Let me start by saying that I used to have a magnetic box on my truck with a spare key for the truck in it. I boarded a 4 day fishing charter for tuna with all of my gear and the boat left the dock. We were at the bait receiver when I decided to unlock my tackle box and start rigging my rods. When I reached for my keys, I discovered I had locked them in the truck. This mistake cost me lots of dollars to purchase what tackle I could at very high prices AND I wasn't able to rig 1/3 of my rods (I had 9 rod/reel combinations on this particular trip) because the boat only carried a limited supple of tackle for sale.

Although when a fish explodes on a dry fly is extremely exciting, I much prefer fishing wooly buggers that I tie on or near the bottom.

Backing serves a couple purposes, lots of extra line when needed (big fish), it uses reel capacity so you don't need to spool lots of expensive line and to prevent damage to the spool on your reel if you fight a big fish over a long period (while using mono, which stretches, as your main line.)
Your backing should be at least 2X the breaking strength of your main line. It should also be of smaller diameter, sounds impossible but can be done if you look.
Since this hasn't been covered, backing as the name implies goes in back of the main line, therefore on the reel first.

I have been fishing this technique for over 40 years and can testify to its productivity. Whether its floating cheese baits or nightcrawlers pumped up with air, your bait stays above the weeds where the fish can see it.

Since I like to experiment, I tie my own. No matter where you look, you cannot find some of the variations I come up with.
Yesterday I tied and fished a variation of an articulated wooly bugger. In 2 hours of fishing I landed 4 Rainbow Trout weighing from 1.5 to 3 pounds.

dont7518 hit the nail on the head. Spincast reels, due to their design, will cause line twist with every retrieve.

Positive stops at 10 and 12 o'clock on false casts. Positive stop at 10 o'clock on presentation cast until line straightens out then drop rod tip so line floats to water.

Although it may be cooler than you are comfortable with, standing in the wind near the bow of the boat and watching the horizon will help tremendously.
Conversely, going below to your bunk or into the galley and chatting will hurt tremendously
Do not eat anything greasy (bacon, sausage, fried anything etc.) the morning of the trip.
It is imperative that you DO NOT THINK ABOUT GETTING SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you think about getting sick, then you will!

Over the course of 69 years of fishing, I have managed to catch some very nice fish on some fairly light tackle:58 pound Albacore Tuna on 12 pound line, 60 pound Black Seabass on 8 pound line to name 2.
The thing to remember is to set your drag correctly and then don't touch it until the day is over. Also when the fish runs, just hold on (DO NOT CRANK YOUR REEL AT THIS TIME) and let it run. When it stops, start reeling.

The biggest problem with "coffee grinders" (spinning reels to the younger set) is that the drag was absolutely useless against big aggressive fish. Because the drag system has gotten very much better in recent years, this problem has disappeared and spinning reels are no longer a topic of disdain on cattle boats (except those targeting huge yellowfin tuna.)

Since you didn't say how far south in CA you are, I will mention a place in Los Angeles county that has a jetty I fished many years ago with very good results. The jetty is in Playa Del Rey and is the shortest (there are three, 2 of which form the entrance to Marina Del Rey) and the southernmost jetty.
There is a jetty at Redondo beach but I can't tell you about the fishing there. There is a jetty in San Pedro that has some very good fishing.
Down in San Diego county, the end of Tourmaline St. in Pacific Beach has some excellent fishing but you need to look out for the surfers during the day. There is a pier in Ocean Beach with public access, and in Imperial Beach there is a public pier.
Good luck, and catch a big one for me!

I live in Cheyenne, WY and most of the walleye I catch fall pray to jointed shad raps (JSR sizes 4, 5 and 7) in perch color, trolled at about 3 mph. I know a couple fishermen that also use JSRs but they use fire tiger color. You might also try curly tail grubs in chartreuse or white, either trolled (about 1mph) or cast and retrieved with a jigging action.
One more thing, I normally start fishing very shallow (4 feet or less) and work deeper as I troll until I find the fish.

When I first started learning to cast, levelwind (baitcaster for the younger folks) reels were exclusively right hand crank and spinning reels were exclusively left hand crank. You could not find/buy a left hand cranking levelwind or a right hand cranking spinning reel.
This is how I learned and I am too old and too lazy to try switching at this point in my life.

There is a cooling res. (power generation plant) in Fayette County that has 2 fishing piers. Great LMB fishing.
Both Galveston and Texas City have fishing piers available (in Galveston the pier is a pay to play) to the public.

Bought my first ultralight outfit in 1977, a Daiwa 4 1/2 ft. rod with a Daiwa GS 0 reel which holds 160 yards of 2 # mono. Still have and use it for trout, walleye and sometimes LMB.
the first fish I caught on it was a small stocker trout in Los Angeles and my fishing partner saw what the fight looked like and immediately went out to get one for himself.