Dana Point Harbor Shore fishing-Need Advice

[carpanglerdude]

I'll be hitting up Dana Point this weekend, fishing from the shore. I've only been there once before, saw a small fishing pier near the aquarium/museum thing and saw a really nice rock jetty near that. The surf looked tempting on the ocean side of the jetty, is it a good spot for surf perch?

Question is, where should I fish? I'm looking to catch a few fish (a few to eat, rest to let go) and I hardly ever fish in saltwater, so I know very little about this type of fishing. What species should I target, and how? I've got plenty of lures (soft plastics + drop shot was recomended to me for Newport, will this work here too?) but I'm sort of at a lost about fishing here.

I'm also uber worried about Cali Saltwater regs-I'm pretty familiar with the FW ones, but are the areas where you can't fish at Dana Point clearly marked, or do I risk getting in trouble by fishing on areas outside of the fishing pier? (I do have a saltwater license).

Thanks in advance guys!

[skindoc]

I fished there a few times, I fished the small stone wall in front of the life guard station using mussel and shrimp. You can pick the mussels from the rocks near the wall. Mostly small perch and wrasse. Its a quiet place to fish but $15 for parking.

You can also try fishing off the breakwall near the bait barge. Cast as close as you can with live bait or shrimp.

I would recommend Kings Harbor. the guys at Rocky Point Skiff rental are really nice, and the fishing is usually good.

Good luck.

[carpanglerdude]

Thanks for the advice Skindoc (derm md?), I didn't know about the other jetty by the bait barge, it looks pretty good (from Google Maps at least ;)


Speaking of which, is the bait barge simply a floating live bait shop? I've never heard of such a thing before, but a lot of the posts here in the saltwater section mention them. Sorry, newb question I guess, heh

Will small jigs and plastics work on the wrasse and perch, or is bait my best bet?

[smokehound]

Dunno what happened to my post but, theres free parking by the pier.

Use california mussels, not bay mussels.

By the dock to the far left of the baby beach yields good fishing.


At high tide, to the left of the pier, there are monster spotfins that will pwn you.


Lots of dink calicos.

Try the ocean side of the jetty, lots of monster opaleye, and a few cabbies.