Southern Cal

[Woodman]

I was in so Cal on business with a couple of hours to kill before my flight out of John Wayne. Had a great visit with Frank Selby at the His and Her Fly Shop in Newport. Heck of a nice guy. Needless to say, I want to bring some gear and fish the surf (or bay) next time I'm down. Any so Cal experts out there? Thanks.

[Larry S]

Woodman:
Check out http://www.fliflicker.com/ Also Gary Bulla's web site has a fly forum
that covers the waters from north LA up to the Santa Barbara area. Bulla runs some
trips to Baja, as well.
Cheers,
Larry S
San Diego

[Woodman]

Thanks Larry. Great site.

[PaulC]

Hey Woodman,

Larry's recommendations are spot on for resources in SoCal related to the salt.
There are a few guys fishing in the Newport area on Fliflicker.
I fish mostly in the Malibu to Santa Barbara area, so can't give much insight on the Orange County stretches of sand.

For general surf fishing, you basically need a 6wt to 8wt depending on the surf conditions with a shooting head setup or integrated line with a fast sink tip.
Intermediate running line is a plus.

Water is still a bit warm for this time of year, but will be cooling off quickly. You would definitely want a pair of waders.
If you use stocking foots, try to get a good seal with your boots as sand will get in there and start abrading the stockings.
Most guys I know that go that route have a beater pair they use in the surf.
I use bootfoots to avoid that.

A stripping basket is a must in the surf to help manage your line.
You can either buy one like the hipshooter, orvis, etc. or make one yourself using a dish tub, bungee cords, and zipties or weedwacker line for posts in the bottom.

Leader wise, I just use straight 8 or straight 15lb when blind fishing the surf.

This time of year going into winter is pretty much perch, yellow fin croaker, and if you're lucky halibut.
Can't really speak for fishing the bays down there, but someone at the local fly shop can probably point you in the right direction.

I tend to throw basic flies like clousers and surf rats when blind fishing through the winter.

Perch fishing or just general surf fishing down here basically boils down to finding structure that will concentrate fish.
Perch and croaker school so if you find one, odds are there are more nearby.
Keep moving if you aren't getting bit and try to keep tension in your line by varying your strip rate depending on the surf surge.

Best way to find structure is to pick a few beaches that are close to where you are staying or a local fly shop recommends. Get there near a low tide on a good tidal swing and look for buckets, troughs, etc that will fill as the tide rises.

If you can't get there at a low tide, things that will give away structure are stuff like waves changing direction, nervous looking water, rips, etc.

A good website for looking at tide, surf forecast, wind forecast, etc is www.wetsand.com
You can get an idea of the tides and surf in a general area.
Obviously, lower surf is better in general and too much wind is bad.

If you can fish grey light in the morning or evening, that can produce some of the better fishing in the surf.

I guess the last piece of advice is be aware of the people around you.
Most folks are unaware of the line and hook flying behind you.
People will walk in front of you, swim through your area, etc.
They have the right of way.

If you make it further north into my neck of the woods, feel free to send me a PM.
Assuming I am not travelling, I would be happy to meet up with you for a morning on the sand.

Have fun out there!
-Paul