Thanks for the info, bassin'

Scratch the pier; turns out it's 5 miles up the road from the campsite. Guess I'll be surf fishing on San Simeon beach.

After reading up on this forum about surfperch, and halibut surf fishing, here's my plan:
For perch: stock up on 1/2 and 1 oz egg sinkers, #6 or so red hooks, and 2" and 3" grubs in motoroil/metalflake. Carolina rig with 9" to 18" leaders, using 6# or 8# fluorocarbon. I've got a jar of shrimp-scented goo a friend gave me...sounds like the perch might go for that. I will fish these with a 4000-sized spinning reel on a 7' medium action rod using 12# mono mainline.
For halibut: bring a selection of 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 oz leadheads and a variety of 3" to 5" swimbaits (fishtrap type). I will wade around with my trusty Curado on a 6' baitcasting rod looking for likely bedding areas. I will spool up with 12# or 15# copolymer.

I read somewhere about digging up some kind of sandcrabs to use for bait for the surfperch...how is this done?