February is often a stormy month with periods of rain, wind, then calm. This year does seem a bit different with prolonged periods of light winds and small surf.  This week’s surf has picked up with forecasters expecting the weather pattern to change around mid-month, but until then let’s go fishing!

Along with Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and Ground Hog Day, February has some very good tides.  Tidal movement all month is focused around the new moon on February 17th.  Tidal movement enhances fishing but also provides periods to catch bait, look for eddies around rocks and fish areas you would not be able to reach on smaller tidal changes.

This month, billions of grunion will begin their journey to the beach and aggressively stage outside the surf line in anticipation of March 3rd’s full moon.  Yet with that said, grunion rushed the beach last year in February and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them come ashore around mid-month.

Once grunion are introduced into the surf line look for some big changes.  Large halibut, seabass and striper will also come close to shore as they forage on schools of fin bait.  When fishing for these pelagics try to remember to match your bait to the size and colors of grunion.  Lucky Craft, BattleStar and other crank baits have similar patterns to grunion as do many manufactures of swimbaits and other surf lures.

CHECK OUT GRUNION RUN DATES HERE

 Article of the Month:

Candy Bait for Corbina

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Surf Fishing

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Have a great month at the beach and please send your fish reports to: fishthesurf@mail.com

Santa Barbara/Ventura:    Fairly clean water in Santa Barbara this week with great conditions on both the surf and wind front. Amazing BSP fishing all along the bight from Jalama to La Conchita. Anglers fishing 2”-3” curly tail grubs covered with hot sauce, have been slamming the perch. Biggest BSP 13”.

The halibut bite remains good with a few fish around Goleta, with most of the bigger fish being caught above El Capitan State Beach and up on the Hollister Ranch. Above Gavoita pier, one angler caught both a legal white seabass and a halibut from the beach. Down along the southern Santa Barbara coast in Carpinteria and La Conchita good perch fishing has been augmented with catches of big seven gill sharks, leopards and thornback sharks.  Sharks along the coast often feed at night, and because during the winter green-back mackerel are everywhere, this has always been a great bait when fishing shark at night.  As a challenge…Up-size your gear, use a 6/0 hook and cast a half mackerel into the surf at night.  Then hang on, because now you’ve got a great shot at baiting a monster from the beach.

In Ventura, Anglers report tons of 8-12” BSP along both Oxnard and Ventura beaches.  fishermen reported clean and very dirty areas of water and recommended when you find a clear area you’ll find fish there…and when you can find a clear area where rocks meet sand these edges will produce the biggest fish.

Tackle/Bait: Hook, Line and Sinker.  Ask for Ben and tell him Bill sent you!

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Malibu:   Anglers fishing the Thornehill Broom to Pt. Mugu area found it a bit slower fishing this week, but had decent fishing for barred, buttermouth and walleye surfperch.  All the beaches along this stretch offer a variety of fish.  Now is the perfect time to fish calico to walleye surfperch using live baits like lug worms, blood worms, ghost shrimp, mussel, opaleye moss and other natural baits.

From Topanga to the Santa Monica pier the water is, with the exception of a few spots, clean and around 60 degrees. Bigger surf has slowed this area this past week.  Look for big surf over the next two weeks to stir up the charcoal and other fire runoff in the surf and slow fishing.  Probably a good idea to not eat any fish caught in this area for a while.

South Bay:  Corbina are being seen from Torrance to the Santa Monica pier but are still gun shy. Pacific Ocean Pier and Marina Del Rey kicked out some really nice, barred surfperch to 14” and a bunch of medium sized yellowfin croaker and a halibut. Hermosa has been slower this week with a few nice, barred surfperch caught. Anglers are seeing and using egg-less sand crabs to catch these fish along with Gulp and dried lug worms. Lastly, the Redondo Pier has been kicking out plenty of mackerel and even squid for anglers fishing at night using sibiki rigs. Both good baits, mackerel for leopards and squid for everything else…plus this market sized squid is delicious fried as calamari.

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Need advice or have questions:  Email Bill at: fishthesurf.com

Orange County:  For anglers fishing the Newport jetties catching has been good for barred surfperch in the 8-12” range and one corbina that was caught on a dried lug worm.  Bigger surf has hampered anglers here.  Possibly tuck yourself in on the south side of each jetty (in the corner) and fish there.  It should be a bit calmer.

Along the San Clemente to Trestles stretch one angler using dried lug worms reported a very good bite on a wide variety of sizes of to the barred surfperch and yellowfin croaker. While another angler using bloodworms landed a 3lb spotfin croaker.

