Caught 25+ soupfins this spring and then the bite died once the water got too warm in early july, and it's just been a lot of leopards since. Seen a couple soupies here and there but it's been generally very slow. Got some nice black seabass on drop baits though

Congrats, this one was well overdue. Great feeling to put in a ton of time and effort for a fish and finally get rewarded

Nice, the fishing has been great lately. I need to put up some reports soon, have caught over 20 this season and I've only put up one back in april

That's sick, these last grunion run tides were also some of the fastest paced casted bait fishing I've experienced

Quote from: j.rasta on June 07, 2023, 06:25:23 PM
I grab it and it's instant slack 😭 I reel and there's no weight at all. Bit off/ rolled through the 80lb mono shock leader.

I fish 150lb-200lb shock/rub leader for this reason. I've even had 150lb get rolled through by a soupfin

This one is interesting

Went down to an SD county beach with a friend to fish surfcasted baits on another grunion run. We got to the beach fairly early so we took some time to hang out and make rigs while people cleared out. Took a look at the water and it was very brown which I didn't like but surf was small and there was no grass or current. The surfers cleared out by sundown and we started fishing.

First couple hours were uneventful, and the grunion hadn't shown up yet so my buddy decides to walk up the beach to see if he can find any. He comes back telling me the beach is full of them just north of us so we decided to move.

We continued to not get bit even fishing where the bait is. Tide was starting to go out and we were losing hope so we decided to fish one last bait and pack up by 12:30.

We talked for a while without even paying any attention to our rods anymore when around 12:25 I get a blistering run on a bullet tuna head. Set hook on it and it feels like a hard fighting soupfin. Makes a good first run and is walking me up and down a bit. But after a few minutes the fish just would not give up and we were questioning whether or not this was a soupfin.

Close to 10 minutes in we realized this is no soupfin. This fish is hauling me up the beach and I'm struggling to get this thing turned. The first 20 or so minutes was almost a stalemate with me following it just trying to stay as straight as I could.

After the 20 minute mark I was finally able to gain more and more line on it. Prior to this any line I'd gain was lost instantly. Slowly but surely I inched this fish in until we finally saw it jumping just past the surf.

Once I got it close enough I just used the waves until my friend could get his hands on it and landed the fish, a tax man just over 7ft. Worked as quick as we could to get it unhooked and released but it was wrapped up pretty good from jumping a lot. My friend did get some good pictures of the process thankfully. Got it released and walked 3/4 of a mile back to where we first hooked it and packed up.

Been over a month and I still can't believe I managed to land that fish, or even hook one on a casted bait since it hardly happens anymore. 60lb mainline, 1.5ft of cable and 150lb mono rub leader somehow held up for over 40 minutes of long runs and jumping, and the mono was in it's mouth when we landed it. I don't see this happening again so I'm glad I didn't farm what's probably my only shot at that fish on casted for who knows how long.

I don't know if a tax man counts for the list since they aren't soups or sevens but this one was surfcasted so if it counts,

4/21/23, White shark, 84+ inches approx, Female, Bullet Tuna, 2-3ft surf, 58 Degree Water, Outgoing Tide, Waxing Crescent, SD

Hell yeah Verne, nice fish

Quote from: Latimeria on May 15, 2023, 08:20:42 AM

Quote from: Farmer_Joey on May 15, 2023, 08:07:27 AM
Hit the beach for a solo mission on the first night of the 4/20-4/23 grunion runs. Decided to hit an OC soup spot that I almost never fish because the kelp gets very unfishable here especially later in the year. Had high hopes for a biter though since the water was finally into the upper 50s and it was a grunion run. Conditions looked good other than a little bit of salad was washing up but there wasn't much past the white wash.

Had my first bait in the water near the end of sunset. Soaked it about 30ish minutes before I checked for bait pickers. Bait was perfect still so I recasted. Only took a few minutes before my line went slack. Pick up my rod and it turns and starts peeling line. Set hook and it's obviously the right kind. Long runs, big headshakes, walking me up and down the beach and a couple jumps. After about a 10 minute fight I got my hands on her and slid her onto the sand. Got it unhooked, took a pic and released it within about 40 seconds.

