Ep. 133: Chasing Fish across Southern California with Marcus Fain

Guest: Marcus Fain (@marcfisherguy)

Hosts: Daniel Dahlin ([FISH]rx), El Charly

Marcus Fain brings a rare perspective to SoCal fishery health — he works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as a fishery sampler on the CRFS (California Recreational Fisheries Survey), conducting biological surveys at piers, jetties, launch ramps, and on sport fishing vessels. This episode covers what the data actually shows about the local fishery, how El Niño is reshaping conditions right now, and a full breakdown of offshore tactics for yellowtail, tuna, and rockfish from someone who has spent decades fishing these waters from the inside out.

In This Episode

• How CRFS data gets collected and why it matters for the regulations that govern your fishing
• What the summer/early fall 2025 sand bass migration looked like from a fishery-data perspective — and why it hadn’t been seen at that scale since the late 1990s
• What happens to kelp, calico bass, and white seabass habitat when warm water pushes in for multiple seasons
• Why this El Niño cycle could bring excellent pelagic fishing even as inshore kelp-line fishing softens
• How to set up four rods for an overnight trip targeting yellowtail right now: fly line, dropper loop, cod rod, and surface iron
• The spider hitch dropper loop and why it’s stronger than a standard loop under load
• Circle hooks for tuna, J hooks for everything else — the reasoning behind the rule
• Why braid needs mono backing on the spool, and how a loose-spinning line fools anglers into thinking the drag is slipping

SoCal Fishery Health: What the Warm Water Cycle Is Actually Doing

Marcus has been in the field long enough to put what’s happening right now in historical context. The sand bass migration that came through in summer and early fall of 2025 was, by his account, the strongest showing since roughly 1999. It came on the back of a stretch of warm water that began in earnest with the 2014–2015 El Niño and has never really reset. If you’ve felt like the inshore bite has been inconsistent over the past decade compared to what old-timers describe, you’re reading the conditions correctly.

The tradeoff with warm water is real and specific: kelp doesn’t thrive in it. And kelp is the foundation of the calico bass and white seabass habitat along the kelp line. As Marcus put it, when the kelp goes, everything stacked in it — baitfish, bass, mammals — adjusts or disappears. It’s not permanent, but it’s meaningful if you’re planning a season around kelp fishing.

The flip side is pelagics. The dorado run of 2022 was the clearest recent example: warm water opened the door for species that don’t belong this far north, and the fishery delivered in ways it hadn’t in years. Marcus is cautiously optimistic about this season. Yellowtail have already been showing in numbers at Catalina, Clemente, and Tanner Bank. Blue fin were being caught in March. If this is a genuine super El Niño year, the offshore opportunity could be the story of the season.

How to Set Up for an Overnight Yellowtail Trip Right Now

Marcus’s four-rod minimum for an overnight targeting yellowtail at the islands: a 30 lb fly line setup, a 25 lb fly line setup, a cod rod, and a surface iron. The 25 lb rig is his baseline for almost any saltwater trip. Light enough to get bit, strong enough to pull on a fish. Some captains are recommending 40 lb fly line for the grade of yellowtail currently at Tanner Bank — that’s worth knowing before you pack.

For the dropper loop in the dark or gray light, Marcus fishes 40–80 lb straight to the squid. At night, the fish aren’t looking at your line. They’re tracking the bait. His knot for this setup is the spider hitch dropper loop. The difference from a standard dropper loop comes down to orientation: a standard loop knot sits vertical and can split under load, while the spider hitch sits horizontal — closer to a surgeon’s knot — and holds under the same pressure. Palomar your hook onto it, because the sharp edge on the inside of some hook eyes can cut through a loose line faster than the fish will.

The bite timing matters on these overnight trips. Marcus is clear that the window he’d be focused on is 4–5 AM, gray light. That’s when the fish have been feeding. Show up to the stern late and you’ve already missed the best part of the trip.

Hook Selection: One Rule That Covers Most of It

Marcus keeps his hook selection simple: circle hooks for tuna, J hooks for everything else. The reasoning for tuna is the teeth — they can cut through loose connections, and a proper Mu circle hook with a thick gauge holds under that pressure where a wide-gap hybrid tends to flex open and then snap back. He’s seen that happen too many times to trust a hybrid for tuna.

For yellowtail, he doesn’t use circles at all. Their mouths are soft enough that circles fall out more often than not. His go-to is a classic O’Shaughnessy-style J hook — inexpensive, strong, and in his experience, one he’s never seen straighten out on a fish. If you’re fishing soft plastics on bigger game, the one adjustment he’d make is to prioritize hook gauge over everything else. An EWG that straightens at the worst moment costs you the fish and the trip.

Why This Episode Matters

Most fishing conversations about El Niño and warm water are speculation. Marcus works the docks and the boats as part of his job. He’s handling the fish, talking to the captains, and watching the population data come in season after season. When he says the 2025 sand bass migration was the best he’d seen in over two decades, that’s not a fishing story — that’s field observation from someone whose job is tracking exactly that.

For anglers who fish SoCal inshore regularly, the picture he describes is useful context for the next few seasons. The kelp-line bite may be softer than usual. The pelagic opportunity may be better than anything most of us have seen close to home. If the kelp is thin this season, shift pressure to structure bass in the harbors and back bays — that’s where the calico and spotties are going to stack when the kelp line doesn’t hold them.

The offshore tactics in this episode are practical and specific. Not every TOTW guest fishes the same water Daniel and Charly fish, but Marcus has been South Bay his whole life and grew up on the same boats, the same ramps, the same fishery. His recommendations on knots, drag, hook choice, and overnight trip setup all come from that context. Worth a full watch before any overnight trip this summer.

Watch the full episode on the Time On The Water YouTube channel. New episodes every Tuesday at 6 PM.