Mission Bay-Mariner's Point
 

Staying on the Bay for a week at the end of June. Will take my Kayak. What are the best lures/bait to use in this area? What type of fish can I expect to catch? Any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, will be my first time fishing this area.

so , fishing in the bay can be very fun. My advice is if you are fishing on a weekend, make it early in the morning before all the sailboats, and jetskis get rented (about 10 am) During the week it is much more quiet.

-fish when the tide is moving either in or out

lots of grass beds, fish weedless or mostly weedless lures

my favorites are swimbaits 3-4" big hammers with weedless swing jig head

-spinner baits (the wire type, not the in-line roostertail type)

and 4" grubs with a weedless sled head

get yourself some Uni-butter, "Hotsauce" or Calico Cocktail fish attractant , dose each lure about every 5-6 cast

keep the bait on, or near the bottom, fish with a slow retrieve

Also do some searching around on this forum, there are lots of threads that talk about best baits and places to fish!!

Good Luck, and Tight Lines!

If you have the chance, wake up 15 minutes earlier drive north about 10 minutes, to a place called LJ. She has been known to put out a fish or two. If you do want to fish the bays, my go to would be the dropshot fluke, 5". Very versatile bait IMO.

That pretty solid advice there^^^^. If you get some live bait (or frozen), Carolina rig it and drift around for a bit. There is a bait barge in quivera basin you can hit up if you have the means to keep it.

Jay

Fish the weedbeds, that's where the spooted bay bass hang out. Use weedless jerkbaits or soft plastics with warbaits weedless leadheads with 3" or 4" swimbaits. Cast out and let the bait sink and then 'hop' it up and over the tops of the weeds or reel something just above the tops of the weeds. When the bass are turned on, Mission Bay can be awesome.

There are some big halibut around and those tend to be in the sandy areas. Most people seem to use either live bait or fresh dead bait.

Good luck and tight lines!

Thanks for all the advice guys. I will get out early each morning and see what I can find. Do baitcasters or spinning reels work better of kayaks, or is it just personal preference?

It's kind of a personal preferernce. I like using baitcasters for swimbaits but spinning reels for jerk baits.