Congratulations! Steve Parsche’s Corbina was the First Of 2025

     January is the heart of the surf fishing winter season but you wouldn’t know it by all the corbina being caught from San Diego to Ventura.  There have been 7 caught since the first of the year.  BattleStar hard-bait, Honey Badger purple grub and Glup! have captured these fish.  They must be hungry!

January is often a month of big perch fishing.  Yellowfin croaker and halibut are also to be found this month…but the biggest concentration will be on those big spawning barred surfperch.  You’ll find them all along the California coast anywhere you find structure where rocks meet sand.  Their favorite baits are worms (lug and blood), hard-baits, grubs, ghost shrimp, mussel and for the big ones…sidewinder crabs.

This is the time of year that barred surfperch spawn.  Their live birth is our perch for the next summer, so, if you’re not planning on keeping those big females, please put them back into the water as carefully and quickly as possible.

Have a great month at the beach and please send me your fish reports to: fishthesurf@mail.com

Water Contact Advisory: Falling ash from the Palisades Fire (and others) as well as runoff from firefighting efforts will increase the risk of contamination in the waters around LA County, southern VC County, and northern OC County.  Water contact in these areas is discouraged.

Santa Barbara/Ventura:  Tough fishing in this area over the last several weeks with big surf and dirty water slowing the fish down. Lots of palm-sized perch being caught at wave protected beaches like Leadbetter, Carpinteria and La Conchita. A few smaller halibut near The Wharf, along East Beach and down to Haskels. If you need surf tackle and bait in SB stop by Hook, Line and Sinker on Calle Real, just off of upper State Street, SB.

Ventura:  A good bite between swells for medium sized perch on smaller swell days and next to jetties that are used as a swell break. A nice corbina was caught this week on a BattleStar hard bait between the Ventura jetties…. So, I guess summer’s not over!

Malibu:  All quiet on the Malibu coast this week as both the fire and the surf have slowed down angler coverage.  So sad to hear of the loss of Ginny Wylie’s Bait Shop.  An icon since the 1940’s it will surely be missed!

South Bay:  Consistent fishing for palm to slab barred surfperch all along the South Bay. With Torrance and Hermosa holding some hungry schools of walleye surfperch. These fish love mussel and especially mussel or worm and grub combos. Palos Verdes has been kicking out some nice buttermouth and opaleye perch near flatrock point, Bluff Cove.  Bluff Cove has also had some outstanding nighttime fishing for loepard sharks with anglers using 80lb braid and flylining 1/2 a mackerel or bonito.

 Purchase Surf Fish Tackle HERE

Need advice or have questions:  Email Bill at: fishthesurf.com

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Orange County:  Great fishing for big opaleye and sargo from the OC rocks using ghost shrimp. You can fish these with both with a very light sinker or under a water filled bobber. Calm, small swells days are the ticket. 

Excellent fishing also in the Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach area for yellowfin croaker.  High tide periods have seemed to be the most productive with anglers using the iron (kastmaster, krocodile, etc.) to catch fish.   Fan casting motion will cover the most surface area, and fish will often roam in schools…so where there’s one fish there are many.  Slow, fast and a stop and start retrieve seem to attract the most fish.  

If you’re in North OC you’ll find your best selection of surf bait at Big Fish Tackle in Seal Beach.

San Diego:  As along much of the coast, San Diego has had big surf resulting in dirty water and this has slowed fishing. Perch are mostly palm sized and a pick along most beaches but those anglers fishing from or near rock structure have had some great catches on opaleye perch, calico bass and sargo. Best baits have been grubs (honey badger/big hammer) for surfperch and ghost shrimp or lug worms for the exotics.

One Cardiff angler reported two small corbina on Glup! sand worms.

Over the last several weeks anglers have been catching bonito inside SD bay.  Krocodiles, hard-baits and bobber and feather have worked well for these 2-3lb fish.  Fish have been found off the Shelter Island tip (near the harbor master) and off of Harbor Island Dr.

If you’re looking for bait in Oceanside, check out Pacific Coast Bait and Tackle.  They have an excellent selection of live bait and surf tackle.

A series of storms forming near the Aleutian Islands, will continue to send swells down the West Coast through the month of January