San Diego County affords residents and visitors with not only diverse, but world class fishing opportunities. What San Diego lacks in quantity of bodies of water, it more than makes up for in quality. From the world-class Sportfishing Fleet, to our record size largemouth bass, there is a spectacular fishing opportunity waiting for you! We have outlined the most popular places to fish in the county, which you will find in this section of the website. We do our best to keep this information up to date, but please always check with the locations official website for the most up to date information.
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Dixon has been made famous in recent years by a series of catches
(likely the same bass) that have grasped national attention. In April
of 2001, Mike Long of Poway caught a 20 lb. 12 oz. bass. Just over two
years later, in June of 2003, Jed Dickerson of Carlsbad caught a 21 lb. 11.2 Oz.
bass. This is where it gets really interesting - the 21 lb 11 oz
monster is thought to be the same bass that Long caught (and released)
in 2001. Made famous by her "beauty mark" the distinct bass has earned
her share of publicity. Most would assume a bass this size would be
near the end of its growing stage and not be able to add much more
weight, or live much longer for that matter.
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 Mission Bay provides anglers an extremely diverse year-round fishery.
The bay is generally shallow, with the max depth in most areas of the
bay being only 12 feet with slow sloping sand bottoms. Some areas,
including the Mission Bay Channel, Mariner's Basin and Quivera Basin
have a max-depth of 20 feet. The majority of the shoreline is sand, but
there are several areas (along the Mission Bay channel for example)
that are lined with rocks. There is roughly 27 miles of shoreline along
Mission Bay, with 19 miles of that being comprised of sand.
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Hodges is known nationally for it's largemouth bass population. This
lake is one of the few ever to produce a 20 lb class largemouth without
a trout stock at the lake. The lake record is 20 lbs 4 ozs. Popular
lures for bass here include plastic worms (6-12 inches), pig-n-jigs,
spinnerbaits, crankbaits and of course live baits especially crawdads.
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El Capitan is a premier bass and crappie fishery headlining the fish
counts regularly. The words "North End" become very cliche when it
comes to this lake as the majority of fish, whether it be bass,
crappie, or catfish are reportedly caught at the North End of the lake.
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Murray along with a majority of the San Diego lakes has proven to be a
HAWG bass lake with dozens of fish exceeding 10 lbs., several over 15
lbs. hitting the record books in the past few years. The lake has a
fairly featureless shoreline with rocky slopes slowly leading to deeper
water. There are a few small coves with submerged brush and rockpiles,
and several man made rockpiles, sunken trees and other artificial
holding spots up and down the shoreline. A fish finder can be very
beneficial, but the lake is small enough and predictable enough to find
the fish. For the larger bass, try any of a variety of artificial trout
imitators. Either slow troll the deeper water along the points, coves
and drop-offs or cast and retrieve making as little noise as possible.
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Miramar is something of a miniaturized factory for making big bass. It
is a tiny lake, just 180 acres with an estimated population of 5,000
bass. But they get huge. Stocked trout are like growing pills, and good
numbers of threadfin shad are available as well, as prime forage.
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Coming soon...
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This small lake produces big fish in big numbers. Bass over 15 lbs. are
very common, almost caught weekly at times. The lake receives
relatively little pressure despite this fact though. Due to heavy
stocking of rainbow trout in the winter, which happens to be a favorite
meal for largemouth, the bass get fat quick.
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Jennings holds a reputation for being a BIG catfish producer, and is
one of a minority of San Diego County lakes that contains the larger
Blue Catfish. Every year several cats over 15 lbs. are reported,
especially during the summer night fishing season. Mackerel and
chicken-livers are not-surprisingly the top producers, but any stink
bait works in the shallows at night for the nocturnal feeders.
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When pro's and fishing articles mention bass fishing on the west coast,
Lower Otay is likely to come up. It is one of the long standing
premiere bass fisheries on the west coast that has made a name for
itself through it's long history. The lake is equally matched with
quality and quantity bass fishing. It has the looks of a bass lake with
old dead trees sticking out of the water and booming rockpiles
collapsing into the lake.
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Due to the colder climate of Cuyamaca, the lake is ideal for
year-around trout fishing with 42,400 lbs. of trout stocked all year
long. On the average, trout tend to be small (3/4 - 1 lb avg) but are
often caught over 10 lbs. Cuyamaca is also the only lake in the county
which fly fishing is widely practiced. Besides trout Cuyamaca has a
descent population of largemouth bass with quite a few pushing 10 lbs
and more, catfish, crappie and bluegill. Cuyamaca is also home to two
species of fish rare to San Diego County; Sturgeon and Smallmouth Bass.
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