Good morning anglers this is Artificial Lure with your Los Angeles area fishing report for Wednesday May 21 2025.

Weather today is classic SoCal spring with mostly clear skies mild mornings and highs pushing into the mid 70s by afternoon. Winds are light out of the west picking up midday but nothing too fierce. Tides are moderate with an early morning high just after sunrise dropping to a low around lunchtime before climbing again late afternoon. Sunrise was at 545 am and sunset will be at 752 pm so you have plenty of daylight to chase those bites.

Inshore saltwater action is heating up with the season. Out of the local landings, boats heading north are bringing in solid counts of rockfish, whitefish, and a nice mix of halibut and white seabass just up the coast. Ventura and Oxnard boats are reporting standout catches recently with halibut and white seabass in the mix topped by limits of rockfish and a few barracuda to keep things interesting. Nearer to home, expect similar patterns off Santa Monica and Palos Verdes reefs with the morning hours best for the bigger bites[2].

Top lures for salt this week are plastic swimbaits on leadheads and chrome/blue irons for surface feeders like barracuda. White seabass are responding to fresh-dead squid when you can get it, otherwise try dropper loops with live sardines. Halibut are favoring slow presentations on the bottom with soft plastics and flukes in sardine or anchovy colors.

On the freshwater side, area lakes are seeing rising water temps now into the mid 60s. Bass are moving shallow and hitting small swimbaits, jerkbaits, and soft plastics especially early and late[3]. Spotted bass have been reported in good numbers at Castaic, Pyramid, and even Lower Twin. For largemouth, try Senkos or finesse worms worked near submerged structure and weedlines.

Your best bets close to LA remain the breakwall and kelp off Cabrillo Beach for mixed bag action and Dockweiler Beach for surf perch and the odd corbina. For freshwater, Castaic Lake is producing early-morning bass, and Hansen Dam is a solid city option for panfish and catfish.

For bait, bring squid for seabass, live sardines for everything else inshore, and nightcrawlers or plastics for your freshwater trips.

The fish are active and the weather is prime so get out there and wet a line. Tight lines from Artificial Lure, see you on the water.