It was a cold February morning with the wind gusting out of the north, a light mist, and puddles of rainwater covering the parking lot where Tad Van Allan and I sat in his truck with cups of coffee warming our hands. In the predawn light we could see small whitecaps covering the undersized cove on the east side of Mission Bay, our fishing destination, and we asked ourselves why we had come out here this morning. The truth was, most anglers probably would have slept in on such a gloomy day, but Tad and I had figured that the bad weather would stir up smaller baitfish and that larger, predatory fish would be there searching for breakfast.
Top-water action is what we were looking for, and Tad was throwing a small black Pole Dancer pattern designed by Charlie Bisharat. After half a dozen casts, Tad got the first “blowup” on his fly and was fast into a hot corvina. The fish dashed across the cove and headed for deeper water while Tad’s reel hummed a familiar tune. The irate fish was quickly into the backing, but rapidly tired from the pressure applied by the drag of the reel. Once the corvina’s head was turned, Tad reeled fast and furiously and kept intense force on the fish with his 9-weight rod. It wasn’t long before the fish was exhausted and in hand. “Twenty-three inches, Solis!” Tad hollered at me across the cove. “Awesome!” I shouted with a slight tone of frustration, because I was still trying to get my first bite of the day. Tad held the fish up out of the water to make sure I could get a really good look at it. “Beautiful! Beautiful!” I said.
Tad got two more fish to crush his fly that drizzly morning, while I managed only a couple of wind knots. But hey, I wasn’t complaining. I was happy to be fishing in San Diego’s Mission Bay, just 10 minutes from my home. It could be worse. I could have been stuck visiting family in Rhode Island and ice fishing.
The Bay
Mission Bay is located a few miles north of downtown San Diego and is visited and enjoyed by thousands of people each year. It’s home to one of the city’s greatest attractions, Sea World, and in addition, wakeboarding, riding personal watercraft, sailing, and of course, fishing are all popular on the bay. But Mission Bay is much smaller than its neighbor, San Diego Bay. The smaller size means that anglers have to deal with fewer commercial, military, and recreational activities.
Twenty-seven million cubic yards of sand and sediment were dredged to construct the landforms of the park at Mission Bay, which now includes a network of cuts, channels, islands, and flats that are home to more than a dozen game fish species that will pounce on a fly. It’s hard to imagine that back in 1958, this place was a foul-smelling, unattractive mudflat. It was a disposal area for a multitude of drainage facilities, overflows from sanitary sewers, and outlets of the San Diego River and Tecolote and Rose Creeks. Fortunately, the residents of San Diego saw the potential beauty of the area and, with the help of public officials and determined planners, transformed the marsh into the jewel that Mission Bay is today.
For the adventurous angler who prefers to fish on foot, this diminutive bay offers almost 30 miles of fishable shoreline, mostly sandy beaches. And with nearly 20 miles of paved bike paths and jogging routes, the access for fly fishers is excellent.
In Mission Bay, a mix of cavernous waterways and abundant grass flats holds a smorgasbord of aquatic life and both itinerant and resident fish. The Pacific Ocean flows into and out of Mission Bay via the Mission Bay Channel. This channel was created by two jetties — the North and South Jetties — a hodgepodge of undulating rocks and boulders. Migrating fish such as bonitos, mackerel, barracudas, white seabass, and yellowtail make their trek into and out of Mission Bay along this waterway throughout the year. Migrating fish tend to be found in the numerous deep channels and passageways as they pursue baitfish that get thrust in and out of the bay with the moving tides. The miles of bay-front beaches allow the angler on foot to reach these furrows and depressions. Mission Bay is also home to a number of resident fish that live its environs year-round. Included are corbinas, sand bass, spotted bay bass, short-fin corvinas, yellowfin croakers, spot-fin croakers, halibut, and, believe it or not, bonefish.
Gear for Mission Bay
As far as rods go, an 8-weight paired with an intermediate line is my first choice for fishing Mission bay and the variety of species a fly fisher is likely to encounter there. This outfit will cover most fishing situations. The 8-weight rod is stout enough to deliver your offerings should you encounter some wind, and the slow sinking intermediate line will allow you to cover most of the various depths throughout the bay. In my younger days, though, when I ventured out onto the jetties, often I would throw fast-sinking, shooting heads. Jetties mean deep water, and the heavier lines can help get the flies down to the strike zone. Conversely, when fishing the shallow-water flats, a floating line on a 6-weight or 8-weight rod can be just what you need. Reels take a beating from the salt, so they should be anodized and, after every visit to a saltwater environment, rinsed thoroughly with fresh water.
Because the migratory fish are following and feeding on small baitfish, I carry a supply of patterns that imitate them: Deceivers, Clousers, Gummy Minnows, ALFs, Sea Habits, Glass Minnows, and Puglisi patterns in sizes 2 to 6 all work great. Off the jetties, I tend to throw flies that are a little bit bigger, tied on hook sizes 1/0 and 2/0, because you never know what might be lurking in that deeper water. Bonefish and redfish flies work well when fishing the flats or along cuts and troughs. Any type of pattern that’s designed to imitate crabs or shrimp will get the attention of the corbinas and croakers that roam the bay. Make sure that you have flies with a variety of different sink rates, though, because you’ll want to be prepared to cover multiple water depths.