Kept fishing for a few more hours with only one more bite that didn't get hooked a little after the high tide. Packed up around 12am.

Was stoked to finally get on a surfcasted soupfin again since it had been a while because I was busy playing with sevengills and prickly sharks. Happened about a month later than I expected the first one to bite but oh well.

4/20/23, Soupfin, *72 inch approx, Female, Bullet tuna, 3ft surf, 58 degree water, Incoming tide, New moon, OC

Right on boss!  One year I caught a bunch of bullet tuna offshore and used them for shark bait.  The only bait I found better than bonito!

Congrats and I'll get that up on the list this week!

Definitely a great bait, been working well this spring. But I just stocked up on over 300 pier mackerels so no need to buy bullet tuna for a while

Hit the beach for a solo mission on the first night of the 4/20-4/23 grunion runs. Decided to hit an OC soup spot that I almost never fish because the kelp gets very unfishable here especially later in the year. Had high hopes for a biter though since the water was finally into the upper 50s and it was a grunion run. Conditions looked good other than a little bit of salad was washing up but there wasn't much past the white wash.

Had my first bait in the water near the end of sunset. Soaked it about 30ish minutes before I checked for bait pickers. Bait was perfect still so I recasted. Only took a few minutes before my line went slack. Pick up my rod and it turns and starts peeling line. Set hook and it's obviously the right kind. Long runs, big headshakes, walking me up and down the beach and a couple jumps. After about a 10 minute fight I got my hands on her and slid her onto the sand. Got it unhooked, took a pic and released it within about 40 seconds.

Kept fishing for a few more hours with only one more bite that didn't get hooked a little after the high tide. Packed up around 12am.

Was stoked to finally get on a surfcasted soupfin again since it had been a while because I was busy playing with sevengills and prickly sharks. Happened about a month later than I expected the first one to bite but oh well.

4/20/23, Soupfin, *72 inch approx, Female, Bullet tuna, 3ft surf, 58 degree water, Incoming tide, New moon, OC

Quote from: Latimeria on April 23, 2023, 09:30:34 AM
Congrats of the dropped bait fishing!  I need to get out this week and at least try the long rod again, it's been way too long and I've made enough excuses. 

I'll get them up on the shark list soon.  Anniversary day for me and the wife, so doubt I'll get to it today. 

Definitely time for the long rod, casted is finally seeing some action. And happy anniversary!

March and early April were pretty awful other than for sevengill fishing, but it was almost all dropped baits. Surfcasted baits had been very dead unfortunately.

3/4
Fished dropped baits for sevengills with a couple friends. Started fishing near the end of noon outgoing and we were bit quick. Fairly consistent action with 4 fish landed and some others farmed. Landed my fish just after peak low tide, smaller male around 7ft but fought hard and jumped quite a bit which was cool to see.

3/17
Fished dropped baits again for sevengills. There was a lot going on this trip so i don't really remember the order of things but in short, 13 sevengills were landed in the 24 hours we fished with some others being farmed. I caught 4, one friend also caught 4 and other friend caught 5. Definitely the most wide open bite I've seen as far as beach fishing goes. I did get one on a casted bait which was the highlight for me because everything had been eating dropped baits. None of the fish between the two trips were very big, all around 7ft with some a little bigger or smaller, but still cool to see that many around.

3/4/23, Sevengill, *84 inch approx, Male, Bonito, 3-4ft surf, 55 degree water, Low tide, Waxing Gibbous, VC

3/17/23, Sevengill, *84 inch approx, Male, Bat ray, 1ft surf, 55 degree water, Incoming tide, Waning Crescent, VC

3/17/23, Sevengill (casted), *90 inch approx, Male, Mackerel, 1ft surf, Incoming tide, Waning Crescent, VC

3/17/23, Sevengill, *90 inch approx, Male, Bat ray, 1ft surf, Outgoing tide, Waning Crescent, VC

3/17/23, Sevengill, *78 inch approx, Male, Bat ray, 1ft surf, Incoming tide, Waning Crescent, VC

Quote from: Latimeria on February 19, 2023, 10:28:19 AM
Man, you have been fishing a bunch!  Was that you I saw a video of with the Prickly shark in the surf a few weeks ago?  I'm guessing it probably was!

