San Clemente 1/7-8/23 Long Casting Produces Nice Variety

evanluck

Well-Known Member
#1
Spend two mornings fishing San Clemente on Saturday and Sunday (1/7 and 1/8). Both days I rotated between fishing a small hook sabiki for bait, a medium casting hi lo and a long casting hi lo. By far the most productive setup was the long casting hi lo (Shimano 4000 Baitrunner paired with a 12' Daiwa Emcast). I really like the combination of the long casting with a bait runner feature. The setup works better in this use (casting cut bait on a hi lo) than throwing lures for bonito because the awkward ergonomics of the rod are not as tiring. Without this setup I think both days would have been slower for me.

I would characterize both days as sleepy bites perhaps because of winter or the recent rain. Also there is plenty of loose macro algae in the water so it helped to check the lines if I wasn't getting bites to clear them of macro algae/kelp and to freshen the bait. All fish but one was caught on pieces of market shrimp. I sized my hooks up to size 4 and 1 and 2 Kahle hooks on the long casting setup. This resulted in fewer small fish hooked.

Saturday was the better day. Only bait fish that seemed available were wall eye surf perch. I caught 7 species on the day.
blenny.blackperch.walleye.jpg

Total fish count:
2 Black perch
1 Blenny
1 Leopard Shark
1 Moray Eel
1 Smooth Hound Shark
2 Sand Bass
15 Walleye surf perch

eel-sandbass.jpg

All fish but the walleye surf perch and the Blenny were caught on the long casting setup. Two anglers next to me caught walleye perch, blue perch, and a large moray eel that broken them off right at the surface.
babysharks.jpg

Second day was sleepier with longer periods of no action and even tricky to get a bait bite on the small sabiki. Conditions were generally the same just slower all around.

Again the more productive setup was the long casting setup.

Total fish count:
1 Calico Bass (13")
1 halfmoon perch
1 leopard shark
1 sand bass
10 wall eye surf perch

calico.jpg

There were 2 small yellowfin croakers, 1 small spotfin croaker and 1 big jack smelt caught by other anglers.
 
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AppleSauce

Guest
#2
Thank you for sharing! I was wondering if there was any fish around on those days. My husband and I fished mid pier on Saturday night (7pm-11pm) and skunked (only a 2” crab caught on a sabiki)! I only heard of a lobster being caught on hook and line that night at the end. Did you fish the end of the pier? The swells were pretty strong that night. I only brought light tackle with me that night not expecting such rough conditions. :(
 

evanluck

Well-Known Member
#3
Thank you for sharing! I was wondering if there was any fish around on those days. My husband and I fished mid pier on Saturday night (7pm-11pm) and skunked (only a 2” crab caught on a sabiki)! I only heard of a lobster being caught on hook and line that night at the end. Did you fish the end of the pier? The swells were pretty strong that night. I only brought light tackle with me that night not expecting such rough conditions. :(
Yes I fished the end. Must have been difficult conditions with strong swell in the dark. The type of fishing that I do targeting the reef is likely to be slower at night because many of those reef fish are not active feeding at night. Glad you got out fishing even though it was tough sledding.
 

MisterT

Well-Known Member
#4
Good seeing you on Saturday!

Inshore was not productive as I had hoped. Glad you had better luck at the end of the pier.

It was a good day for me to test braid on my old school DAM Quick reel which casted surprisingly well. The only bad part was at one point the top half of my rod flew off as I did not fasten the top half as tightly as I should have. (Unfortunately not the first time this happened.o_O)
 

evanluck

Well-Known Member
#6
Good seeing you on Saturday!

Inshore was not productive as I had hoped. Glad you had better luck at the end of the pier.

It was a good day for me to test braid on my old school DAM Quick reel which casted surprisingly well. The only bad part was at one point the top half of my rod flew off as I did not fasten the top half as tightly as I should have. (Unfortunately not the first time this happened.o_O)
So cool to meet you and get a chance to talk fishing and fish together a bit. Thanks again for the reel. I’m excited to use it!
 
#7
Nice variety at one of my favorite piers. That little moray is adorable… they get a lot bigger there, and more persnickety as they grow.

“Creep’s Corner” (the section of rail closest to the women’s restroom door that is, ironically, poorly lit at night) is a fun little spot to sing 🎵 That’s a Moray! 🎶 … at least it was 15 years ago.
And let them snaggie-bugs go! 🦞 Cheaper in the long run if Warden Rod Buckler shows up.
stay safe everyone!
DOMPFA!
Ben