Oxnard, CA Fishing: Rewarding Fishing Experience on the Channel Islands

Oxnard is one of Ventura County’s most important cities between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. It is a part of the Greater Los Angeles area and is a few minutes away from Los Angeles International Airport or LAX. It is often overlooked in favor of many nearby SoCal spots as a destination. But like many of its neighboring locales, Oxnard is a wonderful city filled with pristine white sand beaches, fertile farmlands, historic landmarks, and a vibrant party atmosphere.

Oxnard lies within the fertile lands of Oxnard Plain, a vast coastal plain formed from the Santa Clara River sediments. It is an agricultural wonder thanks to its rich soil, great climate, and adequate water resources. These farmlands are known for their cash crops like lima beans, raspberry, and celery, but its biggest pride is its strawberries. Oxnard is so proud of its strawberries that it holds a California Strawberry Festival every May. 

Southern California is known for some of the most excellent fisheries in North America, and Oxnard is no different. What sets the city apart from its neighbors is that its harbor is the closest entry point that anglers can reach the Channel Islands National Park, where you can experience excellent deep sea fishing in the rich habitats around Anacapa Island, San Miguel Island, and Santa Cruz Island. It also boasts seven miles of white sand beaches, offering fantastic surf fishing opportunities. In short, Oxnard is a classic SoCal fishing destination that should entice anglers of all interests and levels, whether you’re an expert looking to break your record in the open waters or a recreational angler looking for a relaxing fishing day out on a beautiful beach.

Oxnard Fishing

Fishing in Oxnard can either be relaxing or challenging, depending on where you choose to cast a line. If you’re not sure about your sea legs just yet, then you can start by surf-fishing on Oxnard’s stunning beaches. Silver Strand Beach is on the southernmost part of Oxnard and one of the area’s best-kept secrets; it feels quite isolated, thanks to its location surrounded by homes down Victoria Avenue. It’s open all year round for kayaking, surfing, and beachcombing. For fishing, the beach gets especially active from spring until fall. You can catch plenty of barred surfperch, corbina, halibut, and calico bass from the shores. You can also hop on the jetty, which attracts halibut and calico bass. 

North of Mandalay Beach, close to the power plant, you can also experience some fantastic fishing. Fish the area around early morning or before sunset, right when the tides rise, and catch some surfperch, yellow croaker, halibut, corbina, or spotfin croaker. You might also get lucky and snag a world record-barred surfperch here.

McGrath State Beach is another productive surf fishing spot in Oxnard, giving anglers access to Santa Clara River, particularly its mouth’s south bank. From here, anglers can fish for surfperch baited with sand crabs, mussels, squid, or worms. Artificial bait like plastic grubs and worms also work quite well in these waters. However, this state beach is closed for the foreseeable future because of flooding.

For an exciting sport fishing excursion, anglers should head straight to the Channel Islands Harbor, where charters wait to take you fishing around the Channel Islands. Channel Islands Harbor is managed by the Ventura County Harbor Department and has fishing charters docked on this harbor specializing in fishing the Northern Channel Islands. Many of the charters here likewise offer seasonal whale-watching trips. But if you're not lucky enough to see the whales, there are always sea lions resting on the sand at the harbor entrance.

The fishing grounds of Channel Islands are known to be highly productive, yielding trophy catch like halibut, sheepshead, barracuda, yellowtail amberjack, white seabass, a wide variety of rockfish species, lingcod, and salmon. When the waters get particularly warm in the area, anglers typically find yellowfin tuna, blue marlin, and wahoo around the islands. Based on fishing reports, the off-season here is technically not off-season, as it still provides some excellent sand dab fishing.

If you’re up for half a day or a full day of fishing on a boat, you can easily explore the two inner islands of the Northern Channel Islands. Depending on the season, these parts can yield rockfish, barracuda, sand bass, white seabass, and calico bass. If you have more time, you should go on an overnight fishing trip to fully experience the rest of the islands, including the outer ones. It takes at least six hours to reach the outer islands, so most fishing charters leave at night to get to the grounds by dawn.

What makes fishing in the Outer Islands more rewarding is that the area receives less fishing pressure. These parts are known to yield trophy halibut and lingcod. Anglers can also find some white seabass, rockfish, sheepshead, and ocean whitefish on the islands, many of them record breakers in their sizes. 

Local experts know that a full day is not enough to maximize time out around the Outer Channel Islands. That’s why local guides here offer two- or three-day fishing excursions. While a full-day boat fishing trip can still yield plenty, if you’re serious about breaking your records or vying for a world record, then you should consider booking your fishing charter for multiple days out in the ocean.

Top 10 Fish Species in Oxnard, CA

The top 10 fish species in Oxnard are barred surfperch, yellowtail amberjack, lingcod, white seabass, halibut, corbina, rockfish, sheepshead, barracuda, and calico bass.

Seasonal Fishing

Fishing in Oxnard and Ventura County is excellent from March to September. Early spring, or March through April, is favorable for deep sea fishing for most rockfish, particularly blue rockfish, copper rockfish, yellowtail rockfish, etc. From April to June, you can expect fish to move to the shallows near the rocks, sandy areas, and bays. White seabass is the most popular target for this stretch before summer, but other species like calico bass, spotted sand bass, halibut, and barracuda are also active. Summer in California is the best season to hunt for a variety of fish species, highlights including yellowtail amberjack, tuna, sand bass, and more.

Reward Yourself with a Pleasing SoCal Holiday in Oxnard

Experience SoCal’s quintessential sights and sounds away from the usual touristy crowds here in Oxnard.

1. Book a Fishing Charter

Experience one of California’s richest fisheries with the guidance of a local expert. Head straight to Channel Islands Harbor, where you’ll find charters that can take you to the most productive fishing grounds on the islands.

2. Explore Downtown

Learn more about the city of Oxnard by joining a Downtown Oxnard Walking Tour. You can avail yourself of different self-guided walking tours that will take you around the city’s historic landmarks. They conclude at Heritage Square, where you can also book a tour with a docent on weekends.

3. Join Fun Local Events

Oxnard is a hopping city filled with weekly and monthly events such as First Thursdays for foodies, the Oxnard Salsa Festival during summer, and the weekly Heritage Square Summer Concert Series. And don’t forget the annual California Strawberry Festival in May.