Leaders should be a minimum of 9 feet in length, with 10 to 12 feet being the norm, including the tippet. I always use fluorocarbon tippets because of their abrasion resistance and their low visibility. When throwing surface bugs, a leader of 8 or 9 feet is fine, but make sure you add a small 25-pound-test bite tippet. You’ll likely encounter short-fin corvinas that, with their sharp teeth, can wreak havoc on most leaders.
When fishing on foot in the bay, waders aren’t necessary in most cases, but I do recommend a pair of knee-high waterproof boots. At a minimum, the boots will allow you to wade into the water at least a few yards, but most of all, they’ll keep the mud and muck off you.
I fish with a fanny pack or backpack that holds fly boxes, extra leaders, tippet material, a hook sharpener, hemostats and pliers for pinching barbs, camera equipment, extra sunglasses, and a rain jacket. A hat and polarized glasses are a must for spotting fish in the shallows and for protecting your eyes from errant casts. Line management is sometimes an issue, so having a stripping basket can be valuable.
Where to Fish
The majority of Mission Bay’s west side is made up of several smaller coves and harbors with easy access for an angler on foot. These little sanctuaries are hidden treasures and my number-one choice for angling efforts with a fly: Santa Clara Cove, San Juan Cove, Santa Barbara Cove, and Mariners Basin. The boardwalk parallels the beach along these spots and can be reached on foot or with a bike. Balls of baitfish get corralled by larger, predatory fish in these coves during the low-light conditions of the morning and evening hours, and the action can be fast and furious, because these predators will often feed voraciously.
Another good place to focus your efforts is Fiesta Island. There’s a five-mile public road with ample parking that encompasses most of its perimeter. As the tide rises, fish move in to feed on the grass flats, which are loaded with ghost shrimp, crabs, and other juicy critters.
For the extreme angler, navigating your way on the large boulders that make up the North Jetty at the entrance of Mission Bay can be very rewarding. Ample shots at breezing baitfish schools with aggressive marauding fish in close pursuit can be had throughout the spring and summer months. Also, large calico bass love to hang around the jetties year-round. It’s important to remember to bring a stripping basket when fishing from the jetties. Without a basket, fly lines will get sucked down between and around the rocks, which have numerous shells and barnacles attached to them. It’s a nightmare waiting to happen for fly lines.
Tides play a crucial role in your success when fishing the bay. Fishing moving water is imperative — either an incoming or an outgoing tide. Smaller baitfish swim helplessly along with the moving tides, and larger fish hold in ambush locations, waiting for an easy meal. Ambush locations are along ledges and cuts where shallow water drops off into deeper water. Mission Bay is loaded with these outcroppings from the dredging that was done to create this habitat 50 years ago. Channel markers are in place throughout the bay to help boaters locate the deeper water, and these channels are good areas for the fly fisher to seek out. During the day, when the sun is bright overhead, you can see the color change in the water. Light-colored water will change to a deep green where the channel drop-offs are, and these are high-quality places on which to concentrate your efforts.
Throughout the year, around the full and new phases of the moon, San Diego is dealt some of its largest tidal swings. That is when we encounter severe low tides and minus tides — tides that drop below the mean low-water level. Extreme low tides are important to fly fishers on foot, because they provide admittance to areas that otherwise would be accessible only by boat during normal tides.
Sight-fishing opportunities can occur during the middle of the day at many locations throughout the bay. As the tide starts to rise from low to high, the shallow-water flats begin to flood. Because the coves and channels of the bay stay warmer than the nearby ocean, baitfish, crabs, worms, and shrimp move into theses inlets, and croakers, corbinas, and other fish move with the rising water to feed on them.
The summer and fall are San Diego’s warmest seasons, and with them comes warmer water. That’s when bonitos and mackerel, members of the tuna family, can be found throughout Mission Bay, violently attacking and feeding on anchovies, sardines, and other baitfish. These bad boys trek in schools and continually assault unsuspecting bait balls. Baitfish blitzes can be quite a scene, not only for the wading fly fisher, but also for outdoor aficionados out for a walk or jog.
The winter and spring in San Diego bring wind and sometimes rain. Although I consider it cold in the winter and spring, at least in Southern California we are not in a deep freeze like other parts of the country. As I began by saying, some of the nastiest days, surprisingly, produce some of the best top-water action. Rain flushes water down the multiple creeks and gullies that pour into the bay, bringing along waste and debris on which baitfish feed. It’s like a chiming dinner bell, and the baitfish can’t resist. Continuing up the food chain, lying in wait for the baitfish is the ferocious short-fin corvina. With two vampire-like teeth protruding from its upper jaw, the corvina is the velociraptor of
Mission Bay. These hungry assassins round up their prey, using backwater coves to trap and isolate their victims, then mow right through them with reckless abandon. If you happen to be nearby with a fly rod during one these melees, the top-water action can be outstanding.
When throwing top-water bugs, I’ve had the best results using flies that make a lot of surface disturbance and commotion. That usually means bigger flies. You need enough rod to be able to turn those flies over, even into a stiff wind, so I recommend an 8-weight or a 9-weight. Ron Dong’s Crease Flies, Bob’s Bangers, and a number of Rainy’s surface patterns all work for me — the bigger, the better. Charlie Bisharat’s creation, the Pole Dancer, is my favorite surface pattern. This fly swims and darts from side to side and generates jolting strikes. Don’t ask me how he came up with the name, but it’s a great top-water fly for your arsenal.
Sea World isn’t Mission Bay’s only attraction. There’s a different kind of sea world waiting for the fly fisher there, every season of the year. Next time you’re in San Diego, it’s worth bringing a fly rod and giving Mission Bay a visit.
