I recently moved to Santa Monica, and am looking to get some surf fishing in this weekend. Does anybody have some recomendations for some good spots to target the BSP, Corbina or 'Buts?

In answer to my own question:

Got a late start Saturday morning. Got to SM Beach at Ocean Park Blvd at about 7:30 and it was already slammed with surfers etc. So, I headed south to Dockweiler State Beach.

Fished for a couple hours adjacent to a small jetty type structure. Used a Carolina rig with a small (2") motor oil/red flake grub. Tryed the nose-hooking method Fongster talks about in his post. Seemed to work pretty well. Still had some line twist by the end, though.

Got some pretty good hits. Had the tail removed from a couple of the grubs. Caught and released 3 medium/medium large Barreds.

I think my set-up may be to heavy overall. I'm curious about light rod and reel recommendations from the board. I've got older Shimano Baitrunner 3500's, paired with Penn Californian Medium rods right now. What are some of you surf fishing vets using?

Thanks in advance for any info.

I use a 9ft 7wt flyrod which I bought as a blank and built as spinning rod. I've tried various ultra light rods but never found an action I liked in rod that was long enough to suit my needs until the I decided to make a fly rod in to a spinning rod. My first one was 8ft 6wt. After the first morning out on the beach with I was sold on the fly rod concept. Keep in mind at the time there wasn't really much on the market in terms longer ultra light rods. Kencor had a few models out but nothing in graphite. Today there are several companies manufacturing long ultra lights. I would recommend a rod 8 to 9' in length and I use a shimano TX 1000 reel. The 500 doesn't seem to have enough line capacity for the surf plus the 1000 is a lot more durable. These reels are strong and great bargain at $20 or even less on line. I have used some more expensive reels in the surf and have found even with lots of care they break just as fast as the cheaper reels so why spend the extra money. I have also found in the surf the reels with less berrings are better. Good luck.

JerryG

Thanks JerryG for the all the info.