San Clemente 12-1-20 Such thing as an 8 legged skunk?

Got to San Clemente around 4:15AM. Similar tactics as the day before. Only difference was that I had no live ghost shrimp. There were not exceptional producers the day before so I was in good spirits.

Sent out a 3/0 circle hook, short leader fishing finder rig with a whole head on shrimp as far as I could cast. A couple casts in I snagged my line on a rock, broke off my hook and had to retie. This setup produce almost no detectable bites during the 4.5 hours I was fishing. I caught a 14" Sheephead on this setup the day before but today it was quiet.

I sent out a high low rig with size 6 Ebi Bait holder hooks. One hook had a piece of cut shrimp the other was a piece of squid. This setup was getting small tapping bites all day, but very few takers. The shrimp was much more popular than the squid but the squid stayed on the hook better. On this setup I caught an Octopus and a small sand bass. I sized down the hooks but still did not have any more success actually hooking the fish that were biting. The next time I'm in this situation, I want to try retying with mosquito hooks to see if they'll make a difference.

I also caught a few smelt on a sabiki but ended up not using them for bait. Two were released, one was gifted to another angler. I also gave the octopus away. I actually want to cook an Octopus, because I like the way they taste but the timing was wrong today.

While I was there I saw 1 larger mackerel caught. 2 small yellowfin croakers. 1 queen fish, and a handful of smelt. Was very slow for everyone while I was there. I left at 9:15AM.

The little picky, but no commit bites are probably rock wrasses. They will chew baits up, but have a fairly small mouth.

That makes sense. I caught one here two trips ago that I snagged. Thanks for the insight!

Thanks for the post.


You may want to try Kahlo hooks for shrimp with miracle thread.
For those readers here who have not seen them before; the hook is shaped to match the shrimp curve and the thread keeps the bait on the hook. It is very stretchy and requires no knots. It is not cheap at about $5.00 a roll, but a roll goes a long way.