I started a conversation with @josh about favorite OC piers and he gave such a cool and detailed answer I thought we should share our conversation and open it up to everyone else.
I'm curious about everyones experiences at the Orange County piers and how you choose which one to fish at.
For me, Huntington is the closest to my house and is the most comfortable as far as being clean and having lots of area to fish. Huntington has a good reputation for variety but I think that has to do with how good the inshore fishing is there (Spot fin, yellow fin, sharks/rays, barred surf perch, corbina, halibut and white sea bass). For some reason I prefer fishing in deeper water. I did have one killer session in shore where I hooked up on 8 good size yellow fin croaker in 40-50 minutes plus 3 small sharks fishing live ghost shrimp.
Newport and Balboa are interesting at the end especially in the summer. But it gets crowded there at the ends and most people are fishing really long sabikis with as many as 10 hooks. Don't like crossing lines with someone fishing like that. So recently when I think water conditions favor the Newport/Balboa area, I hit the jetty. Less people and more options to target specific structure like rocks, kelp, sand etc.
I've heard halibut fishing is good at Balboa but I've never targeted Halibut there. I did catch a 19" Halibut off the pier in Huntington, pretty close to shore.
San Clemente is my new focus. I've seen pictures of people landed very good size Sheephead there and I caught a 14" one and hooked up on a larger one that broke me off on the rocks. Also they get good size sand and kelp bass there. Plus there is a reef within reasonable casting distance from the end. This makes for a unique environment as you have a rocky reef environment that is a medium distance cast away from the end of the pier with a deeper water environment as you get closer.
I'm curious about everyones experiences at the Orange County piers and how you choose which one to fish at.
For me, Huntington is the closest to my house and is the most comfortable as far as being clean and having lots of area to fish. Huntington has a good reputation for variety but I think that has to do with how good the inshore fishing is there (Spot fin, yellow fin, sharks/rays, barred surf perch, corbina, halibut and white sea bass). For some reason I prefer fishing in deeper water. I did have one killer session in shore where I hooked up on 8 good size yellow fin croaker in 40-50 minutes plus 3 small sharks fishing live ghost shrimp.
Newport and Balboa are interesting at the end especially in the summer. But it gets crowded there at the ends and most people are fishing really long sabikis with as many as 10 hooks. Don't like crossing lines with someone fishing like that. So recently when I think water conditions favor the Newport/Balboa area, I hit the jetty. Less people and more options to target specific structure like rocks, kelp, sand etc.
I've heard halibut fishing is good at Balboa but I've never targeted Halibut there. I did catch a 19" Halibut off the pier in Huntington, pretty close to shore.
San Clemente is my new focus. I've seen pictures of people landed very good size Sheephead there and I caught a 14" one and hooked up on a larger one that broke me off on the rocks. Also they get good size sand and kelp bass there. Plus there is a reef within reasonable casting distance from the end. This makes for a unique environment as you have a rocky reef environment that is a medium distance cast away from the end of the pier with a deeper water environment as you get closer.