Central Coast Fishing

[RayO]

Looking for information on surf fishing on Californias central coast around Morro Bay.I live in so. cal. but go up that way alot and would like to surf fish the area.Any info would be appreciated.

[brainlessfool]

montana de orro state park can be good for surf fishing if the swell is not to big. as it faces the swell most times. up hy 1 can be good too. but its hard to find a place to get to the water that is not being use heavaly by every one around. if you have some time to try it can be good. the brake water on M. B. can be ok fishing. the brake water in Availa is good to but kinda hard to get to most times. my personal fav. spot is "somewhere" up hy 1 passed gorda. its a drive but very nice area and nice to get away from it all. if you have any ?s I&#39;d be happy to try to do you some good with them. just post and I&#39;ll watch for ya http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[RayO]

Brainlessfool,thanks for that info.I&#39;ve fished mostly for barred surfpearch down here.What species are available there?Whats the right bait?Can fishing be good all year round?I really appreciate your input.

[brainlessfool]

well,off the rocks you can get into lings, blue bass, cow cod , china cod, ect. ect. just be sure to check the regs. on size and fish you can have. oh and open and closed tomes of the year. bait? well I like squid. mussels are good to. chovs. clams. I use a 10 ft. poll and 3-4oz. sinker on a short leader off my snap. oh I use a longer leader for my hook, about 2ft. most times. one of these days when I get a wild hair, I&#39;m going to try some flowting bait. just for kicks http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif good luck http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-rock.gif

[Schoettgen]

Well I have tried surf fishing a time or two and still really do not know what I am doing. First I was told to use a heavy rod, surf leader with two hooks and a big triangle weight to hold the contraption down. 20# test. What a disaster, I caught everything in the ocean but fish, except for a nice dungenuss crab that got his claw snagged. Then I heard about guys using perch grubs on Carolina rigs in the surf with light rigs, I tried it and actually caught fish. I rigged Texas style in the rocks and caught more fish, ugly ones. I also used broken chunks of rubber worms to Texas rig the baited hooks with squid. The carolina worked better on the beach, and worked well with sand crabs when I could catch them, but for the most part I don&#39;t use bait much anymore unless I can catch it on sight. The only downside I can find to surf fishing is figuring out what is and or is not legal. I guess I should have taken ichthyology in school. I never gave floating bait much though, but next time I think I am going to try a Zara Spook for a mile or two to see what happens. I also want to try a spinner bait in the rocks , hard to hang up with one and I bet it would work well with a trailer hook tipped with squid, though I may need to add a little weight to the head.

[brainlessfool]

Well I do belive that if you had 100 guys tell you "how" to do it you&#39;d hear 100 diff. ways to do it. I kn ow what you mean about to stiff a rod. not a good thing. I have a 7ft,8ftand a 10ft . and none of them are realy "stiff" I use 15# test now, strated with 25 and went down from there. I have a few freinds I go with and we all rig diff. some days we all catch, some days only some of us do. I dont mess with perch any more but when I did I fond the best way for my was to use a bobber 2ft above the weight, one foot below that I&#39;d tie on a snap and run a leader about 3ft with two small hooks with squid. I&#39;d cast out let it sink then pull tant, and lower the rod tip so the bobber would rise up off the bottom. get the bait up about 6" off the sand. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-devil.gif it was murder on the little buggers. but it was a pain the set up http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Are you guys talking about surf fishing like on the beach or off the rocks. First of all the only time, nevermind, top water will never work you have swells and waves not even on a crystal clear no wind at all day would it work and most of the fish are not top water, and a spinner bait are you kidding me you&#39;r fishing in the ocean not some calm lake have fun casting that thing a whole 20 feet and snagging everything between you and it. I don&#39;t mean to sound pushy or anything but realistically you have to you have to use live or dead bait. Fish can be caught on grubs and such but I have found that you will consistently catch something on squid, limpet or mussel day in and day out. One thing that you must know is to go where everyone else isn&#39;t. The secluded rough places hold the majority of fish.
One source of information that you might want to look into is in a book written by Raymond Cannon called "How to Fish the Pacific Coast. I call it my Fishing Bible. It is unparalleled in it&#39;s information and it&#39;s descriptions of fish species identify every fish that can be caught on our Pacific Coast line from Mexico to Alaska.

[RayO]

WENT UP TO MORRO BAY A FEW WEEKS BACK FOR A LITTLE FISHING.I BOUGHT A PUMP TO CATCH GHOST SHRIMP FOR BAIT.AFTER CATCHING THE SHRIMP,WE FISHED THE BAY AND CAUGHT NICE LIMITS OF PERCH.HAD A GOOD TIME.THESE WERE NICE FISH.

