Half day in San Diego Bay 4-3-10

**wsbkiller** · Apr-04-2010, 08:02 AM

There was a real nice incoming tide today so we decided to pass on Zuniga, The IB Flats, and some of our other favorite inshore haunts in favor of the bay. It turned out to be a good call, especially in the afternoon as the wind picked up and turned the outside real snotty, but made for good drifting conditions on the inside.
Today was another half day charter with kids on board, and with kids on board, we always pick our best options for putting fish on the deck. It's always anglers choice around here, and I always ask the kids the same question..."You wanna catch a bunch of little ones, or take a shot at the big one?" and the answer is almost always the same "Let's go for a big one!".
My personal favorite with kids on these short trips is a hot sculpin or barracuda bite. Kids seem to love 'em, for obvious reasons I guess, (one has poisonous spines, and the other has lots of sharp teeth). But with the sculpin and barracuda bite yet to develop, fishing the inside for bass, halibut, and small sharks is almost always a big hit as well.
We picked on a good spot today and pretty much set up the same drift over and over, with the best action coming after noon when the tide was peaking and the winds gave us a nice steady drift.
We had a nice steady pick of short halibut (at least a dozen, with several "almost legal" models), spotted bay bass, lizard fish, small smoothound sharks, bonito, and... "The Big One "...a nice 12 pound halibut!