south bay- the deep south?

[monstahfish]

Or maybe I should say the not so deep south. Does anyone here ever fish way down in south bay where the water is only 1ft deep at low tide? It seems to me like you should be able to find croakers and bonefish tailing or mudding back there. Yellow fin, black and spotfin croaker are so similar to redfish it just makes sense they would share certain behaviors. I am thinking of grabbing the fly rod and giving it a go this weekend if anyone wants to try sight fishing back there. If all else fails, we can go back to the deeper water and still catch fish.

[makobob]

Originally Posted by monstahfish

Or maybe I should say the not so deep south. Does anyone here ever fish way down in south bay where the water is only 1ft deep at low tide? It seems to me like you should be able to find croakers and bonefish tailing or mudding back there. Yellow fin, black and spotfin croaker are so similar to redfish it just makes sense they would share certain behaviors. I am thinking of grabbing the fly rod and giving it a go this weekend if anyone wants to try sight fishing back there. If all else fails, we can go back to the deeper water and still catch fish.

I like your logic, you should have a blast, especially if you get into the bones, try a small crab or shrimp pattern for them.

[taggermike]

I've fished south bay for decades and have never seen fish tailing before. But I'm not in water that shallow often. Although they look a bit similar, red fish and our west coast spot fin and yellow fin croaker behave much differently. Never heard of spot or yellow fin tailing or being any where close to as insanely aggressive as reds can be. Give the area a look, you might find some thing new. And like you said, you can easily move to the deeper water. Mike

[corpsmanusn2001]

The only thing I've been able to sight fish are Corbina from shore. They like real skinny water. I bet if you can tie a sand crab pattern you'd kill em.

[Fishin Phil]

The only fish breaking the surface are usually mullet. You can launch at J street marina. If you want a better chance at a bonefish launch out of bayside or pepper park.

[roadx]

just be careful of your location. some of the best bone fish area is in the san diego bay national wildlife refuge

no fishing in this area

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/San_Diego_Bay/map.html

[roadx]

if you have a cell phone i highly suggest to get an app called
fish alerts

it's free

[monstahfish]

Thank RoadX, I was unaware that was a closed area. I'm coming up on 2 years of being out here from boston and finding so many of the best looking spots around here are closed off. On second look there may still be a few spots that might have what I'm looking for I just have to mind the map. Also is fish alerts an iphone app? I couldn't find it in the google play store.

[monstahfish]

Originally Posted by corpsmanusn2001

The only thing I've been able to sight fish are Corbina from shore. They like real skinny water. I bet if you can tie a sand crab pattern you'd kill em.

I have seen a few. There's tons of them at LJ but once again can't fish there. Not a big fan of surf fishing but that's likely cause I haven't done much of it.