Early March LA Coastal Bite: Perch, Croaker, and Halibut in Moving Water

0:00President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to raid the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years. But you can stop them by voting yes by April 21st. Help put our elections back on a level playing field and let voters decide not politicians. Vote yes by April 21st. Paid for by Virginians for fair elections. With its two juicy beef patties and three slices of melted cheese topped with tangy big arch sauce, the big arch is what happens when you start making a McDonald's burger and never stop. The big arch, the most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet for a limited time. This is Artificial Lure with your Los Angeles Coastal Fishing Report. We've got a classic early marked setup along the LA beaches. Cool mornings, light marine layer, and a mellow bump of West swell. Air temperatures are riding mid fifties at first light, climbing into the mid sixties

1:02with light on shore wind through the afternoon. It's jacket weather at dawn T-shirt by lunch. Tides are friendly for surf anglers today. Tide forecasts, Los Angeles table shows a pre-don low around 5.30 a.m. at roughly 0.7 feet. A late morning high near 11.30 a.m. just over 3.5 feet. An afternoon low around 4.45 p.m. at about a foot and a half. Then a solid evening high just under 5 feet around 11.15 p.m. Sunrise is about 6.15 a.m. and sunset right before 6.00 p.m. So you get prime light with moving water both morning and evening. Water still chilly, sitting in the upper fifties to low sixties along Santa Monica Bay and down toward the harbor. That's kept the exotics quiet, but the bread and butter coastal stuff is very much alive. Local reports from peers and harbors this week mention a steady pick of barred surf perch and yellow

2:04fin croaker in the suds plus legal halibut starting to wake up on the inside. The break walls and harbor mounts are given up calico bass, sand bass, and the odds sculpting at night with a few short white sea bass sniffing around the sand edges. On the number side, most surf guys are seeing half a dozen to a dozen perch in a morning tide if they move and cover water. With a mix of hand-size fish in the occasional 12 to 14-H model, croaker counts are spot-ier, but chunky where you hit them. Two or three quality fish per angler when you find a good trough. Halibut are still more hunt them stack, but there have been a handful of legals a day reported out of the harbor and Marina del raid boats with a lot of shorts in the mix. Best baits in the surf it's hard to beat soft shell sand crabs, lug worms, and bloodworms, on light carolina rigs, muscle and ghost chrunt are working around rocks and in the harbors. For artificial fans, small two to three inch swim baits

3:07in baitfish colors, gulp sand worms in camo, and one half to three quarters outs chrome or anchovy pattern spoons are solid producers. Halibut want three four inch paddletails and smelter sardine or fluk style jerkbait on a one quarter to three eighth ounce head, slow roll just off the bottom. A couple hot spots to circle, dockwiler to El Porto. That Santa Monica base stretch has good structure right now, with defined cuts and bowls lining up on the mid-morning rising tide, target perch and croaker along the inside scenes, fish the low tide to actually see the troughs, then come back on the flood and worked in with sand crabs or gulp worms, light lines six to eight pound flurrow and small size four six hooks will put fish in your hands. Portovela sand padro area, the outer harbor and break wall zones are a solid bet for bass and halibut. Evening high tide is prime, slow crank swim baits along the rocks for calico and

4:08sand bass, then slide out to the sandy pockets for a shot of flatties. Fresh dead anchovy or sardine on a dropper loop still gets bid if you're not throwing plastics. If you're more into easy peer duty, both Santa Monica and Manhattan peers have been giving up perch, small mackerel and a few thornback rays on cut squid. Go family set up, especially around that late morning high. Overall fish activity is moderate, but very tide dependent. The bite window has lined up best from first light through the late morning high, then again for that last hour of daylight into dark on the evening push. If you can only fish a short session, aim for moving water, not clock time. That's your LA coastal rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production. For more, check out quietplease.ai President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough

5:09seats in Congress to raid the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years, but you can stop them by voting yes by April 21st. Help put our elections back on a level playing field and let voters decide not politicians. Vote yes by April 21st.