First post here
Got to the beach a little before 8pm on an incoming tide. Conditions seemed nice at first, very small surf and not much grass on my practice casts, but after I put my first bait in the water is when i realized the current was pretty bad. 10oz sputnik was getting swept away. Did my best to deal with it though and finally managed to get a bait to stick. Not too long after, the grunion started making a showing.
Just as my dad and I got done talking about how we would probably walk away empty handed because of how pitiful the fishing has been this year even with all this bait around right now, I look up at my rod and watch it get hammered. Jump up and grab the rod, and after the first headshake I could tell it was a soupfin. After a hard but quick fight on 100lb casting tackle, my dad got a hold of her tail and got her onto the beach. Took the hook out, got some terrible pictures and released it. Didn't measure it with a tape but it was just over a wingspan so it was about 70-71 inches. Smaller bait was the ticket, half a mackerel. Took a break from the whole huge mackerels, whole bonitos, bullet tunas, and hand sized bonito heads and yellowtail heads with a 10oz spider weight.
Fished another bait after that and got bit again but this time it bit right behind the hook and left just the head. Big puncture marks and the head was sliced in half. One more bait after that to soak while we packed up and then we left.
Nice to get on one again, the only other fish I have caught this year was a big leopard shark on new year's day. After that, absolutely nothing. And I've been fishing 1-2 times a week every single week everywhere between San Diego and Los Angeles county. And I thought last year was bad.
Don't know how to insert a picture but if I figure it out I will put one in.
Surf: 1-2ft, tide: high, bait: mackerel, approximately 70 inches, county: San Diego, don't know the moon phase.
