l have been fishing in a couple of lakes and do not know what the heck l did nor did l have a permit. l wanna do it right and be taught basics. Just ONCE it would be nice to catch & eat one.

When l lived in San Diego, l frequently visited the website: sdfish.com. If u look on there, especially on the forums, u will fins a lot of useful information & interesting stories. If u really want to catch a fish to eat ASAP. l reccomend going to Ocean Beach Pier & casting a spoon type lure around the ''T'' part at the end of the pier around sunrise or sunset time. You will probably catch a mackeral within a few mintues of doing so, if not, look at what the other people on the pier r doing who r catching mackeral & copy them. Mackeral taste delicious if u keep them cold, quickly clean them, & then fry them up with butter, garlic, & then add a little lemon or lime right after cooking but before eating. You do NOT need any kind of permit or license to catch mackeral & other fish off public piers in California.

The second easiest type of fishing in San Diego requires getting a state license with an ocean stamp. You simply take a spinnning rod, put a small hook at the end of the line, with a small spilt shot weight several inches above the hook. You then bait it with a sandcrab (easy to catch with ur hands at the beach, just sift through the wet beach sand as the waves recede) & cast it out to where the surf breaks, outgoing tide is the best time fish, though the incoming tide can be good as well, the more tidal movement, the better). This is an easy way to catch corbina & surf perch. You can also try casting spoons at the beach for halibut this time of year. Torrey Pines beach north of the Laggon entrance was my favorite place to surf-fish, but Mission Beach can be great for corbina & surf perch. You could also fish for surf perch without a license from Crystal Pier on Mission Beach.

But.if u want to Lake fish, u need a license, & lake fishing is BORING compared to ocean fishing. The little lakes in & near San Diego r all artificial man made ponds, with stocked fish. Powerbait & small hooks work great for hatchery raised small stockers.

see this website
it is interesting

You looking for the size of hooks 6 and 12 and good luck to you o.k.

57 moon l have fished every water in ur county & never been skunked. the secret to accepting that we r all fishermen & not catchermen is the effort we put into getting good at what we want to get good at. when u r ready to learn about all the wondrous fish in SD County u will realize that it is all available in the library. l could guide in SD & never cast at the same location for ten years. See, the thing u must know is: how to think like the fish, if u learn what they eat, how they eat, when they eat & most importantly where they eat , ur job becomes easy. You can get the best fishing newspaper in the country in every liquor store it is Western Outdoor News, back copies can be read & articles copied (to keep ur own library of local lakes & bays & harbors) & getting a subscription for a couple of years is not a bad idea either. Then once u pick the specie u want to target & learn all about it catching it becomes easier. l swear it does, but old salts like me who learned from a Dad who fished commercial boats back fifty years ago have been building our library is so long the same lessons r now being taught by a third generation is interpretation of what is up. Fishing does not change, nor do the fish, only baits & equipment change & of course the company u keep too.