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City Dad
05-13-2007, 06:26 PM
Thanks everybody for the great posts on this side. I took my first shot at surf fishing this morning and (please pardon the lame pun) I’m hooked!

Took the family camping at El Capitan on Friday and bright and early Saturday morning the kids and I hit the beach. We noticed a few folks fishing and upon approaching the water, we surprised a pair of fish which shot out of sight leaving v wakes behind them (corbina?) While the kids played in the sand I strolled over to a father and son team who I learned had had a slow morning landing just “one perch.�

Before long the fisherman had all packed it in and we set to work on building sand castles. We didn’t build for long though – the beach beneath our feet was literally alive with sand crabs. Over the span of about an hour we filled two plastic beach buckets with the things – big ones, half of them full of roe. At the end of the afternoon we dumped the crabs back in the water and I noted the spot at which they seemed most concentrated. Funny, but it coincided exactly with the spot 57 had mentioned.

This morning being the big M D I was up early making bacon and eggs for my bride’s traditional breakfast in sleeping bag. It was a lovely morning, no doubt about it… but I had other things on my mind.

By eight-thirty I had done the present giving and the dishes and was headed for the water. The grounds keeper, a friendly enough guy who must be pushing his second century asked me “You going fishin’ or just wishin’?� I laughed and told him I liked to do both at the same time.

The beach this morning was empty of fishermen. A couple families lounged in the sand near the spot I’d planned to fish. They watched me as I jammed my hand into the mud and came up with a handful of egg-laden bait. I pinned on a crabbie (heh, heh, always wanted to say that) and tossed out into the foam.

I like fishing rivers with flies and am accustomed to fishing light gear and detecting strikes by sight. The rig I had this morning - a seven foot medium action spinning rod, ½ oz egg sinker, #6 red, mosquito hook – felt like an anvil tied to a broomstick. With the sinker skipping across the bottom, the line being sucked back and forth by the waves I wondered if maybe I was missing what I imagined would be the dainty pick-up of a surf perch. Turns out I wasn’t.

On the fifth or sixth cast something inhaled my crab. It was at that moment I learned the difference between freshwater fish and their sea-going cousins. The salties are obviously getting the good steroids… those little suckers can flat out pull! I ended up with five total, but stopped taking pics after the third one when I nearly dropping the camera into the drink.

The people on the beach seemed amazed – but were probably not as amazed as I was. Surf fishing is fun. It's really, really fun. It's like, new-obsession fun. Man, I'm sprung.

Thanks for all the good tips, people. You friggin’ made my day!

paintnfish
05-13-2007, 08:20 PM
Hey thats great, Im glad you gu
y's had a good time. My son
and I started off with the perch in the surf about a year ago
and never looked back lol, only been to the lake a couple of
time's this year.

Thanks for shareing and nice pictures.

SanDimasLMB
05-13-2007, 08:33 PM
good job out there. If you think perch pull hard wait till you hook into a Corbina or Leopard shark :lol:

ghetto dad
05-13-2007, 09:13 PM
great report and pics dad.......thanks!!!

Hitts0n
05-14-2007, 08:43 AM
good stuff! :thumb:

Sea Murda
05-14-2007, 09:47 AM
Nice report dude, good job!

Fisherman57
05-14-2007, 11:56 AM
Nice job CD! Congrats!


I'd bet what you saw WERE Corbina as they work the crab beds pretty hard in that area..... sounds like you got it right the first time!

I like using a orange bead on the C-Rig as it coincides with the color of sand crab roe......... I've used the red hooks before, but I notice as the day goes on, the color seems to wear off....... but it sure looks like everything you did worked well.............

Wait till ya hook a "bean"......... and you'll REALLY be hooked on surf fishing........ they fight a hellava lot harder than those BSP's........... but I must admit, I love fishing for the Perchy's......

Looks like you had some nice softshells to work with and that for sure is candy to them "beans".......

Add some Gulp "Camo" sandworms and some Big Hammer Perch Grubs in MORF to your arsenal and you'll be good to go!

Lemme know if ya ever want to head out locally.......... Im in the SFV and head towards the Malibu area every so often!

Hope to see you on the beach!


57

City Dad
05-14-2007, 12:42 PM
Forgot to mention this: While the kids and I were digging up crabs, I pulled out a "crab" that was almost the size of my fist! The thing was sporting some pincers too. It looked a bit like a sandcrab but it's shell was a bit more spikey around the edges. When I filpped it over I noticed the roe was blood red.

Later that day we found empty shells of similar creatures scatered around some rocks.

Anyone know if those were giant sandcrabs or something else?

Cangler
05-14-2007, 01:04 PM
Welcome to the beach club ! ..

Fisherman57
05-14-2007, 01:08 PM
The empty shells could be "molts"........

Ive seen sand crabs (mole crabs) get pretty big..... and they do have a bit of "thorned" edge when they are larger...


http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/bigsand.jpg

jeff4321
05-14-2007, 01:57 PM
when i was in San Quintin (down in baja) i was surf-fishing and caught a HUMUNGOUS sand crab, it ACTUALLY had claws and was about the size of a grown man's palm! Kept it showed a bunch of people... tried using it for bait but it ended up flying off the hook on the way out to the ocean. haha.

Surf fishing is the BOMB! especially when u REALLY get into the fish i mean: every cast you make you catch one. Its a BLAST. just follow the tides i fish: 1 hour before hightide, 1 hour after. so its usually a good 3 hours of solid fishing. MMMMMM i love it. AND THEY TASTE AMAZING.

EricU
05-14-2007, 05:08 PM
Ha! Way cool, another freshy going salty.

You got hooked just in time for the good weather. You know you are really hooked when you find yourself standing in ice cold water with hand so cold you can barely throw the bail over on your reel...or doing jumping jacks on the rocks just to stop shivering.

Nice going on the bomber perch.

Have fun out there and don't let them bikinis out there distract you - one big bonus over fresh!

Troutman65
05-14-2007, 08:25 PM
That was a really great report!!! Glad you had fun !! Thanks for the post