I wanted to take one last shot at the surf before the storm of the century made it way to the beach. Picked up a few shrimp using my coupon (thanks again J for the link and your great site www.scsurffishing.com ) a few grubs and a couple pieces of Gulp sandworm. The surf was a bit less consistent today and even though it was big there were considerable flat periods. I knew that as the tide rose the swell would be a bit smaller and break near shore giving me a better chance of finding fish in the trough.
No biters seemed to jump on the hook right away but I knew by the shape of the beach that perch were not far away. Any time you see the beach with these peaks and valleys or points and bays you can be sure the perch are just offshore in the small rip tides that each one creates.
It wasn’t long and we had a nice bite on perch. Some came on the grub and Gulp!.
A few more on the shrimp
It was near 9:30am and I knew high tide wasn’t far behind (mainly because I had been soaked by a couple of waves!) There was a down coast drift that was carrying bait from a small sand bar into a nice trough. I had one shrimp left and cast it out. My bait hit the water and immediately drifted down stream into the trough. The line pulled tight and then ran offshore in a hurry—I was into something now…
We lost another spotfin croaker a bit later on my buddy’s last bait so we know that they are still there. It’s just the foot of rain and 15 foot surf that might slow us down—but who cares I’m going for it again anyway…
No biters seemed to jump on the hook right away but I knew by the shape of the beach that perch were not far away. Any time you see the beach with these peaks and valleys or points and bays you can be sure the perch are just offshore in the small rip tides that each one creates.
It wasn’t long and we had a nice bite on perch. Some came on the grub and Gulp!.
A few more on the shrimp
It was near 9:30am and I knew high tide wasn’t far behind (mainly because I had been soaked by a couple of waves!) There was a down coast drift that was carrying bait from a small sand bar into a nice trough. I had one shrimp left and cast it out. My bait hit the water and immediately drifted down stream into the trough. The line pulled tight and then ran offshore in a hurry—I was into something now…
We lost another spotfin croaker a bit later on my buddy’s last bait so we know that they are still there. It’s just the foot of rain and 15 foot surf that might slow us down—but who cares I’m going for it again anyway…
Next week we have some great tides but the heavy surf and rain will make fishing impossible. At times like these I work on my equipment, tie leaders and make plans for future fishing trips. Fish get hungry just like us--so when their food is hard to get they get really hungry. That means that if you're ready once these storms go past and things calm down a bit you can be sure to have some unbelievable fishing.
The perch bite up and down the entire California coast has been great this winter. It is sure to get better as the fish are now preparing to spawn. We are seeing quite a few pregnant females so it won't be long before the really big fish move in.
Have a great time fishing for these monsters and remember to let them go gently after catching so they can have another load of perch that we can all catch in the future...
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