One question, though: While surf fishing, were you using a sink-tip?
Tom
From: "Tim Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: San Diego fly fishing Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 08:18:41 -0700
I just got back from a week in San Diego where I got in six good mornings of
fishing plus afternoons of boogey boarding, attempts at surfing, general
beach hanging, some sightseeing, and a night at PetCo Park to watch the
Padres. We stayed on Mission Bay this year so I would get up at dawn, walk
2 blocks to the beach, and start fishing while my wife did yoga. The fishing
is best from dawn until about 8:00 a.m. then the crowds start building so I
usually left between 8:00-9:00. The first few mornings I targeted
surfperch and did pretty well. The first day I got a few but then that
afternoon I found a deep hole while out surfing and hit it hard the next
morning getting 8-10 fish in about an hour and a half fishing. I was also
hooking up with lots of stingrays by accident this year, I think I must have
hooked 6-7 of them over the days I was beach fishing. They put up a whale
of a fight but I don't want to go near them to take them off so I let the
surf suck them out and break them off.
On Tuesday I went fishing in San Diego Bay with Peter Piconi of the San Diego Fly Shop, http://www.sandiegoflyshop.com <http://www.sandiegoflyshop.com/> . This was a great morning fishing for various sea bass. It was just like jig fishing for largemouth bass, we had to go deep with a 300-grain line and a Clousers and gently "jig" they fly along so it looked like a very wounded baitfish that was mostly drifting in the current, the takes were very light, mostly a tightening of the line. I must have caught about 40 bass in the first few hours of the morning when the current was moving good. I got spotted bay bass, sand bass, and calico bass plus a yellow croaker and the biggest ugliest sculpin of my life.
The next few days I targeted corbina in the deep slots. The tide was way
out so it was easy to find the trenches and usually where there was a trench
there were corbina running up them onto the flat to feed. I was
sightfishing for them and they make a bonefish look easy, in fact they make
permit look easy. At one point I had a fish that kept coming up one slot
and I had a hit right at the end of the slot then was on briefly and then
off again so I think I may have hooked up on him. I did manage a few
surfperch during these days but I left w/o my corbina this year. I've
managed only one corbina in about 10 fishing days down there now.
The last day I fished Torrey Pines State Park and did pretty well there on surfperch. I didn't see any corbina that day at all but did run into a leopard shark while wading in the surf, I opted not to cast to him.
If you have business or vacation in San Diego I'd highly recommend doing the
bay trip one morning, it was a blast. A 7-weight rod is perfect along with
a 300-grain Teeney-type line. Leaders are nothing special, take some 20
lbs, 10 lbs, and 8 lbs (make the 8 flouro) and do short loop-to-loop
connected leaders. For the bay I used olive or grey/blue clousers, Peter
had one made of angel hair that was great. For the surf I found the fish
keyed on orange/tan patterns, I did well on a Hoonie Ghost Shrimp, Bob's
Shrimp, and Calhoun's Swimming Sand Crab. These are weird SoCa patterns,
goto http://www.garybulla.com/surf_flies.htm for patterns or to buy. Next
beach adventure - the Cannon Beach area in July.
Tim
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