Shore Fishing

[estevan]

We did some shore fishing at Miramar in May and caught a bunch of corvina, pompano and some bonefish in the evening just as the tide was covering the reef. This past week I tried the same thing but didn't have the same results. Anybody have suggestions on when and how to do well from shore? What time of day? Bait/tackle? Anybody have luck with a fly rod?

 

[Stuart]

It's more a tide thing than time of day thing. When I used to shore fish a lot, I'd start at low tide and fish the incoming. Often, I'd throw a piece of squid out there on a hook and wait until that started getting hit, then switch to lures. I've never tried flies, but I used to know a guy that fished fly exclusively, but he generally hired a panga and would cast off the bow up and down along the shoreline and catch all kinds of stuff.

 

[estevan]

Thanks Stuart. We've been using squid on the bottom for while and catch some flounder and rays (sting and some shovelnose) but it's usually slow and inconsistent. Kastmasters around the reef worked well early in the summer but didn't have the same success recently. We saw tons of bait balls cruising along the shore and dolphins chasing a bunch of fish, so I figured they were out there and I must be doing something wrong. We did catch a needlefish from shore, that was a first.

 

[Stuart]

Thanks Stuart. We've been using squid on the bottom for while and catch some flounder and rays (sting and some shovelnose) but it's usually slow and inconsistent. Kastmasters around the reef worked well early in the summer but didn't have the same success recently. We saw tons of bait balls cruising along the shore and dolphins chasing a bunch of fish, so I figured they were out there and I must be doing something wrong. We did catch a needlefish from shore, that was a first.

You may not have been doing anything wrong at all. Those schools could be sardines, mullet, or baby macks. You'd never catch them, but often there are sierra underneath of them tearing them up as well. Not likely with the dolphins there, though. When I had my old aluminum boat, we sat in a school like that just off the beach and the boat sounded like Hell's Bells ringing with all the fish hitting it feeding on the bait school that was trying to take cover under the boat and around the motors. The pelicans, mackerel, sierra, and pompanos reduced what was a huge school to a few scattered fish in about 5 minutes. Was really something to watch. We dropped down sabikis to catch and see what the bigger fish feeding were.

Needlefish - There used to be some big ones that would sit just off the beach over by Pelican Point in Cholla. We'd throw Crocodiles at them and every now and then they'd take a lure. A real blast on light tackle!