Advice on Fishing from the Sand on the Bays

Low tide is your best friend. It brings you closer to the eel grass where the fish actually hang out. T Tigs, light weedless set ups and slow presentations typically out perform swimbaits.

 

In San Diego Bay, spanish landing has a small sandy spot with a playground right next to it. Hit or miss there tho.
In MB, tecolote shores, Fanuel park, bonita cove, and I can’t recall if de anza cove has a playground or not but the other ones do. Those are all sandy areas that are kid friendly.

 

Mission Pt and Santa Clara Pt in MB both have playgrounds

 

I see a lot of families playing in the water and snorkeling at mission point. They also teach scuba diving lessons there, so good structure.

 

Fishing off of mission point can also open up a few different species that will stray in from the channel, just for variety. All of which I'm sure would enjoy a tasty ghost shrimp treat. Santa Clara point, especially facing the bay side (as opposed to the cove, which gets crowded af) is a great place, and there are opportunities for pumping the coves there too

 

That kinda shocks me, normally if you toss ghosties inside bonita/mariners you end up with a multiple species day. If you were using the bigger ghost shrimp, over 3”, that could be a possible reason. I like 2.5”-3” ghosties, they get bit way more. Easier to cast with also. Bigger ones often fly off on the cast, or get pecked to death around the hook. If you were using smaller ones and it was slow that’s a different story, then I shrug my shoulders and call it part of fishing.
Once upon a time De Anza Cove was great for bass fishing. It’s more of a bait soak zone to me now. But give it a whirl, I haven’t been over there in just about a year and a half now so I’m not up to date on the action there.

 

Don't knock the idea of fishing mission bay at low tide... Gives amazing access to the eelgrass beds, and that is where a lot of the fish are. You can catch fish at high tide, but low tide lets you skate your lures right over the cover the fish will be holding in waiting for something to swim past and become dinner. Or if you can really make the long casts, even get out past the shallows and have fun hitting the ledges for ambush predators (halibut, particularly)

 

What pound test were you using? I’d start with 8lb, or even 6.

 

I prefer lower tides. The lower the better. That cove gets pretty deep for MB status, crawl those ghosties next to the moored boats and you’ll have a different outcome.
If you go to DAC, let us know how you do

 

And please do not buy into the “best time” solunar charts. I guarantee you the fish are hungry a couple times a day regardless of what the moon and sun are doing. Move around, try new spots, STUDY them, log your findings, and before you know it the bays will reveal a secret or two to you. You’ll know when to go where or at least have a decent idea. You’ll definitely find what tides you favor at certain spots.
All my high tide spots are basically vina spots. All my low tide spots are bass spots. Once you get your favorite spots down, the wind is usually the deciding factor where you end up. At least it is for me.

 

I go typically pretty light fishing mb. Almost always a texas rig, and generally never more than 3/8oz. I've always disliked dropshots through most of there because oh man snags for days, but they do work just fine. I typically only go with 1/2oz in that manner, but that is as much due to thats about as high as my rod is rated. Play around with colors and the such frequently too. One color might not be what they want that day, but another might be fire that day.

And yeah, I've given up trying to keep a line in the water at all fishing with my daughter lol. If she is paying attention she wants the rod I'm using, and if she isn't I don't have the time to pay attention to one at all. Fishing with kids is a pain in the butt when all you want to do is feel that tug lol