NorCal Fishing BS

I think 2020 is going to be the year of me trying surf fishing officially. Gave it half-ass tries in the past and was never successful in catching anything. May go out with some different grubs/worms and see what hits.

 

Alot of people recommend and have success with Berkley gulp sandworms on a carolina rig (using a 1 1/2 egg sinker) on a slow retrieve.. maybe i retrieve it too slowly, mine just gets all tangled up, or maybe it's my cast. i have better success using a hi-lo rig.

grubs are supposedly good, too. also sandcrabs are supposed to work great, but I'm not very good getting those. lots of good videos on youtube. PK Yi has good ones about surf perch fishing the Oregon coast. idk if he's local, he's been making some Clear Lake vids recently

 

whatcha going for?

 

SurfPerch, sorry i should have quoted Katchaser about surf fishing... too many different types of fishermen in here!

 

Are you using softshell sandcrabs? I use shrimp but cut them up in small bites

 

Nice! Thanks for the tips! And the PK guy seems to know his stuff...cool videos he makes too. Will definitely be following him to see what else he puts out.

 

What’s your rig consist of? Just a Carolina-style rig?

 

kentucky rig

 

i tried catching sandcrabs at 2 beaches that I usually fish, but i found it too hard to get ones big enough for the hooks. i usually use Gulp sandworms all the different colors... haven't had luck with shrimp.

 

that's a 12-13" barred surf perch... the sandcrabs inside it's belly were about 1.5" pretty big

 

that's what i use... call it hi-lo though

sometimes i put shrimp on 1 hook and guld
sand worm on the other , or a different color sandworms on each hook, to see what thwy are biting

 

A couple of those in a fryer would be legit. I’d be happy to get one or two that size.

 

How often do you eat surf perch?

 

i've only ate them a couple of times. pan-fried in flour/butter like trout... i'm still learning how to catch them... i sometimes think their taps on my bait is the wave crashing my line/tumbling my weight

 

Ice fishing always seemed interesting. How do you choose a spot? Your knowledge of the lake? Do you fish the same lakes when it’s not frozen?

I need to get better at regular fishing first though lol. I only caught 3 bass all 2019

 

how did you get into fishing? I use to fish everyday with my dad when I was younger. Now its feel like work fishing with him. I don't enjoy it that much anymore.

 

It's super interesting and super fun if you can get into the fish. Out here in CA, the main spots to ice fish are mostly around the Tahoe area. There are a few lakes/reservoirs near Truckee that are popular spots (Boca, Stampede, etc.), and down near Kirkwood area (Caples, Silver, etc) as well.

Usually the best spots in the winter are near the dam or off the shoreline during ice fishing season, but these trout are super active during the winter and seem to cruise just about anywhere throughout the day. I have a flasher system (fish finder) that lets me see the activity below the hole and the action of my jig in case something comes up to grab it too, so that also helps a ton in finding fish. Otherwise all you need is an auger to get through the ice, a couple ice rods, and a chair to sit on. The cool thing is that even if you don't want to sit there jigging up and down aimlessly, you can "dead stick" the pole and fuck around doing other stuff like BBQing on the ice or something.

 

Can you fillet those like you can a bluegill or crappie? They look to be the same shape and style of body. Looks like something good filleted and cut into nuggets for the fryer. Lol

 

yeah, it's exactly like a crappie/bluegill... some
people fillet them and fry them for tacos... if i catch a bunch, I'll give it a shot!

 

I hear you. I used to fish with my dad when i was little, he taught me the palomar knot, carolina rig, and what started off for trout merged into crappie, then bass fishing... when i went to college, he got more into bass fishing, selling off the family boat for a bass boat, and got way into it.. i pretty much stopped fishing after college, with work and life getting priority...i think i only had like 2 or 3 fishing licenses in the last 20-30 years. i found it was hard to fish with him, i felt like he was very particular to his way and not really open to my way (which was everything, not just fishing-related).

After my dad passed away, i think some of his friends lightly went through his gear, but left a majority of it for me. It just sat in the garage for years, but i randomly started saltwater fishing this year from watching a few people making crabsnares and catching crabs. that energized me in a way that i hadn't felt about fishing since i was a teenager,
so I pulled a bunch of old bass gear that was leftover in the garage that i might try this year.