Balboa Pier June 24

[MasterFisherYY]

Update

There is a great ball of very small bait fish patrolling the surf near the pier. You can clearly see them clumped up in a ball with the occasional flash or two mixed in. I threw ghost shrimp and a 3-inch BH Swim-bait to no avail. There is clearly predators around as the fisherman that have been there since early morning do have pretty respectable buckets of croaker. I talked to one of them and he told me the best time to come would be early morning and late at night at around 9-10. There was also one fish I couldn't identify, its head was the shape of a smelt but it was clearly to huge and wide to be one. Mackerel action is fairly consistent, just a waiting game between the schools. Bonito are being caught but nothing huge, roughly the same size as the mackerel. Hot spot is definitely the left and middle end of the pier, nobody was getting anything on the right side. There was also one gentleman with two spider crabs.

As a side note, I'm getting sick of Balboa Pier so if anyone has any piers that they would like some intelligence on feel free to comment and I'll see if I can get to it tomorrow or this weekend.

[jaque1579]

Could you check out San Clemente or Oceanside pier if you have a chance?

Update

There is a great ball of very small bait fish patrolling the surf near the pier. You can clearly see them clumped up in a ball with the occasional flash or two mixed in. I threw ghost shrimp and a 3-inch BH Swim-bait to no avail. There is clearly predators around as the fisherman that have been there since early morning do have pretty respectable buckets of croaker. I talked to one of them and he told me the best time to come would be early morning and late at night at around 9-10. There was also one fish I couldn't identify, its head was the shape of a smelt but it was clearly to huge and wide to be one. Mackerel action is fairly consistent, just a waiting game between the schools. Bonito are being caught but nothing huge, roughly the same size as the mackerel. Hot spot is definitely the left and middle end of the pier, nobody was getting anything on the right side. There was also one gentleman with two spider crabs.

As a side note, I'm getting sick of Balboa Pier so if anyone has any piers that they would like some intelligence on feel free to comment and I'll see if I can get to it tomorrow or this weekend.