Dead Dog...my friend,
Asking for and receiving fishing related information from others "outside of your region" can waste a lot of your time. These yahoos are fishing waters that may seem similar to Mission Bay but can be far from it. At times, you'll receive good bits of info mixed in with a lot of hub-bub. These wannabe's will go so far as to slap a 15 second cut-n-paste photo pic of someone else's nice fish and put their mug onto it. Like the photo below...just look at all of the lines that don't fit this poser...I'm just saying.
Here's the deal:
If you can, try to make your bait while the tide is moving. Of course that's usually the best time to catch a fish so when making bait, you can really waste good fishing time. Why not run to the bait barge and buy a $10 kayak scoop? That can be a BIG shortcut because making bait in Mission Bay can be inconsistent. But I digress...
When I'm flat broke and I don't have $10 worth of empty PEPSI cans in the back of my truck
...and I need to make some bait in MB...I head out to the Bay's entrance, metering along the way. Yeah there are times when you can load up mackerel near the bait receiver and that def is my 2nd option but the mouth has the real moving water. Meter around either jetty corner and drop whenever you see marks on your meter...when it's really slow, tip your hooks with micro pieces of squid or at least dip them in UniButter.
But you new guys at times don't yet have a decent meter or even a bait system...raise your odds tremendously...get both...increase your odds even more, fish San Diego Bay for butts. But whatever you do, don't trust the fakers/posers/wannbe momma boys. Good luck. Jim