Once again, Nicely done boss!

Yes that was me haha, I'm the one in the video with my shirt off.

1/20/23, soupfin, 72 inches approx, female, bonito, 0ft surf (caught from a beach in the bay), 58 degree water, high tide, waning crescent, San Diego county

1/21/23, prickly shark, 90 inch approx, female, bonito, 2-3ft surf, 58 degree water, outgoing tide, new moon, LA county

1/27/23, prickly shark, 120 inches approx, female, bonito, 0-1ft surf, 58 degree water, incoming tide, waxing crescent, LA county

2/10/23, soupfin, 74 inches approx, female, bonito, 0ft surf, 57 degree water, incoming tide, waning gibbous, SD county

Not sure if prickly sharks count for the list or bay caught sharks but if they do I'll post tide, sex, water temp etc for them.

Have been fishing non-stop this winter, both bait drops and casted baits up to 4 times a week. Neither has been very productive but i have managed a few fish this year. The casted soupfin bite died in november and sevengill fishing has been very very slow from december-january so i have been fishing for different species or fishing different areas such as sd bay.

1/20/23
Fished a PM high tide in sd bay doing bait drops with a couple friends. First bait is bit in 10 minutes but spits it. Drop again and I'm bit and hook it this time. We get it landed and it's a soupfin right around 6ft but pretty fat. Bit right at the high tide. Really pretty coloring, a very golden brown all the way around with almost no white underbelly, only soupfin I've seen look like this. Fished through the outgoing and my friend had a handful of other bites that spit the bait and hooked one that he farmed.

1/21/23
Went out the next night to a deep water spot with 2 friends to fish for something a little different on bait drops. Good conditions, no wind and small surf. Baits were soaking while  we were all talking and my friend's rod bounces down hard. He let's it eat for a little bit and sets the hook. He fights his fish for a couple minutes when i see my reel is upside down in the rod holder and then line is on the ground. Slack line bite. Run to my rod and wind into it and I'm hooked up too. I'm on heavier gear so we end up landing them almost at the same time, both smaller grade prickly sharks. My friend's being 5.5ft and mine around 7.5ft. Released them back to back. These fish are delicate and don't swim well in the surf so we swam out with them past the surf to make sure they got back out fine. My friend that i doubled up with had to leave after so i stayed for another hour or so with my other buddy and he landed another prickly as we were packing up, about the same size as mine. Successful night, went 3 for 3 all landing one each.

1/27/23
Went back to the same spot with the same species in mind. Similar conditions other than even smaller surf and incoming tide rather than outgoing and this time there was 5 of us. I get bit just before midnight and it feels a lot bigger than my pervious fish. Still made short work of it on the heavy tackle and it got to the surf quick, pricklies don't tend to fight very hard. We get it landed and it's much bigger than my first one, over 10ft and estimated at 500-600lbs. It had a lot of energy so we released it fast and it actually swam off pretty well. Two other bites after that but both spit the bait. Only one fish landed that night but the size made up for it.

2/2/23
Fished surf casted baits at one of my favorite spots in SD, not much to report other than a sasquatch sighting up the beach and a missed bite from some type of shark right at high tide.

2/10/23
Went back down to sd bay to fish dropped baits during the PM incoming tide. Had baits out an hour after dark and we were bit pretty quick. First fish hooked and landed was mine, another fat soupfin. Near the top of the tide around 11pm my friend gets bit and it's another good sized soupfin. Missed a few bites as well. Left after we landed the 2nd soupfin.

Hell yeah good to see more hit the sand, it was slow up there for a while this winter

I checked the spot out around sunset planning to fish it and saw steve walking down so i went to the beach on the south side of you guys. Missed one bite from what i assume was a leopard right at the high tide