OT - Sonoma Coast Cliff Perchin' 1-21, 1-22

Hit one of my old favorite spots yesterday and today afternoon for some perch action. Fished the same spot north of Schoolhouse Beach on both days. Fished from 2:00PM 'til 5:30PM both days. Miniscule incoming and top of the tide both days.

Fished Carolina rigged cooked shrimp on size 4 or 6 hooks, w/1oz egg sinker yesterday on my 6.5' Shakespeare Axion(?) pole and Shimano Calyx combo. I think the cheap little reel is bone dry, so I couldn't cast it more than 20 yards or so. First cast rolled around in the pounding surf for a few seconds and got slammed. Set the hook and got a good line peeling run from what turned out to be my biggest calico at just over 12". I was bummed I left my camera in the truck because I still need a good pic of a calico for my fish album. Next cast I sent into the rocky zone and it immediately got picked at. Few more little nibbles and I set the hook. A little resistance and up comes a ~6" giant kelpfish. Now I'm really bummed because it was my first and I couldn't get a pic of it. Next cast is slammed, line is peeling and in comes a monster striped perch, definitely in my top three biggest striped perch. After that I had had enough so I climbed back up to my truck and grabbed my camera. Just to prove that your chances of catching rare or large fish decrease tremendously when you have a camera - all I caught from then on out were the large momma perch pictured, 4 or 5 medium sized striped perch, and 9 walleyes from ~5" - 10".

Went back this afternoon, only this time I was armed with my 6.6' Quantum IM8 Tournament Series spinning rod matched with a Pfleuger(sp?) President reel (Awesome little reel, by the way) w/10lb test. The bite was a lot slower this afternoon, but I found a few more honey holes casting out farther than normal. Total for today was just five striped perch, but all were slabs like the one pictured. Most seemed to be pregnant so I spent a lot of time climbing them down to the water's surface to release them. I'll blame my low number of fish on that...lol. Also missed a few really good bites, and I saw a whale misting just before sundown.

Weather was beautiful both days, and thankfully there were no little flies anywhere.

nice color on that fish!

Tasty cooked shrimp grubs,,, mmmmmmmmm, I always wondered if that would work.  Were all those fish on the first day caught in the surf?  I saw that you had less action when you casted further out.  I needs to go do me some surf fishing.  JTF..

Most of the walleyes and the calico were caught in the surf. All the striped perch were caught just past the surfline in the rocky areas.

Usually there's fish right in the surf and farther out, just seems like yesterday there weren't too many home. They're just now starting to show up in this spot (I have no idea where they go otherwise). In another month or two this spot should be WFO.

Sneaky little bastards, though. Sometimes it's very frustrating to get slammed on every cast and only hook up once every 5 or 6 tries.

Darn on missing those rare pictures but wow, what a beautiful fish to show.  I feel the need for some surf spray.....

Pat