Mission Beach 1/17

[jwacky]

I started the holiday weekend with a sunrise session at Mission Beach with the incoming tide, from about 6:30-9:30.

I caught one perch early on but spent the first hour or or so fighting large clumps of grass/kelp. I was worried for a bit that the morning was going to get cut short because of this but figured I’d stick out the high tide to see if the water cleared, which it did. The bite picked up about halfway through the morning, steady pace and while I’ve had better days out there, I’ve also had much worse.

Total perch count was five, all mid size and one maybe 10”-11”. Worth noting, perhaps, that four of them were very pregnant. I was able to get them back into the water before things turned into a perch massacre.

Small surf and hard to spot any structure if there even was any, which it seems to be minimal after the recent king tides. Lots of people out fishing which was cool to see for a change. One passersby mentioned catching a jacksmelt but otherwise not much luck. Even for me, I either caught a fish or it was nothing at all, not many nibbles throughout the morning.

[Midnightpass]

Sounds like a pretty good day.. Glad you were able to get those Mamas back in the water.. Those babies may wind up being your future 16”-17” drag pullers….
Butch

[jwacky]

Meant to add, too, that I used my 11’ Okuma Rockaway for the first time. I typically use an 8’6” Okuma SST. The longer rod sure flung that bait out there with little effort!

MF action but it didn’t feel particularly sensitive with the smaller perch. Nice to have options based on the surf conditions.