This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Video: Mild Weather Brings Good Bite

A mild winter is producing good wintertime fishing in Southern California. See some big halibut, lots of bass, mola mola and marine mammals in this week's fishing video.

A mild La Niña winter in Southern California is producing some pretty good fishing for saltwater anglers. From San Clemente to Marina del Rey, there have been good catches of sculpin, calico and sand bass, and sand dabs.

The weather has been sunny and mild and the water cool. Because market squid thrive in cooler water temperatures, there have been plenty of the mollusks available for bait. Anglers call squid the "candy bait" because so many gamefish and predators like to eat it.

Ron Hobbs from Westminster used squid to lure an 18-pound halibut into a bite on board the Westerly out of Long Beach Sportfishing on Sunday, while Ricky Perez from Long Beach caught a 12-pound flatfish.

Find out what's happening in Marina Del Reywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Chris Dunn, the chief meteorologist for KPHO-TV in Phoenix, came out to Southern California with his son Jack and caught several nice sand bass. One of those sand bass was the largest fish taken Saturday on board the Westerly, garnering Dunn bragging right and the jackpot. Jack caught lots of sand dabs and along with several other kids, got to drive the boat for a while.

The weather forecast is for more mild weather with no rain in sight. While they may add to our drought problem, it should make for some more good winter time fishing in Southern California.

Find out what's happening in Marina Del Reywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

About this column: Philip Friedman offers his weekly fishing report every Thursday, as well as a video update each weekend.

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?