Monterey Bay beach report

[larsj]

Hi, I've been lurking around here a lot lately, and thought it was time to post :) I usually flyfish for surf perch, on the beaches close to Santa Cruz and Watsonville. This particual outing was a bit of a departure in method.

I went down to my favorite north monterey bay beach friday morning around 9:30 and found a lot of fish. Caught 14 perch in about an hour and a half, which makes it my best day ever in terms of numbers of fish. They were all barreds and mostly small ones, but 3 were about 10 inches; they sure pull a lot harder than the 6 inchers -- not to mention what it feels like to have a REAL big one on! I had an even bigger on that dropped off the hook close to me, but I didn't get to see it. I found an interesting diagonal hole/channel with good current, and I spent the whole time on various sides of it. (also unusual, as mostly I cover a fair amount of beach).

Interestingly, I used a floating line this time; I had wanted to see if I can fish for perch with a floater and indicator (usually I use a sinking shooting head plus some sort of thin running line), but today I wanted to experiment a bit. However, the indicator popped off at the first cast and I ended up just drifting and doing the slow retrieve with the floating line. Worked great, obviously :D

Flies were a surf miki 3 (all the fish took that one, except one fish that was part of a double), and a zen worm on the dropper. See www.zenflyfishing.com for info on the flies. About a 7-8' leader. Wave action was pretty mellow, and it was fun throwing 'mends' over the incoming waves. I'm sure any other fishing method would have worked great there too.. the perch were definitely on the bite and there were a lot of them there. Incoming tide, overcast, and slightly windy. No pictures; the bummer of this trip was that I ended up soaking my little digital camera, and now need to get a waterproof one.

epilogue: I visited that same structure today (monday), and found it devoid of fish. A little later I saw a bait-guy pull a small perch out of there, but I ended up fishing elsewhere.

--Lars Johannesson

[PaulC]

Right on Lars! Nice to see some perch reports from up north. I used to fish south of capitola. Lots of BSP out there and some nice structure for sure.
Alot of guys perchin it down south have done really well with a red worm pattern. Marabou tail, bit of flashabou, and red chenille body with dumbell eyes. Basically all red or half/red orange tail body combo.
Easy tie, and works well.
Perch will hit mid water column but I still find fishing a sink tip gives better line control in the surf surge. A little bit of free diving or scuba and you'll see em hanging out in the lower portion of the water column hugging structure.
We have Walleye surf perch down here that will even hit a banger on top. Just that species tho....not barred. Go figure.
I'll fish a floater or intermediate off of jetties and bay water where waves aren't an issue.
Camera wise, get a Pentax waterproof or the new canon elph with a waterproof case. The video out of the canon was dvd quality...much better than my pentax wpi.

Any striper sightings now that we're in July? Definitely not asking for locations, just curious if they have started working that far south.
-Paul

[larsj]

Hey Paul,

yes, some stripers. I've heard of folks catching them from the piers here, and saw a bait buy pull a couple of small ones from the surf, next to where I was fishing (he was using sand crab bait). I've heard and read other reports of perch fishing folks catching the occasional striper on perch flies. I'm still waiting for my first striper.

I hear you on the perch hugging the bottom. I think some of the areas we fish are shallow enough that it doesn't matter so much as long as the waves aren't too high .. and maybe bouncing the fly across or close to the bottom from a floater could actually be better than dragging it through the sand behind a T-8 shooting head. I don't know, but I enjoy the experimenting. Larger waves sure make the floater much more problematic, if not impossible.

I actually saw a worm in the surf a few weeks ago; it was being carried out by the receding wave, and had curled itself into a spiral. As soon as it slowed, it straightened out flat, and buried itself with a quick undulating s-curve movement.

pentax has the w10 out now.. wonder if the video is improved over the wpi? I like the slim form factor. I'll look into that canon.

take care, --Lars

[Jay Murakoshi]

I've been thinking about going back over the hill to my home waters of the Monterey Bay to get in some perch fishing but the heat of the valley is keeping on top of the carp fishing. Plus, I'm getting ready to head back down to baja and tie into some of the yellow fin's that are hanging around.
There's also a few marlin swimming in the area.
Sure would like to get more shad fishing in and some river stripers. Hey Andy,, I'm going to call you when I get back from baja and set something up for the American and the stripers.

After fishing the beaches for over 30 years, it was tough to give it up but I have adjusted. I keep in touch with buddies who are fishing the beaches and telling me of their adventures with stripers, halibut and perch. I'm still fishing the beaches but for different species.

Who knows, one day you might see me walking down the beach with rod and camera in hand

Jay

[PaulC]

Hey Jay,
You gotta make another trek down south for some corbina action.
Drop us a line and we'll do some recon in advance. Things are definitely picking up. Gotta get some zzz's....on the beach again tomorrow to flog the surf.

Hey Lars,
The pentax cameras are definitely sweet for pictures and form factor. No bulky housing to deal with. I just noticed the quality of video was much better on my buddy's camera when we were out mako shark fishing.
(ran out of batteries on the digicam).
Other cool sites for patterns are:
www.garybulla.com
&
www.fliflicker.com
Throw some #2 to #6 chart over white clousers out there. Perch will hit it and the occasional striper will slam it.

