San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I haven't been surf fishing for too long, and I moved to fishing from jetties to the sand relatively recently. Caught a few corbina and one good spotfin croaker this summer, alongside a whole bunch of surf perch smaller than my hand. Had some luck with striped bass and halibut too, recently. Finally got a few perch this week that were bigger than my hand (probably 6-8"). Do the perch here get much bigger? I see YouTube videos of guys in northern California/Oregon pulling in what seem like absolute monster perch, so I keep throwing mine back and telling them to bite again when they're bigger. The YouTubez guys don't seem to be down our way in San Diego so fish size/consistency is skewed for me from an "interwebs research" perspective.

the big "slabs" can get up to 14 - 15" range at So. Cal beaches. A few may push close to 16. PB for me in San Diego was 14"+. Suggest you check out Nick Heid's site, www.surffishingsocalsd.com and Bill Varney's www.fishthe surf.com. Both have excellent info on perch fishing So.Cal's beaches.

World record is 19.5 inches total length and 4 pounds 12 ounces from Morro Bay. They definitely seem bigger up north.

Perch killer wrote: Mon Dec 04, 2023 4:28 pm the big "slabs" can get up to 14 - 15" range at So. Cal beaches. A few may push close to 16. PB for me in San Diego was 14"+. Suggest you check out Nick Heid's site, www.surffishingsocalsd.com and Bill Varney's www.fishthe surf.com. Both have excellent info on perch fishing So.Cal's beaches.

I've surfed Nick's page a bunch over the last few years, his info has been great on actually getting me some success in the salt. Looking back at the pictures of my last few perch they're closer to 10". I'm not necessarily targeting perch right now, just happened to get my first few bigger ones while fishing with a lucky craft for halibut. I guess I was more just wondering how big they get around here since YouTube content is always only going to show the biggest and best catches, in addition to the fact that most "socal" surf fishing videos arent as far south as San Diego most of the time.

!6 inch for me , let the big girl go . For winter / late fall perch swap over to a different bait . Green rock crabs make up a large portion of the forage for perch . I know don't put it on the web but is true . The hassle of getting the right bait is worth it . Not many willing to travel for couple limits but Oceano Dunes pretty much rule in Ca. if you are willing to Hike and stay out, there are some spots further north that exceed those takes . Just have to hack the weather and hiking along a beautiful coast . WR

I’ve caught jumbos south of Ensenada. Right a 2lbs.

I used to fish Torrey Pines a lot. I don't remember ever getting one bigger than 12 or 13 inches...
However....
Down at Mission Beach, I saw a guy who had one in a plastic grocery bag...."hey, is this a surf perch?" Looked in the bag...made him lay it flat so I could measure it. 17 inches long! It looked like a barred surf perch to me...not sure whether it might have been a calico surf perch. some say those get bigger, I dunno.

From poo poo beach to Torrey, mission is the only place I’ve seen bigger than the average surf perch in Sd.

I'll 2nd Mission. Caught many large slabs there usually on mussel. A few also as by-catch while working LC's for hali's.