Oceanside Harbor
 

Hi guys,

I am curious how the fishing is outside of Oceanside harbor for kayaks? I'm feeling lazy and want to do an O'Dark Thirty launch and get out on the water and either drift for the halibut or check around for reds.

Thanks in advance.

Stan, I am surprised that your asking about Oceanside. It seems like there would be plenty of good Halibut fishing closer to Thousand Oaks off Malibu?

Not a ton of offshore structure in the immediate area that's conducive to rockfishes. Most kayak anglers target one of the two artificial reefs, although drifting for halibut is sometimes productive.

There’s halibut in the harbor, surf zone and by the reefs. AR2 is popular for halibut.

Lots of small rockfish and decent bass around.

One of the cooler things about oside is the yellowtail and white sea bass that everyone drives over. Take a couple trips to the boat ramp and you’ll find skiffs bringing in yellows, WSB, swordfish, thresher and halibut while the charter boats just bring in rockfish.

If you want to target rockfish launch from Carlsbad and hit the canyon ledges.

I like the idea. I may check it out.

I'm in Murrieta, CA and Bonney Lake, WA these days.

Nice, I see you updated your profile. Bonny lake sounds interesting. I ran into Puget Sound regularly on ships --beautiful! It would be awesome to see a Tiger Musky off a kayak up there.:reel:

Best bet is north of the old outlet jetties for the power plant and south of the lagoon inlet. It’s deep and a hard shore break but the timing isn’t bad. You can slip between them pretty easy and usually manage a decent landing.

Hi, any live bait in the harbor for purchase?

Yes, there's a bait dock in the harbor

Looks like there could be some decent kelp bed fishing. I’ll put the place on my list!

Where in Carlsbad can you launch from?

As for fishing in O'Side, you might be able to get some rockfish on AR1 reef area. I usually hit up the AR2 reef area for some bass and the occasional halibut or sheepshead, mostly bass though. The AR2 area used to be outstanding for bass but seems to be fished out these days, unless I've just hit them on a bad day for the last three years.

I’ll look them up. I think I have a document with the coordinates. Thanks.