glass-calm Santa Ana beach days. Water temperature will begin to drop this month, it’s speed of cooling to be determined by the size and duration of storms, wind and swell from the North. November-January has some of the largest tidal swings of the year…which provide for some great bait catching and new fishing opportunities. In the world of swells, we are looking at our last South Pacific storms and an onslaught of surf from the Northwest. Winter will now begin to set in and it’s time to work on your gear to make sure you’re ready for the monster perch, halibut and spotfin of winter!
Water Temp: 64-67 from SB to SD. Warm water is still along the beaches. As the south swells diminish the water temperature will begin to drop. A large low-pressure system, slated for later next week, will bring big surf and very likely cold-water upwelling. Look for water temps to moderate over the next several weeks and be around 60 degrees along much of the coast by month end. Tides: November always has some great tides. This week we saw the full moon on the 5th produce an 8.1′ tidal swing! Look for good tidal flow this entire month with the new moon on the 19th to provide some deep minus low tides and upswings of 7′ to high tide. Surf fish love moving water so the entire month should produce some great fishing. Remember, when fishing halibut try to concentrate on the peak high and peak low tide periods. Because strong currents caused by large tidal swings annoy halibut, they will most likely be feeding when the current is at its lowest.
Swell: The great news is that swells originating from the South Pacific will produce at least two more swell events this month. That will help to sustain water temperature. What is unknown is how big swells from the NW (the opposite direction) will be and for how long. NW swells this weekend will produce head-high surf on West facing beaches and chest-high surf on South facing beaches. As November progresses look for ever increasing swells from the NW and big surf on West facing beaches. In the short term, look for the next week to bring moderate surf on most beaches. This surf will be a disorganized wind swell and may make fishing tough at times.
Wind: Most beaches will have light offshore winds in the morning replaced by afternoon 10-15mph breezes from the Northwest. This pattern will change later next week with a strong low pressure system bringing rain and wind to Southern California. November often has storm events followed by Santa Ana wind events. A kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde affect with storm filled days followed by amazing beach weather.
