Surf fishing

[Topwater Terry]

Keeping with the theme of not waiting till opening day,  I hit the beach in Santa Monica recently.  Caught about 40 surf perch in a couple of hours,  and some big uns are coming in for the spawn.  It was a beautiful evening on the beach...

[saudust]

Nice surf perch, Terry.  What were you throwing at them?  If it was a fly, what weight line were you using and what was your set up?  Looks like a great evening bite was happening.  Way cool!  I'm planning to head down to Surfside or near there to start my fishing season, but this time with my 9' - 7 wt. rod with either a sinking tip or full sinking line.  Maybe I can get down to Santa Monica and meet you there sometime, too.   

[charlie]

That's a perch and a half , Terry.  That'd be about the biggest one I've caught.  Very cool, I hope you hook into a bean or a white sea bass while you're at it.  Very cool!


Charlie

[wshawkins]

That's a lot of perch for one outing, you really had a good bite going.  Very nice!

[Topwater Terry]

Art,  I was actually using a spinning rod,  10lb main line and 6lb flouro leader with a powerbait sandworm,  aka crack.  I had not been to that spot yet and wanted to check it out before taking the flyrod.  Usually in the surf,  if I flyfish,  I take a 7 weight,  with a 4 or 5 foot leader of 6lb flouro.  I just had a full sink line put on my flyreel so I might try that next time...

[saudust]

I've used the "crack" before with my spinning rod and the perch gobble it up, but I've never nailed one that big!  I am hoping for a surf ghost or halibut sometime in my life.  I did have a 'but once, but only had 6 lb. mono on and it snapped off after 20 minutes.  We saw it once, briefly and almost had it, but it slid back down a steep slope into a trough and that was that.  I just could not horse it out. 

[Claremont Dude]

I've used the "crack" before with my spinning rod and the perch gobble it up, but I've never nailed one that big!  I am hoping for a surf ghost or halibut sometime in my life.  I did have a 'but once, but only had 6 lb. mono on and it snapped off after 20 minutes.  We saw it once, briefly and almost had it, but it slid back down a steep slope into a trough and that was that.  I just could not horse it out.

Halibut would be nice! Reminds me of when I was a kid in the '60's. We used to go down to Dana Point pier (years before the area was built up and the only thing there was the pier and the tide pools). We actually used frozen peas to catch halibut.