Surf Perch

[ryanfam]

Had a great day fishing on the coast for surf perch on Saturday. Three limits in a couple of hours. Many doubles when the school moved through. Clam necks for bait on the incoming tide.

[bare.hunter]

Nice.Great eating fish.

[denali]

Great job    we will be heading over for New Years

[Encore 280]

They're a blast to catch!! What beach? I've caught 'em at Long Beach and Grayland but I think the bigger ones are at Long Beach.

[ryanfam]

These were caught at Grayland.

[Encore 280]

Good eat'n there Bud!! We get the Wilabay breading mix and fry 'em up. Flood tide? Might have to make a trip down and see if we can get a few. Thanks!

[lokidog]

Nice, we're going to be down on Long Beach for the Christmas dig and will be fishing as well.

[raisen2]

What kind of set up do you use for them? My son wants to do this real bad. I know nothing about fishing in this state. We will be camping and clam diging over New Years at grayland state park. Thanks, raisen

[NRA4LIFE]

I too have never tried this and would like to know what rigging is used.  I know razor clam necks can be used as bait along with sand shrimp.  Would like to try this when we're down for the new years dig.

[SeaRun1]

Those are so much fun to fish for.  I use razor clam necks but have heard that you can use some of the smaller Gulp! products.  Anyone try them?

SR

[TONTO]

What kind of set up do you use for them? My son wants to do this real bad. I know nothing about fishing in this state. We will be camping and clam diging over New Years at grayland state park. Thanks, raisen

 Simple rig actualy. Tie a pyramid sinker(3-5oz) straight to end of main line, come up about 18" tie a loop in line, tie a second loop another 18" above that. Pull a pre tied size 2 baitholder leader through each loop and thread back trough it's self. You can get as complicated as you like, but the simplest works the best sometimes.
 Surf perch will eat about anything, clam necks work great espescial following a dig when there might be churned up, crushed or discarded clams in the surf, but I have probably caught more surf perch on just plain old nightcrawlers than any thing else. Sand shrimp can be hot too if you can keep them from getting picked off. Sand/kelp worms are my favorite bait simply because they last longer in the salt than a nightcrawler, thier skin is pretty tuff. Although the infinite wisdom of the WDFW has made them illegal to use as they outlawed collection of unclassified invertibrates. I have even caught perch on the skin of filleted perch. I hear some of the gulp products work, but have yet to catch perch on artificials.

 You will want a longer rod, I use a 13', 15# myself but anything 9'+ should get it done, you'll want a softer tip to feel the bite, but a good back bone to drag them up the beach or lift over rocks.

 No need to cast a mile, the first set of breakers is where your aiming. Look for breaks in the surf indicating deeper water/pockets, or scout out the bars and lowpoints at low tide, the fish will hang in these deeper pockets. Keep your line tight, this can be tricky depending on tide and drift. I like to fish the incoming, but the tide changes both top and bottom are sometimes the hottest.

[RadSav]

Nice catch!  One of my favorite eating fish

Back when I lived on the coast we would use Kelp Worms.  They stuck to the hooks well and the perch loved 'em.  Takes a while to get enough for a couple days fishing though.  The kelp worms were also our preferred bait for flounder...another of my favorite eats.

[lokidog]

Not having any clam necks when we arrive tomorrow, I am going to try some fish flavored catfish bait pellets.  We'll see....

[raisen2]

That is awesome info, thank you very much, I can't wait to see my boys try this. Thanks again, raisen.

[TONTO]

 Went down to LongBeach both friday and sat night for a bit of clam digging. Took the ol surf rod with me. Clams were about average to smaller size, but quick limits both nights. Then tried some perch. Friday I picked up three before hanging it up, but it got me wanting more. So sat night I went back for more. Got on the beach kinda late, after six, tide was already rolling in but clams were still showing, so knocked out a quick limit then baited up with the previous night's necks. First fish was pretty quick then stuck it out for my limit, #12 came in at 10:30.

 Sat night's haul......perch and clams it's whats for dinner