New To West Coast Surf Fishing

[GJJohnny]

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I just moved from the Delaware Beach area to the Central Coast area. I was sitting on Pismo Beach for the last 5 days and watched thousands of birds working a huge school of bait. My question is to all- What bait fish are out and what game fish are feeding ? How are you fishing for them ??? Also in the surf there was massive amount of mole crabs (Emerita or Sand Crabs) we used these in DE to catch huge stripers in the Indian River Inlet.. Any Stripers here ????? Please help!!

[simijab]

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I just moved from the Delaware Beach area to the Central Coast area. I was sitting on Pismo Beach for the last 5 days and watched thousands of birds working a huge school of bait. My question is to all- What bait fish are out and what game fish are feeding ? How are you fishing for them ??? Also in the surf there was massive amount of mole crabs (Emerita or Sand Crabs) we used these in DE to catch huge stripers in the Indian River Inlet.. Any Stripers here ????? Please help!!


No I have never heard of any stripers being caught there before but you never know. I have always caught alot of perch in that area you can use sand crabs they work good c-rig them with light line you'll get them.

[dockboy]

Unfortunately stripers in Cali are rare below the northern section of Monterey Bay near Santa Cruz, and even that population is shifty and unpredictable. Our best bass waters are in SF, the main population of stripers does not migrate too far past Pacifica on the southest of SF.
Our bait here is a mix. There are 3 main species:

sardine, anchovy, and smelt. this time of year, sardines are more common. when the water is clean and cool, anchovies also school up at the beach. smelt are found in bigger numbers as you head south. they can get in the 18" range, so the type of smelt you can to be fishing are the 4-6" size.
our main surf fish here in california are halibut, and perch, and croakers down south. you can catch rockfish, calico bass, white sea bass...all types of fish are caught in the surf. typically, if you see the birds working the bait, the halibut are main fish on the bottom. the white sea bass are too, though they prefer kelp beds and eat more squid at night then anything