Arrived approx. 10am. Sunny and warm. Breezy but very nice weather. Fishing for leapord shark with mackerel and jigging with Sabiki 's catching small Smelts all day 6-8". Landed a decent size Singray about 10+ lbs. Caught on mackerel using a surf rig. Bait on the bottom. Good fight. Just took the bait and ran to open sea on open drag but the turned to the pier so I had to bring him to the surface. I knew it was not a shark by the sluggish fight. Used a net to get him up and release with no harm. Hooked in bottom lip with a live bait hoog and it came right out. No one else cathing anything that I saw except one other person wbringing up baby smelts. Air was warmer than the report said it would be. Left when high tide was coming in.
Oceanside Pier 02/25/2022
- Thread starter jonatilano
- Start date
Smelt are not the best eating fish-my opinion but when summer hits you can catch these all day from 8-10 inches while jigging. Water is still cold but we are due for warm weather so that might help. The trick is to get the Leapord sharks to bite. Last one hooked took a freah piece of golph ball sized Croaker.
The end of the pier was blocked due to construction. They may be working on a new restaurant- I did not check but the end of the pier is where they hook Threshers which is what I wanted to do last time. Oh well. I plan on being out there again soon.
The end of the pier was blocked due to construction. They may be working on a new restaurant- I did not check but the end of the pier is where they hook Threshers which is what I wanted to do last time. Oh well. I plan on being out there again soon.
Actually I was asking for both. Bait and human consumption. Up north, mendocino area , we used to use A frame nets and get what was called surf fish, a smelt 8-10 inches long. They were very tasty. Sometimes there was another species we got at night but they were smaller. We would fry them up and eat them and they were very mild. This was in the late seventies and I was in my teens. Thank you for the info. I will be down fishing anyway and I do want to collect some for bait.
j
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Bait — Live smelt are one of the top live baits for halibut fisherman in SoCal and will attract other fish like bass and sharays.
Food — The smelt referred to at Oceanside are typically small topsmelt and jacksmelt, not true smelt like the day smelt and night smelt found up in Mendocino. All can be eaten but the true smelt tend to be taster and some people get turned off by the worms in topsmelt and jacksmelt (even though they don't hurt you after cleaning and cooking).
Food — The smelt referred to at Oceanside are typically small topsmelt and jacksmelt, not true smelt like the day smelt and night smelt found up in Mendocino. All can be eaten but the true smelt tend to be taster and some people get turned off by the worms in topsmelt and jacksmelt (even though they don't hurt you after cleaning and cooking).
In San Diego I used live smelt for Bay bass and Halibut. They can be caught by sabiki and also some people use hoop nets. Great live bait.
I have tried fried smelt. I just cut out its guts and a light batter of flour and they they were good.
Not sure if grunion are smelt, but they seem to taste better for me.
I have tried fried smelt. I just cut out its guts and a light batter of flour and they they were good.
Not sure if grunion are smelt, but they seem to taste better for me.
I tool a bunch of family kids to the pier one summer and they jigged all day and caught mackerel, smelt, bass all day. I spent all day taking fish off hooks and throwing them back. They never got tired of catching fish all day
Great times.
I plan on taking the kids around my block this summer and teaching them how to fish and get out of the house.
But my older son and i plan on night fishing for shark.
Any suggestions i am open.
Great times.
I plan on taking the kids around my block this summer and teaching them how to fish and get out of the house.
But my older son and i plan on night fishing for shark.
Any suggestions i am open.
In regard to grunion — they are members of the siverside family as are the topsmelt and jacksmelt. They are the famous fish that come onto the beach to lay their eggs and if anglers are on the right beach they can take them by hand. They are less commonly taken from piers but do show up and are just as good for bait, or eating, as the topsmelt and jacksmelt.
Jacksmelt — https://www.pierfishing.com/jacksmelt/
Topsmelt — https://www.pierfishing.com/topsmelt/
Jacksmelt — https://www.pierfishing.com/jacksmelt/
Topsmelt — https://www.pierfishing.com/topsmelt/