MINIMUM SIZE
14 in total length
Species · Bass
Barred sand bass fishing in Southern California
Paralabrax nebulifer
The summer fish of the flats: thousands of them leave the reef, pile onto open sand to spawn, and then scatter again.
TYPE
Barred sand bass
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Paralabrax nebulifer
TYPICAL SIZE
1–4 lb
LIKES WATER
64–72°F, open sand
GANGS UP FOR
The summer spawn
BEST MONTHS
Jun – Aug
barred sand bass regulations
DAILY BAG
4, inside a 5-bass limit
OPEN SEASON
Year round
The five-fish bass limit is shared with calico and spotted bay bass, and no more than four of the five may be barred sand bass. CDFW has that sub-limit running to June 1, 2028.
14 CCR 28.30, as read on October 9, 2026. Limits, seasons and marine protected area boundaries change, so the CDFW ocean sport fishing regulations are the authority, not this page. Check them before you keep anything.
Meet the sand bass
Barred sand bass are the flat-bottom cousin of the calico. Same family, different address: where a calico lives in the kelp its whole life, a sand bass spends most of the year scattered over hard bottom and then does something remarkable every summer.
Where barred sand bass hang out
In summer they leave the structure and gang up on open sand in 60 to 120 feet of water to spawn, in numbers that show on a sounder as a haze a few feet off the bottom. The Huntington Flats off Newport and Long Beach are the famous ones. The rest of the year they spread back out and get much harder to find.
How big barred sand bass get
Most are one to three pounds. A five-pounder is a good fish and gets talked about. Because the whole fishery is built on a spawning aggregation, the size and bag rules have been tightened more than once, so check the current CDFW limits before you keep anything.
How to catch barred sand bass
A live anchovy or sardine on a light leader, dropped into the haze and left alone. Plastics on a leadhead work too, swum slowly just off the bottom. The bite often turns on hard for an hour around a tide change and then shuts off completely with the boat still sitting on the fish.
Where to catch barred sand bass
The grounds that hold barred sand bass within reach of each home port, south to north. Follow a port through for its season, the rest of the water it reaches, and the rules that apply there.
- Newport Beach
- NEWPORT & HUNTINGTON FLATS
- Long Beach
- HUNTINGTON FLATS
- San Pedro
- THE HARBOR FLATS
- Marina del Rey
- SANTA MONICA BAY FLATS
Seasons, depth limits, size and bag limits and marine protected area boundaries are set by CDFW and change from year to year. Check the current rules for the ground you are running to before you keep anything.
🐟 FUN FACT
The summer aggregation is the whole fishery and the whole problem: the fish are easiest to catch at the exact moment they are trying to reproduce, which is why California cut the bag limit and raised the minimum size on the bass in 2013. Read the current CDFW rules rather than that date.
More species
Bluefin TunaYellowfin TunaYellowtailDoradoCalico BassRockfishMarlinWhite SeabassCalifornia HalibutCalifornia BarracudaPacific BonitoLingcodCalifornia SheepheadSculpinOcean WhitefishSpotted Bay BassPacific MackerelAlbacoreShortfin MakoCommon ThresherGiant Sea BassOpahSwordfishSkipjack TunaCabezonPacific Sanddab
From the logbook
More on barred sand bass
Heading out for something we do grade?
This is a profile, not a scored species. Fish or Pass grades seven fish across the Bight every day, so if you are going anyway, see what the water is doing for those.