-Paul

[DonCooksey]

Thanks for the timely posts, as I'm heading to a meeting in Monterey Sunday for a few days and hope to get in some surf fishing. I was thinking of heading to the New Brighton/Seacliff area. Unfortunately, my only free time will be evenings. Is it worth trying evenings rather than mornings? It looks like I'll be able to fish rising tides in the evenings early next week.

[Lars Johannesson]

Hey Don,

I understand that the evening bite can be really great; fishing until dark. Also, there is possibly a better chance of getting into a striper! (though I think the state beaches are officially open until sunset)

I have found newbrighton usually full of kelp salad that sticks to the flies. Seacliff can be good, but check for kelp first, or it gets frustrating. After that it usually gets better.

--Lars

[DonCooksey]

Lars,

Thanks, I'll try a couple of evenings until about dark. The Seacliff/New Brighton state beach web site says they are open until 10 pm. Maybe toward the south end of that area would keep me out of the kelp salad. I've run into some of that before in San Diego but it was pretty localized, so I could walk away from it easily. I would like to target stripers, and I've heard that some have been caught off of the beaches south of the "cement ship," which looks to be in the Seacliff area. I guess clousers or other bait fish patterns would be best for stripers from the beach?

Don

[Lars Johannesson]

Clousers would work for stripers, of course, but most flyfishing folks that I know of catch them incidentally on perch flies. Stripers in the surfzone will eat the molecrabs with relish, so crab patterns are good. Maybe a crab pattern on point and a baitfish a little higher up on the dropper? Generally there aren't that many stripers in the surf there, within flycasting range, so it is more fun to catch perch and then the occasional bonus striper.

good luck, and post a report :)

--Lars

[DonCooksey]

Fished the last three evenings at a few Monterey beaches and caught quite a few surf perch - mostly small. All but one were barred surf perch, but I think this one was a walleyed perch? Either that, or he was spooked, because his eyes were twice as big as the others.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/DonCooksey/P7100004a.jpg

It was easy to find whole stretches of beach to myself, and there is a lot of really nice structure to the beaches. Where I fished, it was all sand, which was nice, since I did not lose a single fly! Even without rocks, there were all kinds of ridges, drop offs, and potholes in the sand that caused really nice currents and mixed-up wave patterns. I tried to capture the intersecting waves (often at right angles), but this was be best I could do.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/DonCooksey/P7110018a.jpg

No other types of fish caught, except there was this guy...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/DonCooksey/P7110023a.jpg

OK, I would like to pretend that I caught it, but the truth is that it beached itself behind me while I was wading in the surf casting. I placed my rod next to him (for scale only - of course not to suggest that I caught it :roll: ), snapped a photo, grabbed him by the tail, and brought him back to the water. He swam off into the ocean, apparently OK. I guess he just wanted a little publicity.

[PaulC]

Hey Don,
Thats a walleye. They'll even hit bugs on the surface whereas bsp won't for the most part. Dunno why the difference in behavior besides being a different subset of the same species.

The guy on the bottom may be a juvenile one of these. lol.
http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/sharks/whale-shark-plastic-f1167.htm

All jokes aside looks right profile for a brown smoothound but they eyes look off and the gills don't look quite right. That and the white spots.
Anyone else have guesses on ID?
-Paul

[k.hanley]

I had an excellent day yesterday in the surf. Lots of barred perch. A couple of smaller stripers (about 2-3 pounds). Usual set up... 7 weight rod, 250 grain striper line, perch patterns #4 and #6.
Stay safe out there.
Cheers, Ken
PS: If you want larger stripers you usually need to target them. Favorite patterns for me are Popovic's Jiggy (gray/white), Sea Habit Bucktail (White Knight), Crease Fly (blue/white).

[PaulC]

Hey Ken,
I've been hearing good reports on the larger models from some buddies up north. They're throwing bigger model bugs in the 2/0 range and also some conventional gear.
Sounds like its turning on up north.
-Paul

[k.hanley]

Say Hey Paul,
Yup........the Pacifica stretch is turning out some nice stripers. It's the beginning of that cycle where I get serious about chasing them through Sept/Oct. Love the game!

I guess I should have mentioned the size of those patterns: Jiggy #2, White Knight #2/0-#3/0, Crease #2-#2/0. I forgto to list the Flashtail Clouser (olive/white or tan/white) #2 - #2/0.

I'll be down in San Diego this weekend. You too right???????
Cheers, Ken

[PaulC]

Hey Ken,
I'd be down there to check it out if it wasn't for an engagement party to go to. Looks like a cool event for sure.
Would love to hear how it went when you get back.
I'll be up north the following weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun).
Maybe I'll bump into you on the beach. If you see 2-3 fly guys and a conventional dude its probably us.
-Paul

[k.hanley]

Say Hey Paul,
I'll be in Alaska next weekend beginning my 3 weeks of saltwater clinics. I wish you guys the best in the suds. Maybe we'll hookup on another trip. Stay safe out there buddy!
Cheers, Ken

[PaulC]

Hey Ken,
Always try to stay safe...so far have succeded. But there's always that rogue wave. lol.
Man...3 wks in Alaska. You lucky dog! Say hi to the salmon for me.
Wish I was going this year, but Kauai calls.
-Paul

[larsj]

Hey Don,

glad you had a good time down here. Nice shark pic :) Last season Glenn Yoshimoto caught a small leopard shark in the surf; beautiful fish.

best, --Lars