Erik Landesfeind

Erik Landesfeind is BD's Southern California Editor and has over 30 years of experience saltwater fishing for a range of species in both California and Mexican waters. Erik is also an active freelance writer and the author of the weekly column So Cal Scene, which BD publishes every Friday. In So Cal Scene, Erik keeps all of the BD readers up to date on what's biting in Southern California. Erik divides his fishing time on local boats, long-range trips and Mexico excursions. For the past eight years, Erik has been competing in the SWBA (Saltwater Bass Anglers) tournament series and has multiple tournament victories to his credit. His sponsors include Batson Enterprises / Rainshadow Rods, Robalo Boats, Tilly's Marine, Abu/Garcia, Penn Reels, Navionics, Raymarine, MC Swimbaits, Uni-Butter Fishing Scent and Bladerunner Tackle.

Articles: 592

Erik Landesfeind Articles

Fishing Reports

Bluefin Fishing Options Looking Good

With bluefin spread from the Channel Islands to below the Mexican border, finding fish to target is easy enough right now that I’m going to forego breaking down this week’s bite zones and instead focus on the different tuna fishing options available to anglers. If …

fish report

Fishing Reports

Bluefin Bite Spreads Up SoCal Coast

It’s been another great week of fishing for anglers across Southern California and it seems like everything is biting. The boats fishing the Channel Islands are slaying the bass and getting occasional big scores on halibut. Meanwhile, the boats fishing the Dirt Clod were loading …

Fishing Reports

Bluefin Surge into U.S. Waters

If you caught last week’s column, you read about the bluefin tuna that had moved in along the coast last week. I kept the details vague as it wasn’t my information to share. Now that the cat is out of the bag, we had some …

Fishing Reports

Big Bluefin Bite Continues In SoCal

It’s been another week of really good tuna fishing really close to home for San Diego anglers. The bluefin schools continued to creep north this week with the fish that were outside the Coronado Islands currently sliding up to and across the border. With fish …

Fishing Reports

Full Moon Fuels Seabass and Bluefin Bites

I got up this morning and the first thing that I saw on Facebook was that the New Hustler out of Hook’s Landing had posted about catching limits of seabass (69 fish) by 5:30 a.m. at Santa Rosa. Shortly thereafter, I logged onto Fishdope and …

tuna tips

Fishing How-to Videos

How To Find Tuna Away From The Fleet

With bluefin tuna biting close to home, it’s almost impossible to not find a fleet sitting in the area that the fish are biting. While most boaters are content to just pull up and join the ever growing mass of boats, those same boaters are …

Fishing Reports

Hot & Cold Fishing Across Southern California

June is usually a month of mixed fishing results but this one summer’s kick-off has been one of the most inconsistent in recent memory. Before I get into the not so consistent action, I’d like to talk about the very consistent tuna bite that’s been …

Fishing Reports

Wind Hampers SoCal Offshore & Island Fishing Action

While it’s been pretty nice along the beach this week, the wind has been blowing steadily at the islands and offshore. The good news is that the wind, which peaked on Wednesday, is forecast to come down over the weekend and stay away for at …

Fishing Reports

Seabass & Big Bluefin Continue To Bite

It’s been another excellent week of fishing for both ends of the Southern California Bight. Boats up north are continuing to score limits or near limits of big seabass and the bluefin bite south of the border continues. In the meantime, the fishing in areas …

seabass reports

seabass reports

Fishing Reports

Big Bluefin & Seabass Bite In SoCal

The fishing along most of Southern California improved greatly after the wind stopped hammering our entire coastline. While there’s still some wind forecast for the northern end of the bight through Saturday, there’s zero wind in the forecast, not even in the afternoons, for most …

Bottom Feeders How To Fish

Finding & Catching Shallow Water Rockfish

With the availability of advanced cartography on both our plotters and phone apps, it’s easier than ever to find deep water structure spots. While knowing exactly where to go will cut down on time spent driving around looking for places to fish, even in the …

Fishing Reports

Good SoCal Fishing Before Wind Delay

In case you haven’t checked the weather report lately, it’s been windy as hell on the water this week. The wind storm is forecast to blow itself out by the weekend, but with sustained winds exceeding 20 knots on Thursday and Friday, I’m not sure …

Fishing Reports

Good Spring Fishing Continues For SoCal

It’s been another pretty good week of fishing across Southern California and the big news continues to be the bluefin bite. As has been the case in recent weeks, the bluefin bite has been sporadic with big scores coming late last week, before things slowed …

rockfishing tips

rockfishing tips

Bottom Feeders Fishing How-to Videos Fishing Videos How To Fish

3 Top Rockfish Rigs – How To Video

Erik Landesfeind, BD Pro Team member, demonstrates how to rig up three of his favorite rockfish rigs using lures and bait. Erik first demonstrates how he likes to build a rig for lingcod when fishing a larger bait like big mackerel, sanddab, or other large …

Fishing Reports

SoCal Inshore & Offshore Action Improves

It’s been another week of good fishing across Southern California. Starting up north, the seabass fishing at the northern Channel Islands was great this week with most boats reporting limits the last few days. Earlier this week they were forecasting lots of wind for that …

tuna reports

Fishing Reports

SoCal’s Spring Fishing Continues to Improve

While the weekend’s full moon had a negative impact on some fisheries, overall its been another good week of spring fishing. Better yet, a few recent catches indicate that we might be at the beginning of a more “normal” summer season. I put normal in …

lingcod

Fishing Reports

Good Fishing Weather In SoCal Weekend Forecast

It’s been a mixed bag of weather across Southern California this week. With hot temperatures over the weekend followed by cool overcast and sometimes windy weather the rest of the week, it feels like a cross between winter and June Gloom. Whatever the case, spring …

bluefin tuna

Fishing Reports

Big Bluefin Bite Continues

Well, it’s been another mostly windy week across much of Southern California, but the good news is that the fish are biting nonetheless. This week’s top story continues to be the bluefin tuna bite that’s happening within 1 1/2-day range of San Diego. The boats …

Fishing Reports

Spring Fishing Heats Up

Though the wind continues to be a factor up north and on the outside, it’s been another week of improved fishing across Southern California. The bluefin are finally starting to cooperate down south, the yellows are biting at the Coronado Islands, and boats fishing from …

rockfish report

rockfish report

Fishing Reports

Good Fishing Across Southern California

It’s amazing what a week of semi decent weather can do for the fishing in Southern California. For the first time in weeks, we were able to string together almost a week’s worth of nice days and the fish responded despite water temps in the …

Fishing How-to Videos Fishing Videos How To Fish

How To Catch Rockfish Using Artificial Lures

Erik Landesfeind created this video to show the tackle, lures, and presentations you'll need to target shallow water rockfish on a private or sport boat.

Fishing Reports

Improved Weather in SoCal Weekend Forecast

I wish that I had some great fishing to report on today but this has been one of the windier weeks in one of the windier months we’ve had in a very long time. March tends to be windy in general but this seems like …

Fishing Reports

Rockfish Action & Good Sign Offshore SoCal

It’s been yet another week of mostly bad weather and things aren’t looking to promising for next week either. That being said, the weatherman definitely missed last weekend’s forecast by a mile. They were calling for wind up north and outside, with calm weather along …

Fishing Reports

Good Fishing Weather For SoCal’s Weekend Forecast

BD's Erik Landesfeind is optimistic about the weather and the fishing that SoCal anglers might expect for the coming weekend. He sums up recent fishing reports and offers his predictions.

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