Wedding

Travel

Sydney

Fishing

Pictures

Links
BuiltWithNOF

Surf fishing has remained one of my favorite pastimes for years. There is minimal preparation, minimal cleanup, and plenty of places to fish.  It is also a unique challenge because even the most familiar beach can completely change overnight.  The are numerous variables including tides, water clarity, and light intensity, all of which combine to turn the bite on or off in a seemingly unpredictable way. The underwater structure appears and disappears, and the fish go with it.  Surf fishing is particularly hot in the fall, when there are fewer tourists to catch at the San Diego beaches and more fat barred surf perch in shallow water ready to spawn.  When the surf is calm in October and November, head to the beach when there is a strong rising tide at sunset and you can catch dozens of barred surf perch.  

It is no secret that 1.5-2” Katlin’s motor oil grubs are dynamite in the surf.  I use artificial baits exclusively, and Katlin’s grubs account for at least 90% of my fish.  I have my best results fishing them very slowly along the side of rip currents and deep areas. Surf perch are most often 5-7 inches in San Diego, with 8-9 inchers appearning daily and 10-12 inchers occasionally turning up. The two barred surf perch on the left are 12” and 13.5” whoppers that we caught in Monterey, where barred surf perch over a pound are common.  

The water is usually very shallow (<4 ft deep) and clear, so the fishing is strongly dependent on lighting conditions.  I have found that surf perch will often bite cautiously during the day, but as soon as the sun gets low enough to be off of the water the perch take the grubs aggressively. I consider the last half hour of daylight to be the fastest action, while during the morning the bit is a little slower but lasts longer because of the usual marine layer. 

I have occasionally caught halibut incidentally while fishing for barred surf perch, but I caught this one at blacks beach fishing for halibut using a plastic worm on a drop shot rig. The best time to catch halibut in the surf is in the spring, but they will turn up unexpectedly most of the year when the surf is small. They will also readily take streamers fished from a fly rod with fast sinking line.  My best surf halibut weighed over seven pounds, caught on 4# line. Fighting a spirited fish in the surf can be a real test of patience. 

I am not an expert on corbina fishing, but I intend to become one as I get more skilled with a fly rod.  I catch these timid surf fish occasionally on the plastic grubs that target surf perch.  They are powerful fighers for their size, and are usually hooked in only inches of water. Flies tied to look like sand grabs (grey and orange) are also effective.

Redtain surf perch (right) are a particularly large species of surf perch native to the pacific northwest. I have only fished for them on two occasions in the town of Shelter Cover in the Lost Coast, and both times they averaged about 13” with the largest being a 15” whopper. They all fell for 1 1/2” Katlin’s motor oil grubs.

    The fall of 2005 has been an unusual season for surf fishing. In September, there was a large number of yellowfin croaker (right) at the beaches. During one day fishing with Jeff, we caught about 35 of them, including my first with a fly that I tied. Most of the croaker were in the 9 inch range, but some were over 12 inches.  I didn’t fish much during the month of october because the shoreline was choked with kelp that dies off at about this time each year.  The fish are still around but the snags make catching them difficult.

     During years of surf fishing and hundreds of fish caught, I’ve never seen as many big surf perch as I caught in early November 2005. My family and I caught about 30 fish in a morning, and nearly half of them were the gargantuan size shown on the left.  We caught all of them on the usual motor oil colored grubs. The big perch tend to run together.