sand crab classic / salinas river state beach

After a long layoff from any type of  fishing I headed to Santa Cruz Harbor to sign in for the 5th annual Perch Tournament. There I met up with Pappa Bill, ChuckE, and Freddie. They were helping out checking in the participants and handing out the cool T-shirts we received with our entrance fee. Since I was one of the first groups to sign in I motion Freddie that i was going to get a head start and head south to the Salinas River.

The day was beautiful little overcast , winds coming out of the East and tide was up at Noon @ 4ft. Everything look so perfect. Lots of sand crabs...probably to many! I think the fish were all full because fishing was really slow. After using MORFs, live sand worms and sand crabs I still had a big Zero fish in the bucket.

It's 10am and Bill, ChuckE and Freddie shows up and starts working the surf I'll let them chime in on there findings. I could say this, Bill and ChukE looked like they were having fun catching sand crabs with the trout net they brought along just for that reason.

After a couple of hours with no luck I finally found some dinkies to take my grub. I ended up getting five fish with the largest at 9 1/2" still not big enough to jump in the truck and trying to make the measurement booth in Santa Cruz.

Here's some pics to end this day.

P.S.

for those who like to perch its only going to get better!

alex 

Nice spread of BSPs.  What was the winning fish?

Alex -

Very nice report and fish. May have to do some perhin this month.

scott

Hey that looks like six fish and that's never a bad day fishing, man.  Nice going. 

I want to get the saltwater fly rod out for some minus tides and see I can't bust one of those legendary 3 pounders off Ocean Beach. 

-surfFisher I arrived way late for the ceremony but i heard it was a Pile perch that took 1st. place. I think SinCoast was the official for the measuring...Calling Sin Coast, calling Sin Coast...come in over...

-Scott let me know I may be able to meet up with ya

_peteb the sixthfish was gifted to me, let me know when you decide to go Hit Ocean Beach I like to try to hook one of those three ponders too the five i got were on the last hour of slack tide.

What a great derby! I had lots of fun, especially back at the Yacht Club haha.
Fished from about 8:30-11am at Rio del Mar, south of the cement ship. Only landed 3 perch, with the biggest being about 8 inches. Pileworms produced my 3 fish but other guys were doing just as well with grubs and Gulp sandworms. I was fishing with Damian, Ben, Lars, a friend from work, and Keith hung out with us too.
I had to stop fishing early and return to the yacht club as the o-fish-all weigh-master, errr, measure-master haha. And of course I was late (need to write down direx next time D'OH!). But to my surprise only 2 guys had brought fish back so far. Grabbed some food and a beer and waited for everybody to return with their fish. But it was still very quiet until about 1:30 when a rush of people came back to measure their fish. It was cool to see all the fish and talk about where/how they were caught. We had to re-measure a couple fish to get the most precise length. Fortunately, no fights or drama haha.

The winning fish was a 15" pile perch from Moss. Second was a 14 7/8" barred perch from RDM. Third was a 14.5" pile caught in Monterey by a NCKAer. Justin aka Minnow Magnet won the kids division with a nice 14" pile perch from Monterey. Other perch included walleye, calico, white, black, striped, and rainbow perch. The white and rainbow perch weren't measured though...I just saw them on peoples stringers.

I didn't take many pics but I know other people did. Hopefully Keith and Lars got some good shots.
But here's the few I took.

It was overcast in the AM.


Here's Damian with a fresh perch.


My monster walleye haha.


A typical barred perch.


Damian with a nice little barred perch.


By the time I left, it was clearing up and I could see some blue sky breaking through the clouds.


I also saw a kayaker paddling north towards Capitola or the harbor from south of RDM. Couldn't tell if he was fishing but that area looks halibutty. It was almost flat enough to surf launch right off RDM. And at one point a group of 10-12 kayak surfers rolled up and checked out the surf. But they went to another beach for waves.
PK


 

Thanks Brotha!

WTG on the perch alien. Thanks for sharing some pictures.

Jedmo

Good times boys!! Sounds like a fun day.

-Ff

It was good to met up with all my brothas at the clubhouse. unfortunate for me no fishing.

Thanks for the report and pictures. Sounds like a fun and productive day for everyone.

glad to see you back Alien, need to hit the salt this year for sure!

Eugene

I almost for to Thank Allen and Mike for organizing such a great event. The best part of the derby is the money raised for the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project (MBSTP), a dedicated and top-notch organization.
 
The highlight for many participants is the raffle and auction. Each year, there seems to be more prizes. In fact, I think most guys enter the derby just so they can play the raffle. I made out like a bandito…scoring a fish cookbook (The Lady and the Lingcod), an Anglers Choice hat & long-sleeve t-shirt, a year subscription to WON, a full scoop of bait from Bocci Boy, and a freshwater Daiwa combo.
(-:

Raffles? I am totally signing up for next year's tournament. Keeping my fingers crossed; hoping there won't be a wedding to stop me from attending next year.

I had a great time out there not catching anything. I think that the storms earlier may have pushed the perch out. It was fun though. I haven't been perching in like 15 years. I don't remember it being so tough to get a bite though. Highlight of the day... getting semi-stuck in the mud. Then, pulling out of it... Then, blasting through another puddle. Getting sideways and almost getting stuck again in a drainage ditch. Bill's truck looked like it needed a bath after that but all is well. Lowlight of the day... watching Chucke bite the heads off of sandcrabs. And no matter what he says... it didn't look like it tasted like tobiko...

Freddie