Hey everyone,

hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend.. I tried my hand at surf fishing this morning here in Southern California, at both Zuma beach and Malibu beach... weather was a nice and cool 65 degrees at the beach this am... I see that you guys are gonna be havin 100+ heat by this weekend there, but as you all know, I wouldn't mind 90+ degree heat at Emma Long if I were hauling there!

anyways, thought some of you might like a few, cool beach pics with some barred surf perch (BSP) that I caught tossing a Gulp sandworm and later with sandcrabs that are everywhere.. just have to dig them up for free!

I got me a Shimano Clarus 8'6" rod and a Shimano Sahara 2500 reel spooled with some Fireline braid... and was invited out to meet up with bajapaddyhopper (Sherman) and Corbin out at Zuma/Malibu this morning to get some help with my first time surf fishin

We get there around 9:30am and it still looks like low tide with lots of sand crab beds around... skies were grey with the marine layer pretty thick and a gentle breeze... water looked slightly murky with some kelp floating around.

Corbin tells me the first order of business is to collect some sand crabs... and these guys were the biggest sand crabs I seen... I don't know if this picture does it justice...



anyhow, I set up with an 1/2 oz egg sinker, 8lb fluorocarbon leader tied to size 6 Owner baitholder hook... and for my first few casts, I put on the Gulp sandworm... and after a few minutes of trying to figure out if the tapping on the rod I felt was either the egg sinker bouncing on the bottom or a fish nibbling... I finally hook up with my first ever BSP:



yeah, nothing to write home about.. it was pretty small, but I was stoked that I actually caught something my first time out...


well, after that small dink.. I catch a few more small dinks (and I'm startin to figure out the difference between a gentle tap from a fish vs the egg sinker bouncing around)...





After about 45 minutes or so... Sherman/Corbin decide to move to a different location where they think holds BIGGER fish, since we were catching only small perch and there were no corbinas to be found either. We leave Zuma and head down towards a spot in Malibu... and this is where the action really opened up...

When we get to the new spot, this is our arrival conditions (it was cool to see some dolphins swimming close by--you can see their dorsal fin in these pics):





I decide to try using these sand crabs on the size 6 hook instead of the camo sandworm... and I get a decent size hit:



I couldn't believe these things were swallowing the sand crabs whole!

A little while later, I get the biggest strike yet on a sandcrab... and after a nice drag-strippin fight... I land this HOG of a perch... taped out to 14 inches! Sherman and Corbin were amazed that a newbie landed this beast! hehe... I got some nice high-fives for my accomplishment!





By this time, I think it was around 12:30pm or so, and Sherman/Corbin had to leave... I believe they each caught a couple BSP, but no Corbinas that they were targeting...

After they left, I had to stay and try my luck a little longer with these sand crabs.. nobody else was around... and the huge BSPs kept coming... I guess you can say it was "Wide Open"! I got several, hefty BSPs that were all about 10-12" or so... very pregnant females too... one of them started dropping a couple small fry out as I was trying to unhook it...





I think this is the one that started dropping babies!






After catching more than 25 or so BSPs (I lost count and stopped taking pictures)... no other species however, it was around 2:30pm and the tide was pretty high by this time... I left them still biting...

well, hope some of you enjoy these pics.. hope to be posting up some decent carp pics soon!

nice looking catches danny . are these cpr fish or dinner ?? glad you are having a blast out there .

Nice catches Danny!

I remember being shown how to catch the sand crabs by just digging with my hands in the sand as the wave went out; it was fun! Tried it here in Texas, but I never did see any; I don't think they're found here.

Hey Jesse! Was a great morning indeed... all fish were caught, photographed, and released!!! Was cool to see that one pregnant female dropping a couple babies right out! hehe

nice goin' dude! my father and i used to do alot of perch fishin' on the pacific coast, also digging up the sand crabs for bait, good times!

awesome dude. glad to see you again

Nice report Danny. I would be camping and fishing on the coast now if my son wasn't graduating Friday in La Vernia, TX. It's nice to be back in TX, tossed some flies in Cibilo Creek today. Hooked about a 2' gar on a tiny cap spider I was tossing at bream. Dang gar broke the hook! Hope to land it tomorrow when I try again.

WTG Danny! Cool pics and good write up as usual.

nice pics and great write up!

Danny, those fish look like they would be great on the table. However, I applaud your catch and release philosophy. I do love surf fishing..

hey thanks everyone for the nice comments...

yeah these little guys do put up some fight on light tackle, but definitely doesn't compare to the freight train runs of an Emma Long carp! hehehe... was great to be just on the beach and havin a blast catchin so many of them...

hope you all have a great weekend... and don't get heat stroke out there!~

I fish for surf perch whe ever I visit my grandprents in Cayucos, I have used the smaller ones as cutait and caught some really big rays as well as some sharks. Biggest so far has been a 45 pound shovelnose shark of Carlsbad Beach north of San Diego