The time is here once again to observe the fascinating egg laying runs of grunions onto our Southern California beaches. They spawn from March through August, which involves them doing a very unfishlike thing. During the full and new moons they surf the waves high on the beach and allow themselves to be beached for the space of one wave. Females first, they dig themselves tail first into the sand, and wait for the males, who curl themselves around the female and release their milt to fertilize the eggs as they are being laid into the sand. They are back to the sea on the next wave. 10 days later the waves will get high enough again to uncover the sand from the eggs, which hatch on contact with the sea water as they get washed out to sea. The BEST way to observe the process is to stay calm and quiet while they are making their appearance, and allow them to finish the process. Interrupting them means there will be less successful spawning and fewer fish next year.
Most interesting, they tend to come not on the night with the very highest tide, but on the second or third largest. This makes perfect sense, as it makes it more likely that the 10 day later waves will be high enough to uncover the eggs. How do they know what night? No one knows.
On more thing. The times given in the calendar are for San Diego, and are the PROBABLE two-hour intervals. The best bet is the 2nd or third night, and in the second hour.
It is possible to catch and keep grunion, but ONLY:
if you are 16 years or older with a valid California sport fishing license
use nothing but your hands to catch them
Must use all of your fish, no wasting
no digging of holes to trap them and NO fishing during April and May (observation months only)
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