Striped bass push through the SoCal Bight as warm water lingers

What's biting

What's next

With water temps still sitting in the mid-70s at San Pedro, expect the warm-water push to hold through the next few days barring a wind shift. If the striped bass activity Western Outdoor News — Saltwater flagged this week continues to build, look for it to concentrate around structure and bait pushes rather than spread evenly across the Bight — that's the typical pattern when warm water lingers this late in September.

No tide predictions came back from either CO-OPS station this cycle, so plan around the moon instead: we're in a waning gibbous phase, which means moderate tidal swings rather than the extremes of a full or new moon. Surf anglers reading the beach for troughs and cuts, per Surf Fishing in So Cal's guidance, should find workable structure without the current chaos king tides can bring. Weekend conditions look like a solid window to test the Channel Islands-adjacent activity before any shift.

Context

Late September in the LA Bight typically marks the tail end of the warm-water season, with saltwater temps beginning a slow slide toward fall patterns over the coming weeks. This year has been anything but typical: Surf Fishing in So Cal's reporting on 2026's El Niño conditions describes a season of persistent rough surf that disrupted normal patterns most of the year. Against that backdrop, warm water holding into late September and species activity building in the Bight reads as a partial return to seasonal norms rather than an early anomaly.