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Come summertime with the warmer water, Morro bay is a riot. If you don&#39;t have a boat that can take you beyond the breakwater you can still fish the bay. You&#39;ll catch halibut, huge batrays, leopard sharks and the infamous shovenose guitar fish. Catching the batrays and shovelnose is some of the most fun fishing you&#39;ll have. Both of these fish will spool you, no kiddding, and reach upwards of 30 pounds in the bay, well at least that&#39;s how big i&#39;ve caught a few there&#39;s no saying they don&#39;t get bigger in the bay.

[Atwater]

Here&#39;s a money saving tip for you when fishing rocks. Instead of lead, use sandbags. They&#39;re actually tobacco bags filled with sand. (roughly the size of a credit card)

Alot of people use spark plugs, but they snag too easily.

As for the MB area, the "live fish" fishermen really put the hurt on the shallow water rock fish populations, but you can still get into some good perch. If you can catch sandcrabs, that&#39;s the ticket!

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Or you could just pour your own lead weights. The sandbag planes on the downfall more-so than the lead so your bait doesn&#39;t actually fall in the place that you want it.

[RayO]

I&#39;VE ALWAYS USED CHAIN LINKS IN THE ROCKS.THEY WORK PRETTY GOOD.

[RayO]

ATWATER,
WHEN YOU SAY PERCH,WHICH TYPE ARE YOU SPEAKING OF.I&#39;VE CAUGHT SOME BARRED PERCH, AND WHEN I WAS THERE A FEW WEEKS A GO,CAUGHT A TYPE OF PERCH I HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE.THESE FISH WERE A GREENISH COLOR AND HAD YELLOW LIPS.I&#39;M FROM THE L.A. AREA AND AM NOT YET FAMILAR WITH THE VARIOUS SPECIES UP THAT WAY.THESE WERE NICE FISH AVERAGING ABOUT A POUND AND A HALF EACH.ARE SANDCRABS HARD TO FIND IN THE AREA?

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

you have encountered what we here call a buttermouth perch. Greenish you say? Normally they are dark brown to black with fluorescent horizontal stripes and the fish will fade as it is kept out of the ocean like in a tide pool, but dark green is quite a possibility he must have been living in the green kelp grass. another name is the black sea perch. They can get big, i&#39;ve caught them up to 3 pounds pretty good fighter too. i&#39;ve used chain link too but was losing too many rigs so i just pour my own lead now. you were also probably in a rocky area when you caught this guy never caught them over a completely sand bottom surface. also on the central coast the water is in a transitionl period. The water is warmer south of Pt. Conception and much colder north of it. you get many different species of fish in this area esp. perch. the buttermouth is predominantly a colder water fish, thus north of Pt. Conception.

[RayO]

YOU&#39;R RIGHT! I CAUGHT THE FISH OFF THE ROCKS WHERE THERE WAS KELP GRASS.I HAVE CAUGHT BUTTERTMOUTH PERCH BEFORE,ALL OF THEM BEING BLACK.I GUESS THEY CAN ADAPT TO THIER SURROUNDINGS.WHILE THERE ON ANOTHER OCCASION,I SAW A MAN CATCH WHAT APPEARED TO BE SARGO PERCH.ARE THEY IN THE AREA ALSO?

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Yeah like I said there are so many different types of perch you could catch a differet species every cast. It just depends on the school that you get into. It could have been a Sargo or another species that looks very similar, but the sargo do live in these waters. When fishing in those rocks, if i were you i&#39;d put on some squid you&#39;ll be very happy with the results, you&#39;ll catch cabazon, grassbass, and the occasional lingcod, if the grassbass doesn&#39;t have worms in him all three of these fish is better table fare than perch. I fish for perch when things are slow for the cabazon, I almost consider the perch as a nusience fish, unless i&#39;m targeting them.

[Atwater]

Rubber lip, Barred perch, Rainbow, their are many names for the various species. I have to respectfully disagree with the comment about the table quality of perch. They&#39;re a delicate white fleshed fish with a wonderful flavor. Cabbies are excellent, but tough to find these days. Lingcod are good, but I&#39;d take a mess of perch over them, and the regs on lings are pretty prohibitive these days. Squid is the best bait for Lings and Cabbies in the rocks. In my youth I tried many different lures in the rocks, which are still in the rocks today. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif

Surf fishing and rock fishing are two different things. Surf rods tend to be quite long, to inable your cast to reach past the breakers. Lead weights which do not roll are good to reduce line twist caused by the fluctuating surf. Rock rods need to be stronger, to haul a big ling out of the rocks before he can hang you up. I use sand bags, once again, because they&#39;re cheap AND because they are virtually weightless when you have to hike in to an area (which you&#39;ll have to do for any decent rock fishing anymore, unless you have access to private property.)

