Late Summer Fishing in LA: Croaker, Bonito, and More

Artificial Lure here with your September 10th, 2025, Los Angeles fishing report. Sunrise hit at 6:33 this morning and sunset’s coming up at 7:05 tonight. Weather’s sitting at a cool 66 degrees with barely a cloud in sight and only a light breeze—ideal for working the piers and harbors early before the afternoon winds stir things up, according to the latest from Tides Chart. The tides today are favorable for morning and midday action: low tide just after 5 a.m., then a steep high at 11:24 a.m.—so expect changing currents and fish moving into the shallows through the late morning. Out on the water, September’s shaping up as classic late-summer fare for LA, with a few pleasant surprises sprinkled in. PierFishing.com’s most recent LA/OC reports say the inshore bite is solid for yellowfin and spotfin croaker, along with good numbers of surfperch and the odd corbina if you work the troughs at sunrise with sandcrabs or ghost shrimp. Bonito have shown up again at San Clemente and are making sporadic rushes up the coast, but they’re choosy—anglers who scored limits switched to Lucky Craft Smelt lures paired with a splasher setup after feathers stopped producing. For croaker and perch, natural baits like mussel, shrimp, or soft-shelled sandcrabs are working best right now, and anyone lucky enough to dig up an innkeeper worm will be beating the crowds to corbina, based on local tips from PierFishing’s corbina thread. Further out, the mackerel are still boiling up top around the ends of most city piers, with herring (queenfish) moving underneath. If you hit Seal Beach or Redondo, try sabiki rigs tipped with small strips of squid or smelt for fast bait action. According to Big Fish Bait & Tackle, you might even run into a few leopard sharks and bat rays if you’re pitching chunk mack at night, though overall shark activity’s been slow. Boat-based anglers are seeing reliable counts of calico bass and sand bass, with Davey’s Locker boats like the Western Pride bringing in up to 34 calicos and double-digit sand bass on short PM trips last week—not bad for September. Whitefish and sheephead are filling sacks too, mostly on cut squid or live bait fished hard on the bottom over structure, per their September 3 report. If you’re after a trophy, targeting the kelp edges off the Palos Verdes or around Point Fermin with plastics or a dropper loop is worth a go. Out at Channel Islands, the freelance boats are hunting halibut, white seabass, and barracuda—reports say you’ll want to bring your flukes, heavy jigs, and plenty of live sardine or mackerel for deeper drops. For pier and surf anglers closer to the city, consider metal jigs (Krocodile, Kastmaster) if the bonito are in, and go with Carolina rigs and Gulp! Sandworm for perch and croaker during the slower midday periods. Top hot spots: - Cabrillo Beach Pier is turning up a steady mixed bag of croaker, mackerel, and the occasional sculpin. - Venice Pier is another solid bet for bonito and mackerel, especially This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.