Port A help

[Loftin]

Gonna be in Port A for tha day next Sunday labor day weekend with tha wife and daughter. Gonna fish in Tha surf, any green screeners in the area got any advice? Spots, bait, gear?things like that. Just wanna catch some fish

[.270]

Roy's bait and tackle. I walked down 3 aisles and spent $200. I made myself leave.

https://www.roysbaitandtackle.com/

[MitchParker]

Best advice is to drive as much of the surf as you can. You'll know when to stop and fish (birds going INSANE)

[.270]

What I would do at least once is, go across the ferry, get some bait from Crabman Marina on Lighthouse Lakes and bank fish casting into the LA Channel. There is spot with a concrete pad where I usually go. Some spots, you can throw all the way across. Find a place to park on Harbor Island Road

[Loftin]

What's best baits to use in Tha surf??

[MitchParker]

Shrimp, mullet, croaker. I'd throw a cast net and use what you catch.

[Martin]

Now days I use an old Ambassador 5500 on a 7' medium rod with green 17lb Trilene XL. Been using a similar setup for the last 39 years. I also take a small open face spinning reel on a fairly flexible 6' rod to catch bait (ladyfish) I have had a lot of success catching them on a small Gulp Mantis Shrimp. Ladyfish are excellent cut bait for just about everything in the surf. Dead shrimp works well also. Depending on the waves and tides (and time of year) I will use a 1 oz dollar weight with a monofilament leader unless you start getting your lines bit/broken, then switch to steel leaders. If there's good water between the 2nd sandbar and the 3rd sandbar, I'll fish that gut. If the gut between the 2nd and 3rd sandbars isn't too deep and the waves on the 3rd bar won't beat you senseless, I'll fish off of it. If the crabs and hardheads aren't bad, you can use a barrel sinker and fish the tops of the sandbars, throw as far onto it as you can and let the waves wash your bait across the bar back towards you, and down into the gut. I catch a lot of small sharks doing that. I release all sharks. The fun thing about the surf is....you never know what you might catch. When my son was 5 years old, I had him tied to me while we were standing on the 2nd sandbar, he was fishing back towards the beach so we wouldn't cross lines, he had a Zebco 33 with a trout rig on it. In a few minutes he squeals like a mashed cat that he has a fish on. Well, he did...a 27" speck!
It won't hurt to keep another rod handy rigged with some sort of trout rig on it just in case the specks are running in close. Good luck, hope you catch a bunch!

[Ruark]

What would you guys say is the best artificial for that Port A surf? I'm partial to Kastmasters, but open to suggestions.

[Loftin]

Martin how far put would you say the 2nd sand bar is? I've fished the surf a couple times but always wonder if I am going out far enough or not

[Martin]

Martin how far put would you say the 2nd sand bar is? I've fished the surf a couple times but always wonder if I am going out far enough or not

That's hard to answer. Depends on a lot of things. What I do is just drive the beach until I find the waves breaking just right. Again, you have to pay attention to the tide. I like the first sandbar to be a pretty good ways from the beach with an incoming tide. Sometimes this isn't possible....(wife/kids are ready to go). I've caught good fish in the surf everywhere from the south jetty to the Mansfield cut, about the only thing that ruins it is crabs and hardheads, and a slack tide can be pretty slow too. It's not complicated, just have fun and wear plenty of sunscreen( I wear long sleeve shirts and a wide brimmed hat)....I'm old though, LOL.

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

Go way down PINS. Port A will be insanely packed. It is right now.

[Ruark]

Martin how far put would you say the 2nd sand bar is? I've fished the surf a couple times but always wonder if I am going out far enough or not

Walk out into the surf and it starts getting about thigh deep, then rises back up to about calf deep. Keep walking, it gets about waist deep, then rises back up again about knee deep. You're standing on the 2nd sandbar.

[SFAR]

What would you guys say is the best artificial for that Port A surf?

I've used heddon super spooks and rapala skitterwalks and have had very good success with those, if the waves are very calm you might be able to get by with a popping rig with a gulp shrimp.