If Jackrabbit is consistantly getting Cabbies, then here is my advice: Ask him if he&#39;ll take you fishing!!! (And take me along too!) Also, do a little research on "Poke poling". It&#39;s a technique we use to use north of SF, and it yielded alot of "dug in" Cab&#39;s, big greenling, and MF eels, and in the old days, Lingcod.

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

When you start to catch the rubberlip you know that you&#39;re into something good. Those have to be the best fighting perch i have ever caught. Probably because they are one of the biggest perch out there and I don&#39;t fish much south of Conception. Out at the Islands you can slay them I hear. In a way I do have access to "private Property" I do the majority of my fishing from the rocks on VAFB when we go a day without catching a cabezon it is a bad day. There are an abundant amount of spots that you can fish there that yeild large quanities of cabezon and they lay in the same wholes year after year. It took my dad and myself a while to learn that but we&#39;re coming up on 11 years fishing out there and we know where the wholes are. So far our biggest cabezon off the rocks is a 20 incher caught by me some years ago. But we have caught numerous 19 and 18 inchers. Also If you&#39;re willing to hike it fish Pt. Sal you can catch everything there and there are miles and miles of perfect rocks I&#39;ve caught some giants there also. I&#39;ll have to post some of my pictures when I get out of school I&#39;ve got pictures of just about all of our big fish. Only in the last 4 years have we started catching lingcod off the rocks. They key with those guys is you have to use a big piece of bait and KEEP IT MOVING. That is the direct opposite of cabazon for those guys you have to leave it set, if you&#39;re in one of their wholes and there are fish there sooner or later they will eat it, guaranteed.

[Atwater]

Jackrabbit, I use to work at the drop zone at Lompoc. It&#39;s good to hear that the lings are making a show again. Here&#39;s a question for ya: Which species of Perch live birth their young? (Not a quiz, I just can&#39;t remember)

Patriot Sportfishing out of Port San Luis use to hit point Sal on calm days, and the fishing was outstanding. Somewhere I&#39;ve got a picture of a pot winning Vermilion that will get your heart pumping. After I fillet&#39;d it, I realized that it was a potential world record! I&#39;ll see if I can find it, and post it up. Post your pics, if you can, I&#39;d love to see them! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[outdoorplay]

Bait, only if fishing is slow and I want to have a beer. Other then that its lures 98% of the time.

Sorry just had to throw my http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/two-cents.gif in. Wants I learned how to use lures, I would never go back to using baits as my primary choice. I do under stand way most use baits. And for them it is probably a better choice, but if you are willing to take you’re fishing to the next level???? Artificial is ware it is at.

Sorry I am not going to debate this, it’s like arguing religion or politics. When you find something that works for you. That is what you well use. Good luck with your fishing, see you on the water. Going shark fishing tomorrow and trout on Sunday. Tell you all about it on Monday.

Mike

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

I know for sure that the buttermouth perch give birth to live fish because we&#39;ve caught them and once we land them they explode, you can actually put them back in the water and they will live we get those big girls back as soon as we catch them. I&#39;ll have to check my fishing bible too it will have that information. Also I have noticed that those perch have two breeding seasons one in the spring and one in the summer or maybe it&#39;s just a really long breeding season? THat&#39;s when you start to catch the Lings there in there to feed on the perch fry. But I&#39;m sure many other perch give birth to live young. Patriot is getting to be a little stingy on the fishing locations in the past few years. My dad and I stopped going with them because we&#39;d never catch the big lings or reds we were hoping for too many blue&#39;s, but if a work trip comes up then we&#39;ll go. I like Virgi&#39;s up in Morro Bay there seem to be a lot of spots up there that they take you to, like south to Diablo. I&#39;ve seen many 10lb plus lings be hauled in on the boats I was on out of Morro Bay. But like you said on a calm day, even on a rough day Purrisima Point off VAFB and Lion rock are killer. The water is really deep there esp. off Lion rock. By next week when I get home I will start posting pics like crazy my parent&#39;s printer has a scanner and you will see some of our Cabezon and other great days off the rocks.

[Atwater]

Good to hear Virg&#39;s is treating you well. Are they still doing the 2 day trips to Big Sur? We use to hammer big lings and Bocaccio on those trips, then fill limits with fat chilis. I don&#39;t know if it would even be worth it now, with all the new regs. I stopped fishing Virg&#39;s years ago. They had a skipper who would hit rocks for a half an hour, then drag sand the rest of the day, plus they use to overload the boats. That was a long time ago, when George was running his boat out of San Simeon. (the one that "accidently" sank). Looking forward to seeing some Cabby pics.

