This week the weather continued to be beautiful and fishing was spectacular.  Although there has been a bit of pea-soup fog to deal with that’s just about the only complaint one can think of.  During this time of year fish like to bed down behind, below, among a group of rocks for food and protection.  With that in mind my fishing buddies and I like to take trips up or down the coast to fish new areas we don’t get a shot at during the peak summer season.

 So again, I went down to my favorite bait spot and collected some sidewinder crabs, mussel and ghost shrimp.  Also picked up a few bloodworms to make sure I had all the baits and headed north to Leo Carrillo State Beach.

Arrived just after sun rise and found just one person on the entire beach walking their dog.  Gathered our surf gear: 9’ spinning rod, 6lb pink Ande and the Carolina rig and walked up the beach a bit and fished around the rocks that line the points and shore.  Pinned on a sidewinder and it was game on.

 

Fishing for perch was unbelievable for about four hours until we ran out of bait.  Here’s a few of the barred surfperch we tussled with.  These perch were anywhere from 8-16” with a dozen in the 13-16” range.

 

The catch of the day, of a lifetime and what would be a new state record (if I didn’t let her go) was this beautiful calico perch.  We caught two, one very small and this 13 ½” fish. 

The calico perch lives mostly from about Morro Bay to the Oregon border.  This one must have slipped through the cracks when it was looking for a warmer place to live!

 

This upcoming week has some decent tides early, followed by flatter tides later in the week.  When I fish this upcoming week I’m going to concentrate on throwing the Lucky Craft and Kroc for halibut.  As next weekend rolls along the tides make a dramatic change as we will again enter into an astronomical tide period.  As long as the swell stays small (as predicted) and the weather relatively calm we should have some fantastic fishing.  Although it does look like we may get some rain later in the week, that system does not look to have much wind or surf associated with it and should not have a big effect on surf fishing.

 From now until May try your luck near areas that have structure, like jetties, harbors, estuaries, etc.  This is where the fish will be hunkered down to avoid the weather and also to hopefully find some food that washes off the rocks.

See you at the beach,

Bill