Eureka!

After our failure at Crystal Cove, my dad was a bit discouraged. We began to wonder if we would ever figure out surf fishing. Fortunately, our luck was about to change! One day when my dad decided to bring my dog to dog beach I brought a fishing pole. This was the breakout day that gave me hope. I threw out my line and caught 3 perch in about an hour. They were small, but the bites were much quicker than anything I had experienced with surf fishing before.

Being the "fishing nut" that I am (my mom's words not mine) I took every chance I got that spring to go surf fishing. I brought my friends with me and even made my parents drop me off alone sometimes. We would catch perch and an occasional guitar fish or shark. Pretty cool but I knew things could get better.

My friend Slater with a guitarfish notice deep blue water behind
his head (a trench)

My friend Slater and I with a small barred surf perch

Going surf fishing as often as I was going, I began to figure out tricks to increase the amount and size of fish that I was catching. The first thing that I figured out was that the trench, as shown above in the picture on the right, is where most of the fish were being caught. Before, I would throw my line out blindly as far as I could. Now I could find deep water and structure and cast there for better results. An additional early discovery I made was that the best hooks for surf fishing are circle hooks significantly smaller than the crab's carapace. Small size 2 fine wire circle hooks were absolutely perfect for the surf perch. Being fine wire they would not kill the sand crab and being a circle hook would not often be swallowed by the surf perch

This is a good sand crab to hook ratio

As I continued to experiment, my uncle became interested in my surf fishing quests and together we would experience the best that Southern California surf could offer.

Next Post more surf fishing info

Brandon Lynch