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

They still do the 2 dayer to Big Sur they slay the big reds I hear, I&#39;ve never been though. The regs are really quite confusing some months you can keep this but not in other months and sometimes it has to be this big but other months it can be this big. I hate it when they overload the boat One, too many people and two because none of them know what they are doing they don&#39;t move around or drift with the current they sit in one spot and get hung up or get me all tangled up. You ever fished Jalama beach right now my buddy back home is killing the barred perch. If you go into the resturant there you will see some really old pictures, I&#39;m talking from back in the 50&#39;s if i remember right there is a picture of a kid, 9 or 10 holding a California Yellowtail that he caught form the beach, wow weren&#39;t those the days! I also uploaded two photos of the ling my dad caught earlier this year they are in the surf fishing section and my gallery I believe .

[Atwater]

I&#39;ve never fished Jamala, but I hear it can be really good at times. Nice pics of your dad&#39;s ling. Makes me want to head out! I went to high school in Santa Rosa, and they use to run "Lingcod only" trips out of Bodega bay, meaning everyone used 1lb hex bars only. Nothing like the sight of a deck covered with 10 to 30 pounders! Got to go to Alaska to do that now.

I think I&#39;m gonna have to take a couple days next week and head for Jamala. You&#39;ve got me jonesing for some perch fillets. Besides, I&#39;ve always wanted to try a "world famous Jamala burger", and I&#39;ve got some friends in the area I haven&#39;t seen in awhile. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Atwater, I guarantee you that it will be a blast, hopefully the wind will cooperate, that is the only thing that can put a damper on a day at Jalama. I hear Bodega Bay can still land the big lings off of Cordell Bank? When I fish for lings off any boat that is what i&#39;m using a diamond jig, you just have to experiment with color and weight and you&#39;ll catch them, I also catch them on the teezer in a pumpkin orange grub with a heart tail, it resembles a crustacean. Also that ling that my dad caught is one of the smaller ones that we have landed, emphasis on landed because many big ones have gotten away, My dream fishing trip is to Alaska fishing for rockfish, Lings(supposedly 60lbs plus in Alaska) and Halibut. The Jalama burger is something that you will remember and will come back for, I just love the atmosphere of that resturarant and the location of it, with that train crossing the canyon bridge it is something that you never want to forget, and won&#39;t. Be sure to check out the pictures in there, you will be amazed at some of them. Hope that you catch some nice barred perch.
CAjackrabbitWCP

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

here is a pic of a Cabezon that my dad caught this past year.

[Atwater]

That, my friend, is a beautiful fish! I wish the sun was shining brighter that day, to show it&#39;s true colors! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[Atwater]

Well, it was a toss up between hitten the perch, or chasing kokes, so we went for the salmon instead, and did OK. Thanks for posting that Cabbie pic!

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

The one on the left is the biggest I&#39;ve ever caught, legnth wise. He&#39;s a 20 incher and the one on the right, my dad caught is and 18 incher probably weighted over 6 pounds, when we cut him open he had a huge abalone in his stomach. This was one of the greatest days out on the rocks for us, we also let go numerous fish this day, and my dad lost the mate to one of these. As you can tell from the picture I was only 10 years old, the good ole&#39; days right!

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Caught this guy at Pt. Sal several years ago. He was a 19 incher that I released. This was a banner day, caught lots of fish, quite a hike though from VAFB.

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

Here are some more giants. Mine was 19 3/4 inches, almost tied my own record, my dad&#39;s 2 are 19 1/2 and 17 inches respectfully. Also caught quite a few years ago.

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

I also have many many more pics some won&#39;t work I don&#39;t know why. I got some of the best one&#39;s on although some other one&#39;s are pretty awesome too.

[Atwater]

Allright, Jackrabbit, now you&#39;re just showing off!!! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-wnk-yellow.gif

My pics are all hard copy, so I guess I&#39;m gonna have to scan a few and post&#39;em up. Nice Cabbies, JR! Brings back many fond memories. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[brknarrow]

i&#39;ve heard and seen anough already. i&#39;m out of here . goin over naci furgesen rd . to fish willow creek and mill creek . after seeing those cabazons. gotta catch some, or try at least. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley_prayin_ani.gif

[keeptrying]

Hello, I will be in Jalama the first half of february, will it be worht trying to surf fish?

Thanks,

Rj

[CAjackrabbitWCP]

If you hit them at the slack tide, high tide going out, you should do pretty good. I don&#39;t know about this time of year but walk about a 1/4 mile north and fish the side of where the water comes furthest on shore. You do not have to cast very far just into the transition area of white to clear water.

Dig for sand crabs and hook them through the tail.

CAjackrabbitWCP