Mission 10/28

[Perch killer]

No visible crab beds and spent way too much time blind digging, about 20 min, looking for a few. Found a total of 6, 5 thumb size with eggs & 1 dime size without. Usual critters just nibbling off the roe, no solid hits. Managed to get one on the crab without roe plus a couple more on dried lugs, 5-6" models. Tom (Jusbigguns) got a half dozen or more of the same. At first, moderate amount of salad & fishable but conditions worsened as got closer to the high tide so we packed it in at 8 am. No skunk but have been wondering past few sessions, where are the big boys ?

[jwacky]

Not liking these reports of grass at all! My weekend window coincides with incoming morning tides so I may just skip it all together just to (hopefully) let it pass.

[Midnightpass]

Same here at PB… You did no worse fishing there than you would have here… Better luck next time Bill…
Butch

[Perch killer]

Same here at PB… You did no worse fishing there than you would have here… Better luck next time Bill…
Butch

Enjoyed our brief on the sand Butch. Great to meet up with you. Yeah, this past week's fishing kinda sucked but guess that's why they call it fishing, not catching.

Have a safe trip back and hope you this summer's fishing is good to you.

[Midnightpass]

Thanks Bill… Only about 100 miles, so even an old codger like me aught to be able to do it..
Take care buddy, and wack those Corbina and SFC for me.. I saw some some off the pier today….
And the weather cleared up nicely…
Butch

[hrierdan]

What are everyone's thoughts on why it has been slow? Where are the perch? Usually I can at least target small perch if all else fails. Lately, even those are missing.

For a few day I was seeing SFC and Corbina in the shallows, but even those are missing. It it just the vagaries of fishing? Or El Nino? Last summer (mid June) was great for me, so I am hoping for a repeat

Thoughts?

[Nelson 1]

What are everyone's thoughts on why it has been slow? Where are the perch? Usually I can at least target small perch if all else fails. Lately, even those are missing.

For a few day I was seeing SFC and Corbina in the shallows, but even those are missing. It it just the vagaries of fishing? Or El Nino? Last summer (mid June) was great for me, so I am hoping for a repeat

Thoughts?

November was the best Perch month for me. Some large Perch in that month. Someone told me that was because they were making babies. Have not had any large Perch like that for a while.

[jwacky]

I'm only just now rounding into my second year of surf fishing. I remember last Memorial Day weekend being the first time my son and I attempted it after a relatively successful attempt at it while camping in Carlsbad the week prior. I snapped my cheap pole in half trying to bring in seaweed in Coronado, got my car towed because of confusion over expired tags (which were not technically expired, it was that a smog check hadn't cleared in the system). Two days later, fees, fighting to wave the fees... looking back, not sure why I didn't just quit right then and there, ha!

Anyhow, my theory is that we're just kinda in a lull period right now. I feel like fishing didn't truly pick up for me until later in the summer, maybe July-August. Of course, that also was probably a result of me figuring out what the heck I was doing. Then as the crabs disappeared in November, the perch bite REALLY picked up for me. Less quality, for sure, but definitely more quantity. Then the big ol' perch were biting December - February. I was routinely having 10+ fish sessions.

I suspect that if you could fish at any point in the day based on ideal conditions, you would have pretty sustained success. But just judging by morning conditions, they've not been great for the past month or so. Big swells, or no swells. Incredibly high tides, or incredibly low. Feels like it's been forever since we've had those nice 4-5 foot tides after a large swing from a lower tide, with just moderate swells. We've had wind, or powerful surges, or neap tides. All extremes, none of them good. So that, and perhaps a bit of a transition as the fish change their tastes from winter baits to the crabs that are surfacing but still only far out in the surf has made for a slow month or so. It's been a grind to bring in 5-6 fish, and they've been small. I've pulled in some SNGF and rays in each of the past two weekends I've gone out, so better days ahead, I'm sure!

I could be way off base. This is only off one seasonal-change observation so almost no sample size at all, and perhaps next year will be entirely different. Just some observations.

[Mike A]

Brutal start…towed rig and snapped rod. I’d probably taken that as sign to fish a lake. I’m onboard with the lull period. Crabs are coming, storm surge should be behind us. Need the salad to lighten up a bit. Then we should be good to go.