Surf pearchin again

  Been out once a few months back to Manresa,  attempted to land some BSP, but had no hits.  Did the proverbal fall into a hole ( knocked by a wave at most inopertune time) killed my cell, but still managed to make the cast soaked!  Does the BSP bite follow the norm for fishing fresh water trout?  Meaning early morning (sunup) or late afternoon? 
  By the time we actually got on the beach and casting it was late morning.  Tide didn't appear to be high or low, there was some beach exposed but some waves did go up a ways.
  I want to go out again, but have a hard time gettin up early enough (due to screwy work schedule) to get on the water at sunup. Getting up early while camping is a different story.
  I guess the question is, is the BSP bite influnced by tide or time of day?  I'm going to call buddy and try get out again this weekend maybe Sunday.
Troy


 

I haven't done much perching myself but I've seen em caught in the middle of the day.

Perch look for shelves and small holes along the beach. You can detect them if you know what you're looking for. Zenflyfishing.com has good info on it.

I used to grub fish Manressa alot and found if you find sandcrabs digging in the sand between waves, that means perch are sitting just a bit farther out and come in with the waves to feed on them.

from what Ive seen time of day makes no difference at all!!! what makes a huge difference is fishing the first few hours of the incoming tide.

Most perch afficianados have told me that the best time to fish perch is the hour preceding and the hour after high tide.
People are still catching a few perch here and there but not in quantity. And nothing big. The red tide is still pretty bad too.
Article about the red tide: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/story.php?storySection=Local&sid=51080
PK

I am not an expert by any stretch but I have found a few things that really impact good perching, tides and location. As Sin Coast mentioned the time around high tides are the best. I have caught perch in all tides but it is best at those times.

Location is key as well, not just the beach you are on but where you are fishing on that beach. I see a lot of people fishing flat nothing areas, you won't catch fish in these locations. I only spend time fishing rips and holes. Learning how to spot these locations is key to good perching.

I move from spot to spot pretty quickly which is why I like grubbing. I will fan cast around a rip or hole and if I don't get any hits I move to the next spot. I will work my way down the beach and back up. I will often find fish at spots where there where none just 30 minutes before.

Alex covers this and more in his great perch article - http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?page=10

I am not an expert by any stretch but I have found a few things that really impact good perching, tides and location. As Sin Coast mentioned the time around high tides are the best. I have caught perch in all tides but it is best at those times.

Location is key as well, not just the beach you are on but where you are fishing on that beach. I see a lot of people fishing flat nothing areas, you won't catch fish in these locations. I only spend time fishing rips and holes. Learning how to spot these locations is key to good perching.

I move from spot to spot pretty quickly which is why I like grubbing. I will fan cast around a rip or hole and if I don't get any hits I move to the next spot. I will work my way down the beach and back up. I will often find fish at spots where there where none just 30 minutes before.

Alex covers this and more in his great perch article - http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?page=10

This is very solid advise and sums up surf perch fishing to a T. Run and gun the holes and rips. If you are catching fish consistently and the bit dies off move up or down the beach. Perch are often on the move and tend to move in the direction of the current. So if you make a long cast and by the time you get your lure back in your lure is off to the right or left that is often the direction that the fish have gone. I love perching and am just waiting for the red tide to go away before I get back into it this year. I'm in Santa Cruz so if you ever want to meet up for a trip just let me know. I mostly fish on weekends. We really need a big storm to rip through here to create some good structure on the beaches. It's all pretty flat right now.

Also, we have a local forum that is dedicated to the SC/Monterey area that is run by a good friend of mine. There are some VERY good surf perch fisherman on this forum and you can learn a lot. Not a ton of traffic on this site but with steelhead/surf perch season approaching it will start to get a lot more posts:

http://fishingboard.gruk.net/index.php

Have fun and I hope to see you out there.

FF

perch will hit any time of day.  tide depends on the beach, but high tide is usually
easier to fish and seems like you have a better chance on a bigger fish.

full moon seems to affect bite. if it was full all night, wait till the high tide toward
sunset.

Flogger, I caught perch last weekend at seabright. once at sundown, once mid morning.
I'm renting a house right there for a month, so I just walk down when I am there.
high tide is best there. posted a report on top of ganodermas.

jp, retrieve the grub pretty darn slowly, and on the bottom. the beaches north and south of
moss landing are good, same with pomponio area.
if you wade out, cast almost parallel to the beach, you will cover more ground.

big fish are in holes, but if you just want to get bit, the dinks litter the flat areas
between the outer and inner bars around moss landing.

use a really small hook, like a 10 or 12 on your 1.5" grub, retrieve slowly on the bottom,
and parallel to shore, it's really hard not to hook a pile of dinks that way. finding the
slabs is a bit more difficult.

grass shrimp on a size 1 circle hook or octopus hook sure seems to work well but I get
bored waiting.

doesn't look like red tide is bad enough to bother the perch too much.

John

doesn't look like red tide is bad enough to bother the perch too much.

I know people who have fished lately and their catch rates are certainly down from non red tide action. Glad you're hooking fish though.

-deva