Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3720 Sept 14-18 | Page 30

30 Sept 14 - 28, 2018 VOL.37 • ISS. 20 Perch Bites O K, OK, OK ... I just dropped at least 20 IQ points after watching the mind numbingly stupid movie called Sharknado. Basically, the story takes place in Santa Monica where by some freak of nature, huge water- spouts (a tornado that forms over water) form off the Pacific Coast and by some amazing coinci- dence, only hungry man-eating sharks (including what must be half of the world’s great white shark population) are caught up in the turbulence and it all comes down over Southern California as torrential rain and sharks falling from the sky. The movie was so bad that by comparison, Guardians of the Galaxy looked like a BBC documentary. Look, even if you buy the premise of raining sharks, why only sharks? Southern California’s nearshore waters are also blessed with an abundance of other fishes such as corbina, calico bass, sand bass, spotted bay bass, barracuda, bonito, and several varieties of surf perch. Wouldn’t these fishes, being much lighter in weight than sharks, have been swept up as well in the waterspouts? Speaking of surf perch, the other day I bumped into an old customer of mine. The conversation, of course, got around to what I have been doing since my retirement from the retail world nearly four years ago. Then, Opie told me that he was still fishing as of- ten as he can between work schedules and he was having very consistent success with surf perch. It wasn’t until that moment that I found out his name wasn’t “Opie”, but “O.P.”, short for “Oversized Perch”. O.P.’s passion is oversized surf perch; and although he fishes for other species, surf perch are near and dear to his heart. Turns out, he was born and raised in Kan- sas before moving out west for college. And like so many others, once in California, decided to stay after graduation. Surf perch are a connection to his past when he used to fish farm ponds for critters like bluegills and crappie, except surf perch can reach sev- eral pounds in size. O.P. told me he read in a past article where I was touting the merits of Berkley’s Power Sand- worms, a bait recommended to me by Billy D. and Buddy-X. He told me he also used that bait quite often, and it caught a lot of fish, but the problem he had was that it caught too many fish of all sizes. His focus was on big fish, and he needed a bait for big fish. Going with the standard perch grubbing rig, instead of the usual #4 octopus hook with the 1.5” grub, O.P. opts to go with a larger #2 octopus hook and then half of a Roboworm 4.5” FAT straight tail worm. He claims that it is an advantage to thread the worm on the hook through the cut side of the worm as the flat face of the cut side causes the half worm to have a little more action. He also praises the floating ability of Roboworms as this also adds to the movement of the bait in the water. As for colors, he wasn’t too specific, but did mention that he preferred darker colors like Aaron’s Magic and warmouth during the middle of the day, and morning dawn red flake early and late in the day or when it is super foggy. He also let on that some of his best catches were on the head half of a morning dawn when the incoming tide coincided with sun up. I, of course, asked O.P. if I could share his info in print and he said “no problem” since there are miles of open beach and thousands of perch out there. But then, if Sharknado was plausible, we wouldn’t have to fish for big perch, we’d just wait for them to fall from the sky. SALTY TIPS by Steve “Hippo”Lau SALTWATER REPORTS: fishing is still going great near the west side of Santa Cruz and the Cement Ship. There have been a few white seabass caught just below the Cement Ship in 50-60 feet of water. The rockfish action was good at Natural Bridges and Davenport. The surf fishing is great for perch and a few striped bass near Manresa.” - Dan Bacher CONTINUED FROM PG 24 MONTEREY BAY cont. on the Caroline checked in with 8 lingcod and limits of rockfish. “The weather was perfect today with no wind and a very small swell,” reported Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz on September 2. “The halibut Predator Sport Fishing Small Groups • Great Rates Excellent Sturgeon, Bass and Shark Fishing! The Bay’s Best Crew! 3408 707-342-8481 • www.crocsport.com Now Booking Halibut, Salmon & Striper Trips! ~ Berkeley Marina Departures ~ With Capt.Chad Aho Aboard The Ms. Marin Experience 6-Pack Fishing At Its Best. Call Today! • Halibut • Salmon • Stripers • Rockfish • Sturgeon • Shark • Live Bait Potluck BAY CHARTER BOATS (510) 850-2285 3717 www.baycharterboats.com This big yellowfin tuna was caught off the East Cape on August 14. Photo courtesy of VAN WORMER RESORTS, East Cape, Baja. PENINSULA SHORELINE Surf Casters Battle Perch SAN FRANCISCO - Fishing pressure remained light along the shoreline this week due to wind, but striped bass and perch still remain a good bet for city anglers. “Maybe it’s the wind, maybe guys are just lazy,” exclaimed Stefanie Scott at Gus’ Discount Bait and Tackle in San Francisco. “There’s perch out there on the beach if you toss pile worms or blood worms. Other guys are using grubs or digging sand crabs,” she tipped. “Stripers are still around but they’re small when they come up. Some guys are still casting Kastmasters or bucktail jigs, but the action has been slow,” she related. Halibut fishing has all but disintegrated, according to Scott. “The tides were nice last week and I know they were getting them from the boats outside the gate. Some guys were fishing inside the bay for pretty good action,” she related. These anglers headed out with the Golden State Sportfishing team this August and rounded up these monster S.F. Bay sharks. - Roland Aspiras Photo courtesy of GOLDEN STATE SPORTFISHING, Berkeley.