Anyone going surf casting for perch or calicos? wpould love to join you and learn

[h00ker]

Hey guys!!

I'm new to fishing, I would love to join you in either catching some surfperch or calico this weekend. Anyone planning on doing this?

Whenever I go fishing, I always get skunked and not sure if its something I'm doing. having someone there that I can watch would be awesome. I reside in diamond bar but usually drive to either laguna, Newport, seal, hunnington or long beach. I'm open to new areas. Lt me know!!!


Tight Lines!

[WCAngler]

I wouldn't be free to go anytime soon, I'm pretty busy with school, but I'd be able to share some tips for surf perch.

I'm no expert, I've been surf fishing 3 times: I caught skunked the first time, 4 surf perch the second time, and 7 surf perch the 3rd.

I've never caught calicos, but here's all I know about surf perch...

Location:

First, you want to find a stretch of beaches with a steeper slope because this means the water will be deeper. Once you find this, find an area with larger waves. Not crazy huge waves, but also not tiny baby waves on a beach with little current - the surf perch, along with all other predatory surf perch generally like larger crashing waves. Ever time a wave crashes, food (sand worms, sand fleas, shrimp) gets dislodged from the sand, so calmer beaches might not have as much perch action as a beach with medium sized waves.

Also for location, you want to pay attention to the waves. The waves tell a lot about the structue of the bottom. As a large waves forms out of nowhere, peaks, then crashes, this indicates the current rolling over a sandbar (small underwater hill, or hump). If the wave disapears completely, or turns into smaller waves, this indicates a trough in front of the sandbar. This is an ideal location to fish. The fish will migrate up and down these troughs, and as waves corrode the sandbar, food will be released.

Most of the time you don't have to cast very far; they are generally in very shallow waters, especially on the steeper sloped beaches I was talking about.

Bait and Tackle:

When you think surf perch, you think 9-12 foot rod, large heavy sinker, heavy line, but this takes the fun out of it. You can get away a light action trout rod, or even an ultrlight panfish set up. My 3rd time surf fishing i caught all seven of those surf perch using 4 lb. test line, on an ultralight 4'9" spinning rod. So for surf perch, size doesn't matter. I was sharing the beach with one other fisherman. His rod was about twice as long but I was catching more fish than him, hahaha.

Use a carolina rig, with a size #4 or #6 (I prefer #6), and you can bait up with either a sand mole, a Big Hammer 1 3/4" plastic grub (I have had a lot of luck on Motoroil Christmas, but I'm sure different colors work better in different conditions, times of day, and seasons), or a Gulp! Saltwater Sandworm. Some guys I've met rotate through these throughout the day to stay on the bite - they all work!

Also a tip... as we know, Southern California isn't exactly the best place in the world to go fishing. It's heavily populated, water's kinda funky, and the fish are under pressure from being so sought after. I find, that the farther you get away from SoCal, the better the fishing. Farther north in Central California has some good fishing and pristine waters. Most of the fish I've caught are in Central California, or at private lakes I have connections with.

Tight Lines!

WCAngler

[PokerFish]

Hey guys!!

I'm new to fishing, I would love to join you in either catching some surfperch or calico this weekend. Anyone planning on doing this?

Whenever I go fishing, I always get skunked and not sure if its something I'm doing. having someone there that I can watch would be awesome. I reside in diamond bar but usually drive to either laguna, Newport, seal, hunnington or long beach. I'm open to new areas. Lt me know!!!


Tight Lines!

I sent you a PM about your rod and reel combo for sale. If you want to come up to Malibu, I'll buy your combo and we can do some surf perch fishing as well so I can give you some tips.

[h00ker]

Hey, thanks for the tips. Ill have to see what beaches I can hit more central cali. Where did you catch the 7 perch from?

Thanks again

[h00ker]

I sent you a PM about your rod and reel combo for sale. If you want to come up to Malibu, I'll buy your combo and we can do some surf perch fishing as well so I can give you some tips.

Yeah, sorry, I did sell the combo already and was also too busy the other day to reply back to your text. If I ever head that way, ill try to look you up in advance!

Thanks

[John Harper]

7 to 7.5 ft rod, 2500 size spinning reel, 8 lb. Trilene XL. Carolina rig (3/8 egg sinker, bead, barrel swivel, leader (fluoro or mono), #4 or #6 hook) with Gulp camo 2" sandworms, or red flake/motor oil grubs, or natural bait like sandcrabs. You'll catch fish sooner or later, believe me.

Or, get a few Kastmasters and Krocodiles (3/8 to 1/2) and direct tie to a split ring on the lures and cast away. That's what I do.

Bass Pro makes a Wind Rider lure that looks just like a Kastmaster. They're a bit less expensive and look like they'll work. It's more a reaction bite with lures, and I've got many halibut on a blue/chrome Kastmaster over the years.

I use a Bass Pro Graphite Series 7' rod with a Sedona 2500 reel. I have my Sienna 2500 that's almost 10 years old and still works great, but the Sedona was on sale this year. Just keep the reels out of the sand, don't even set them down for a picture.

John