Big Perch + Surf Halibut + no carolina-rigged grubs = FUN!

Headed down to Goleta Beach on Saturday to fish the Santa Barbara Sport Fishing Club's perch tournament. I met Mike and Larry there. Larry was in the tournament and Mike was there to target halibut. Shortly after we got to the first spot Larry and Mike took off down the beach and Daniel showed up after I made several un-successful casts with the Carolina-rigged Perch Grubs. Daniel made one cast with the 3 inch Big Hammer swimbait and nailed one of the biggest perch I've seen in a long time (about 16 inches long). After a quick picture, while I was still trying to get something to hit the grub, he nailed another one. It didn't take long for me to dump the grubs and tie on a 3 inch Hammer. Brian showed up a few minutes later and joined us in the perch massacre. Lots of big perch - all on the 3 inch swimbaits. Of course since I was fishing for a tournament I couldn't get any that were nearly the size of Daniel's but I did get enough to get me 2nd place in the tourney. Catching perch on grubs is fun and all but getting them on the swimbaits and not having to deal with a Carolina rig is about as fun as it gets.

Down the beach Larry was able to nail a few nice perch and some short halibut on the grub and Mike found several short halibut using the swimbaits. After a couple hours the perch fishing died off but the halibut bite stayed relatively steady and produced two legals (both caught by Brian). Larry and Daniel picked up a couple more large perch toward the end which shot Larry into 1st place for the perch tournament. Larry also was able to get himself a decent corbina and a few yellowfin croaker.

Headed back down today (Sunday) with Mike and this time didn't make the mistake of starting with the grubs. Within 20 minutes I had 5 fish that would've given me first place in the perch tournament with over 2 pounds to spare! If I had only pre-fished on Friday - arghhh!!!

On the first cast I got a nice line peeling perch that went about 14 or 15 inches. A couple casts later I got a full, ready to pop female that was probably pushing the 16 inch mark. Mike also got quite a few nice perch on the fly gear. Among the perch I was also able to scratch up a couple of short halibut that I was able to watch eat the swimbait as they both popped up off the bottom and struck the lure at my feet. A little later Brian, Daniel, and Daniel's dad showed up. I'm not sure what Daniel and Daniel's dad caught but Brian caught several big perch and a halibut before I had to leave.