Being that this is the time of year when mature BSP's & other perch species appear in the suds to commence their annual mating ritual, January tends to be one of my favorite months to engage the larger fish with a fly rod.

This past Saturday, I fished the Monterey Bay waters around the Aptos area with a buddy during the afternoon tide change. The water had finally cleared up from all the loose seaweed, kelp & other debris that had been flushed out into the surf after the coastline took a beating from the high waves for many weeks. Excellent beach structure lay exposed along the rim of the bay from New Brighton south to Pajaro (& beyond) during low tide. We fished a variety of channels, troughs & other sandy pockets that flooded with the incoming tide. The fish were on the move & didn't seem to hold in any one particular location throughout the late afternoon tide swing. But there were several decent sized BSP's that were willing to play with us...



I wound up C&R'ing 9 BSP's on Saturday, with the largest being around 13-14 in. or so. Most of the fish were caught on the Dingleberry patterns while fishing with the 00-wt TXL.

On Sunday afternoon, I took a trip up to the Marin coast. Similar to many other coastal areas around this time of the year, the beaches featured lean, sandy terrain sculpted by the big waves that pummeled the shoreline over the past several weeks. Again, clear & clean surf prevailed at both beach destinations. There were many rip channels & troughs to investigate at low tide. Despite the excellent shoreline structure, the bite was very slow at Stinson during the one hour or so I spent fishing there. I later headed up to Pt. Reyes to fish Kehoe for the remainder of the day. Things picked up late in the evening - I wound up C&R'ing 3 small silver perch & 3 redtails, with the largest redtail landed sometime well after sundown on a Slinky Seducer:



On MLK day, I returned to Pt. Reyes, but this time I fished Drake's Beach during the afternoon tide change into the evening incoming. To be succinct, I experienced an absolutely stellar day of fishing when I found a large school of big walleye surfperch holding in a narrow rip channel. The action was absolutely incredible as one big walleye after another tore into the Dingleberries! Following each cast, I'd let the flies sink & swing out with the current while trying to keep the tippet from snagging on the rocks. I could feel the line slowly load up as the walleyes immediately attacked the flies. The ensuing battle was so fast & furious that when one fish spit out a fly, another would take its place as I struggled to bring the fish to hand. For every walleye that was landed successfully, I probably lost an equal number. Over a 3 hour period, nearly every cast resulted in a grab that made the wimpy 00-wt go bendo at times...



In addition to landing 2 silver perch & 3 BSP's, I estimate that I C&R'd a total of around 70-80 walleyes, often catching two & three fish at a time on a triple-fly tippet of Dingleberries:



I had such a phenomenal time experiencing the near non-stop walleye action on Monday - it was a terrific way to end the 3-day holiday weekend. Hopefully, the winter surfperch will continue to invade the beaches up & down the coast over the next several weeks.

TL's,

Mark