DON’T FORGET to sign up for our FREESurf Fishing Newsletter below!
Southern California Surf Fishing Report
Surf Fishing Newsletter
Sign up for our free newsletter to be delivered directly to your email. Your contact information will never be sold.
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
This Week’s Surf Fishing Report
9/01/25CLICK PICTURE FOR REPORT
September 2025
September is one thrilling month at the beach. Warm clear water and lots of food spurs corbina to bite along all the Southern California beaches. Spotfin really begin to come into their own this month, driving toward a full spawn in late November. Perch continue their Fall spawning along with a million other perch fry from Spring. Halibut, white seabass and striper come in close to shore to chase bait balls in the surf. It’s always an exciting month!
Look for several hurricanes to effect surf fishing this month. Bigger swells may slow fishing for a few days and may slow us down a bit, but warmer water will do nothing but help to extend our season. Most days at the beach this month will be very uncrowded and often under warm calm skies produced by Santa Ana conditions.
Bait changes are in store for September. Remember, corbina and just about every other surf fish, have been gorging on sand crabs for months. As September progresses there will be less crabs and far less soft-shell crabs for fish to eat. So now is the best time to begin your bait transition to ghost shrimp, mussel, clams, lug and bloodworms. Surf fish will key in on these baits because it is what they normally forage upon this time of year.
LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE
Please help me to spread the passion of surf fishing by subscribing to my Youtube page. My weekly fish report video is here along with an ever-increasing library of how-to surf fishing videos. Just click HERE to subscribe and spread the word!
Good luck, tight lines and light winds,
Bill
Have a great month at the beach and please send me your fish reports to: fishthesurf@mail.com
Santa Barbara/Ventura: Surf fishing remained good in Santa Barbara. Halibut fishing remains steady with lots of sub legal fish taken but anglers with knowledge of eel grass bed locations did extremely well with targeting legal halibut by using 4-6” swimbaits gray/white weedless swimbaits and hard baits. Smaller perch are biting all along the coast here, with small 2” motor oil grubs being the most productive bait. No word of stripers this week but several sub legal white seabass were in the mix. Big corbina continue to be seen but very few caught. Anglers need to concentrate on their bait presentation to entice these large fish.
Warmer water flooded into the Oxnard/Ventura beaches this week along with lots of kelp and eel grass, but for anglers who found cleaner water several corbina in the juvenile size of 16-20” were landed along with several legal halibut along the Ventura jetties for anglers using 4-5” white swimbaits and white fluke dropshot rigs. Perch fishing has slowed a bit, while some very big jack smelt are now in the surf.
Malibu: Point Mugu rocks continue to kick out some nice buttermouth, barred and opaleye perch and a few calico bass for anglers fishing both mussel and worms along the rocks. Quite a few yellowfin croaker still in the area. When fishing Mugu always be aware of the surf and where you are on the rocks. Have a planned escape route to being above any rouge wave.
South Bay: Corbina and yellowfin croaker catches have continued in both Hermosa and Manhattan. Larger corbina, over 22”, anglers report are looking for soft-shell sand crabs. Tons of sand crabs can be found under both the Hermosa and Manhattan piers. Anglers using bloodworms and soft sand crabs have had the best luck fishing from King Harbor to the Manhattan Pier. Morning low to high tide periods have been producing the most fish. Redondo and Torrance Beach, along the Avenues, has had so many sand crabs that both corbina and spotfin are being landed right below the Esplanade. Some of the spotfin are pushing 4lbs. Anglers are reminded that these fish often make their way toward RAT beach. So keep working your way toward P.V.
Orange County: Seal Beach continues to have good fishing for halibut to 24”, smaller white seabass in the mix and again, smaller corbina. Warmer water in Orange County has ushered in quite a bit of bait. Bait balls offshore are getting a lot of attention by diving birds. In the Long Beach to Huntington zone the number of angel, thrasher and great white sharks that have been seen is amazing… While, in the Newport area these bait balls have been loaded with bonito…and I’m sure striper too. Spoons like KastMasters and Krocodiles are ideal for casting into these bait balls. When fishing near the Newport jetties, I like to look for birds diving, then carefully move out toward the end of a jetty and cast into the bait ball.
Along from Bolsa Chica to Santa Ana River there have been quite a few small perch and small corbina. Anglers are reporting that the bigger corbina are being very skittish and hard to catch. Those anglers fishing bloodworms and taking the time to find soft sand crabs are having the best luck. Again, low going up to high tide has been the best tides to fish them.
Tackle/bait: Big Fish Bait and Tackle, Seal Beach
San Diego: Warmer water in San Diego seems to have slowed surf fishing this week…possibly as larger fish, like corbina, move northward. From the powerplant at Carlsbad all the way to the Ponto jetty there has been good fishing for yellowfin croaker on all types of bait. Also, quite a few small barred surfperch in the mix. At both Torrey Pines and Black’s Beach, anglers fishing near rock with collected grunion are having a field day on calico bass. Misson Beach continues to have both lots of kelp in the surf and good fishing for smaller corbina and 2-3LB spotfin croaker. Sand crabs have been the secret with anglers reporting that there are tons of perfect crabs under the Crystal Pier.
Tackle/bait: Pacific Coast Bait and Tackle/ Seaforth Landing
Hurricane Kiko, in the very left middle of the picture, churns toward Hawaii, while a series of new Tropical Storms form of Central Mexico
What To Watch For This Month
Synopsis: September signals the middle of the hurricane season and the last month before water temperature in the Southern California bight begins to cool toward winter. Although the hurricane formation in the mid Pacific was slow this year, a series of new tropical storms may still bring big surf and more warm water along the coast…extending our summer season.
Water Temp: 69-74 from SB to SD. Steady water temperatures this last week. Look for more of the same with the chance of a bit warmer temps with south swells coming from both the South Pacific and from hurricane Kiko, that continues to push warm clear water north. Tides: Great tidal movement as we approach the full moon on Sunday the 7th. Today-Sunday, great morning and evening high tides. Changing over early next week to several 6’+ high morning tides. These are some of my favorite tides this time of year to fish for spotfin croaker especially, near rock structure. Ghost shrimp, clams and blood worms will all work well for these fish who love to feed near jetties at high tide.
Wind: Continued great wind patterns with typical summer light morning SW winds along South facing beaches and light offshore on west facing beaches. Afternoon winds on both South and West facing beaches will be between 10-15 knots out of the NW.
Swell: Storms from both the deep South Pacific and off the coast of Mexico continue to send swells this way. Look for surf today through the weekend to be waist to chest high on South facing beaches, with 15 second intervals, and surf on West facing beaches to be waist high and very small except where South swell wrap-around occurs. Even though we had a very strong Tropical Storm in Lorena, because it was so close to the Baja peninsula much of the surf it produced was cut off before making it to SoCal. Hurricane Kiko is now making its way to Hawaii, sending continued waves of warm water our way.
On West facing beaches, look for the surf to be small through the weekend, then begin to increase to chest high through much of next week as a windy low approaches Northern California. Unlike the current south swell at 15 seconds much of the NW wind swell on West facing beaches will be a short 8-10 second interval.
CLICK PICTURE FOR REPORT
