Time for surf fishing

JIM NIEMIEC

Warm water currents have pushed in along Newport’s coastline and surf

fishing has been exceptional.

Sand crabs are everywhere and hungry schools of barred perch are

stacked inside the breakers, while aggressive corbina are feeding on

crabs in just a few inches of water.

Yellowfin croaker at biting north of the Newport pier and a few

legal halibut were caught last week near the Santa Ana River jetty.

Monday morning, a group of dedicated surf anglers gathered at 15th

Street on the peninsula to participate in Surf Fest II, headed up by

Ed Dillon of Newport Beach. It was 13 years ago when Michael Fowlkes,

producer of Inside Sportfishing, filmed a classic surf fishing show

at this location and he showed up with his camera crew to film an

updated program.

Dillon invited a few of the anglers who were in the original show

to fish the morning tide, including Walt Burnham of Newport. It was a

picture-perfect morning as the sun broke through the clouds early in

the morning, which made for comfortable early June fishing conditions

and a pretty day to film the surf.

Dillon, who spends a couple of days a week working at Anglers

Center, had gone down under the Balboa pier the night before and

loaded up containers with hundreds of sand crabs.

The group spread out along the sand making long casts into the

pounding surf. It didn’t take long for things to happen as barred

perch and small corbina began biting right away.

Rob Meinhardt of Newport started off fishing one-half a Berkley

Power Worm that accounted for a number of hookups, while most every

other angler had equal success on crabs. The bite continued until the

tide stopped coming in and the fishing tailed off drastically.

Just about every angler hooked into a number of big barred perch

with Burnham’s 2.25-pounder topping lots of fish in the 1.75- to

2-pound class.

This friendly surf fishing tournament was all “catch and release”

with most anglers fishing Owner circle hooks that allow for a easy

and harmless release of a fish that is hooked only in the corner of

its mouth.

Surf fishing should continue to be good all summer, as there is an

ample supply of sand crabs. The best time to fish is early in the

morning or late in the evening to avoid surfers, beachgoers and skim

boarders.

Fishing is a little easier just prior to a low tide due to smaller

wave action and not as many rip currents. High tides can often

produce massive waves and strong currents up and down the beach.

A fishing license is required for surf fishing for anyone older

than16.

Saltwater fishing is just fair for the sport boats running out of

Davey’s Locker and Newport Sportfishing Landing with the bulk of the

daily catch consisting of calico and sand bass, bottom fish,

yellowtail and bonito at Catalina Island.

The first signs of barracuda action were reported by the Western

Pride on Wednesday. Fortunately there isn’t a red tide developing

close to Newport, but there are patches of algae north of San Pedro

and few spots below San Diego.

Bait conditions are good with lots of hook-size anchovies in the

receivers and the Pamela Rose bait boat is also finding plenty of

sardines for overnight boats heading to San Clemente Island to fish

for yellowtail.

Nothing new to report on albacore or yellowtail from the overnight

boats running out of San Diego landings. Captain Buzz Brizendine, on

the sportfisher Prowler, told me that water conditions are good with

plenty of bait in the water, but added that the longfins just haven’t

schooled up.

According to Brizendine, even the multi-day boats are not finding

any big numbers of albacore or yellows and there is some concern

among captains that this could be one of those years when the albies

don’t show up until late June.

A number of boats are scheduled for runs out to the fishing

grounds this weekend and hopefully counts will be high enough to kick

off the start of the longfin season.