Balboa pier - Sunday - July 18, 21 - no fish for me

Rusty

Active Member
#1
Reluctant to post my skunked report, but since it’s been so quiet around here lately, i figured bad news is better than no news!

I arrived at Balboa around 7am, already seeing a lot of the regulars in the parking lot chatting and packing up, thats usually a bad sign. Paid my $14 to park (6 hour prepay), prices went up a little bit, still not too bad considering the alternatives.

Walk down the pier, there was a good amount of anglers. Very cloudy all morning. Saw a couple friends trying for halibut, no luck. I proceeded to catch smelt for bait, set them out on a Carolina, something big was chewing up my baits all day, i failed at setting a hook, my hooks were way too big- they just ate “around” the hook while probably laughing at me. Anyways, i suck, gave up around noon. I saw 1 croaker caught, and 1 mackerel, and lots of smelt, thats about it. Wish i had some pics for you guys, but the biggest thing i caught was my index finger in a sabiki hook.

DFW surveyor was at the end of the pier around noon.
 

evanluck

Well-Known Member
#4
Interesting that you were getting consistent bites on live smelt. That is encouraging! Thanks for the report. We were there on Saturday fishing with a ton of brand new people and had similar luck. Lots of smelt, a walleye surf perch, a couple mackerel and a yellowfin croaker. But very slow bite for us as well.