Tackle/bait:  Big Fish Bait and Tackle, Seal Beach

San Diego:  The big surf slowed fishing in Oceanside, but all in all, very good fishing all along the San Diego coast. Carlsbad lagoon kicked out yet another nice-sized shortfin corvina, caught at night on a white swimbait.  Every year we are seeing more and more corvina caught, with the majority of them caught at night.  Whether it’s in San Diego or Mission Bay or out in the surf near estuaries, corvina are always looking for moving water when searching for food.  Fish these edges at night with a hard bait, a swim bait or any lure resembling fin bait and you’ll have a shot at one.  

Across the street, out on the beach at Carlsbad, another angler locked into a legal halibut using the 110 Lucky Craft Flash Minnow.  The lesson here:  areas around the openings of estuaries always provide plenty of structure, current and food for hungry fish.  So, fish there!

Torrey Pines was a bit slower this week, maybe due to the PGA Tournament, but anglers reported seeing lots of 1” sand crabs with a good bite on 8-12” surfperch with both crabs and bloodworms. Also, a few sub-legal halibut landed here too.

Mission Beach continues to kick out a wide variety of barred surfperch sizes along for a few yellowfin croaker for anglers using mussel, lugs. One seasoned angler suggested using a shorter leader and heavier egg sinker in the bigger surf so that your bait stays on the bottom where surf fish are feeding.  Taking his own advice, his catches increased.

Imperial Beach reported in slow this week except for the occasional 3lb+ yellowfin croaker.  It looks like we finally may be making some progress here with cleaning up the water…fingers crossed!

  Tackle/bait: Pacific Coast Bait and Tackle/ Seaforth Landing

Strong winds from a low-pressure system push straight out of the West and trap warm water into the SoCal bight.  This year’s warm and stable water temperatures have improved winter surf fishing.

Conditions To Watch This Month

Synopsis: February came in like a lamb, and with the exception of mid-month, storms (with very little wind associated with them) it looks like it will go out like a sleeping lamb.  Often, we find this month has vicious storms, punctuated by calm and warm Santa Ana days.  This year has been a bit different, and with the exception of some big surf days, it looks like most of the month will be fishable.  Carefully, watch for rouge surf this month.  If you’re fishing from the rocks always look back before you start fishing and find and “escape” route.  Keep most of your gear well up the rocks where it won’t get splashed or even worse, washed off.  If you’re fishing the beach, be sure to always keep an eye on the surf and look back behind you occasionally to see where you’ll run should the big one come.

Water Temp:  61 from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Strangely the same temperature all along the coast.  In 60+ years I’ve never seen this in winter. 

Tides:  Coming off last week’s full moon and astronomical tides we have severe neap tides all the way up to Valentine’s Day. Neap tides provide very little tidal swing, which may be welcome due to the large swells that will fill in this week, and will help to mitigate their size and beach recontouring. When fishing for halibut during neap tides, find a sheltered area where rock meets sand and fish these areas during the small “nead” tidal changes. Halibut love to feed when the current is light and the seas are calm.

Tides in the second half of the month will be greatly influenced by the new moon on February 17th.  From the week before until almost the end of the month, look for close to astronomical tides with excellent, opportunity filled, daily high tide periods.  For the morning fisherman, there will be several ideal high tides, over the last two weeks of the month, when one can target perch, croaker and even a corbina.

Swell:   Head high surf on West facing beaches and chest high on South facing beaches today. Starting tomorrow, expect a new West swell to fill in with surf to 3+feet overhead. This big NW swell will stay around all of next week. Because of the big surf, and the chance of rouge swells, it been advised not fish from jetties and breakwaters, and while on the sand, keep your eye on the surf and avoid getting tangled into a rip current.

Over the second half of February, we are currently watching the effects of a huge cyclone, off Australia, which will send swells this way around the 16th.  This may be the earliest South Pacific swell ever and could possibly raise our water temperature.  We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know!

Wind: Expect light offshore and side shore winds in the morning, followed by 8-12mph afternoon NW winds. With rain on the horizon for Wednesday next week, look for NW winds to ramp up to about 20mph in the afternoons starting on Tuesday.

TIP:  Some of the biggest barred surfperch are caught this time of year.  The state record, and the biggest barred I’ve ever caught was by using a sidewinder crab and fishing right on the edge of where rock meets sand.  So first, find your favorite jetty, harbor entrance, structure.  Down-size your sinker to 1/8th ounce and shorten your 6lb leader to 10″.  Pin on a sidewinder, drop it down where rock meets sand, reel up so you’re tight to your sinker…and hold on.  The second you feel a tug, reel down immediately and lift up….before that huge perch (the one you’re going to tell you buddies about for the rest of your life) pulls you back, just like a freight train, into the rocks!

HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FISHING SIDEWINDER CRABS

HERE

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GRUNION RUNS coming in MARCH 2026

You’ll find a Full Schedule HERE