Took surf fishing extraordinaires Jason “jscrib” and Kevin “Mars” out to the enchanted Channel Islands aboard my 23ft Seaswirl Striper “Big Drum”.

Spent the day messing around Santa Cruz Island. Spent the first hour and a half fishing for White Sea Bass without any luck, then we spend another hour drifting for Halibut without any luck. With no fish onboard, we all got antsy and decided to rig up our ultra light set-ups and head into the skinny water to try and catch some Barred Surf Perch.

We tried a couple areas with only minimal luck, then we found an area that had the Perch stacked up like cordwood. Over the next hour and a half we caught over 80 Perch up to 14.5’ inches. We caught over 30 that were between 11 – 13 inches. We had numerous double and triples hook-ups, needless to say we were all having a blast pulling in these feisty Perch on the 6lb test line.

Here I am with my jackpot Perch and another one of its buddies.
http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/500/85P1002333.jpg

Here is Jason with one of his Perch.
http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/500/85P1002329.jpg

Here is Kevin with one of his Perch.
http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/500/85P1002330.jpg

Here is a pic of the BSP’s that we kept for the dinner table. Yumyum!!
http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/500/85P1002328.jpg

After we got tired Perch jerkin’ I went out and found a piece of structure that was holding a bunch of Whitefish, Blacksmith Perch and Sheephead. It was a lot of fun pulling on those Whitefish with the 6lb test outfits. All the critters we caught off that rockpile were released.

Here is a pic of Kevin and Jason with a Whitefish and Sheephead. Jason had a blast pulling on the Sheephead with the light line.
http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/500/85P1002325.jpg


Had another great time fishing the Channel Islands with good friends. Can’t wait to do it again. BENDO!!

NICE perch! You're right, those things do put up a good fight on 6lb!

Hey Brad,

Those SoCal Sac-au-Lait's sure do put up a nice fight and are so yummy. Now I never go to the islands without my ultra-lite set up for Perch. Thanks for the reply.

Beautiful fish! The Surf Perch fishing seems to be picking up. I did really good in Morro Bay last Tuesday and Wednesday also.

Mike

Thanks for the reply. Do you live up near Morro Bay? One of my favorite place to fish for shallow water Rockfish is up around San Simeon and Piedras Blancas. I hope to read some of your reports. How big were the Perch you were catching up at MB? Thanks in advance.

Hey Vince,

I live in the Central Valley, Tulare. So I don't get to the surf as much as I'd like to. I tried to post a report earlier also, but it wouldn't show up for some reason. I caught 20+ on 2/7 and 9 on 2/8. Tuesday I had 8 that were 12 - 14.5 inches and the rest were 8 to just under 12". That's the best I've done on Barred Perch that I can remember. Wednesday wasn't as good in numbers or size, they were all 6 - 11 inches. I tried tube baits for the first time and they worked so well, that's all I fished both days. 2" tube Carolina rigged on a 1/32 oz. tube jig head. They just totally hammered the thing on Tuesday. I mean killed it, like they hit a Sand Crab when their serious about it! And what I really liked was that they stay on and you're not always having to slide it back on the hook like grubs. I only used 2 tubes total for both days also. I was surprised that they lasted the way they did, especially since the perch were slamming them so hard. It was a ton of fun and the weather was great too. Wish I had pics of the Barred Perch this time also, but the camera died, or was killed actually, accidentally before I headed over Monday. Gonna have to get a new one before I go back. San Simeon is a great place to Rock fish. Its been quite a few years, but used to go out of Virg's. Caught some really nice Lings and Reds. I've heard they do good on Halibut also and I've seen a number of them caught right off the pier there.

Mike

Thanks for the reply back. You got into some nice quality fish. Congratulations! Nice to hear about those tube baits. I've never tried that before, sounds very interesting. I sent you a PM.