Ok, I posted last week asking if anyone wanted to join my buddy and I in a little surf perch fishing in Santa Barbara on Sunday 4/6. Well, you guys really missed out. We fished the incoming high tide for about an hour, and we ended up with like 10-12 perch each, thats about one every 5 minutes!

It was pretty awesome, and one of us had a fish on at any given moment, sometimes we had double hookups. All were about 8-10 inches, and my buddy got a couple that were about 10-12 inches. Not monsters, but nice quality. All fish were released. I'll try to post photos when my buddy emails them to me.

Here's some tips that we found worked well, and they've been posted by people in the past. But to reiterate:

1) Structure. If you can identify rocks or channels in the sand during low tide, fishing those spots during a high tide will pay off. All of our fish came near rocks that the high tide covered up. I guess the perch hang out waiting for the surf to dislodge food from the rocks.

2) Stink up your grubs. My friend wasn't getting as many bites until he put on some Smelly Jelly. After that, he got all 12 of his fish in about 40 minutes.

3) Don't set the hook. With the perch, I got more hookups by just continuing the retrieve, whereas I farmed them when I tried to set the hook.

4) Cast at a slight angle. We both seemed to get bit more when we were retrieving at a 60-degree angle to the beach, rather than casting out straight in front of us, which would be perpendicular to the beach. This might have something to do with the flow of the surf as it actually has some side-to-side movement to it.

5) Carolina rig is the way to go. Had some success rigging the hook through the nose of the grub rather than threading it all the way through. That was a suggestion by Fongster, good idea!

Thats a barnie's guide to surf fishing. Surf fishing is so much fun, I'm just stoked to be out there!

Here are two pics from my excursion. Either we're really tall, or the fish shrank between the time we got them out of the water and the pictures were taken ;-) My friend and I each got about a dozen of this size, plus a couple larger ones.

Here's mine:
http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/982.jpg

Here's my buddy Warren's, note the booties he's wearing, they really keep your feet warm!
http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/983.jpg

Good job, you two. Sounds like a fun outing. Those are nice quality fish.


Big Hammer Swimbaits-Hammerhead Jigheads
www.swimbait.com
Pro-Cure Scents
www.pro-cure.com

Hey Daniel, next time you fish that beach try fishing to the right instead ;-)...Larry

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to the right one of these days. I went at low tide a couple weeks ago and found a lot of nice structure to the left, and that structure gets covered up nicely at high tide. Try over by the large rock slabs that stick out of the water. But if you insist...I'll cast a few times to the right next time I go (probably Friday night = high tide right after sunset) ;-)

THANK YOU, FOR THE PLASTIC GRUB ADVICE. I WILL TRY IT OUT TOMORROW AT THE WALL IN SANTA BARBARA. I USUALLY HAVE GREAT LUCK THERE DURING HIGH TIDE , BUT IT'S WELL WORTH THE DRIVE FROM CAMALILLO I WILL BE THERE WITH MY GIRL, AROUND 12:00 NOON, TIL AS LONG AS THE BITING STOPS,AND SHE STOPS NAGGING ME!!!!
TIGHT LINES,
KAND1A

I AM JUST BEGING TO LEARN ABOUT HOW TO USE ARTIFICIAL GRUBS.MY FIRST QUESTION IS WHAT KIND OF GRUB DO YOU RECOMEND (MOTOR OIL RED FLAKE)? DO YOU USE JIG HEAD HOOKS AND IF YOU DO WHAT SIZE? IF NOT WHAT SIZE BATE HOOK DO YOU USE? LAST ON THE CAROLINA RIG DO YOU USE A SLIDING SINKER,AND WHAT OZ.? THESE QUSTIONS MAY SEEM STUPID SO PLEASE BARE WITH ME, IF IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE TO MUCH I WOULD LIKE A DETAILED REPLY ON THE BASIC SURF FISH USING A PLASTIC GRUB SET UP.