WHAT I THINK I KNOW ABOUT WASHINGTON SURFPERCH

FISHING

What I (Think I) Know About Surfperch

Surfperch can be caught up and down the Northwest Coast, but some locations are better than others, including Beard’s Hollow. At low tide look for areas with pockets, pools and long narrow channels that run parallel to shore and then fish them as the tide floods back in. (WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY)

The wheres, whys and hows of catching coastal panfish from a guy who more or less – maybe less some days, more others – has it dialed in. Ish.

By MD Johnson

During the 50-plus years I’ve been involved in this thing called fishing, I’ve learned one thing. Actually, I’ve learned a lot of things, but one thing in particular stands out, and that’s that some people catch fish. All. The. Time.

Day in and day out, these folks are catching fish. Don’t know why; maybe it’s the way they smell or the way they hold their mouth just right. Maybe it has to do with the gear, the bait, the gear and the bait. Again, I’m not sure I understand, but some folks always seem to have the hot stick.

I’ve seen it happen with walleye. With fall Chinook at the so-called Meat Hole on Cedar Creek of the Lewis. On the North Jetty in September. Hell, one year, I watched an older gentleman, spinning outfit held upside down and reeled in reverse, catch silver after silver … after silver. Never got off his butt. Never got excited. Fish after fish. What was I doing 50 yards away? Throwing the same hot pink Mepps Flying C the dude was, and … nothing. I even sat down and reeled my Pflueger backwards. No dice. Ugh!

But with no other species have I seen this “some got it/some don’t” aspect hold truer than with surfperch. Redtail. Striped. Doesn’t matter. Some folks, it seems, just have the knack. They know where to fish. When to fish. What to throw. What not to throw. Phase of the moon. How to dress. Hell, I don’t know what it is, but these are the folks with – yep, sure enough – a cooler full of redtails, each about a pound, more or less. You know this guy? Am I that guy? Some days, I am; I’m a hero. Others … well, it’s more like that big fat zero. If nothing else, and when the topic turns around to surfperch, I’m consistently inconsistent. But I’m getting better. I think.

So this month, I’ve decided to let y’all in on what I may or may not know about catching surfperch. My AO – area of operation – is the Washington coast from the North Jetty at the mouth of Big River north

to Westport. Are there other places where perch hopefuls can ply their trade? Absolutely, but this stretch of beach is where I spend the vast majority of my time, effectively or … well … otherwise.

LOCATION, LOCATION, AND TIMING

Let’s start with timing here, and work backwards. With surfperch, timing relates directly to the ebb and flood of the tides; in other words, do you want to fish the incoming or the outgoing? Now I know you’ll find folks who beg to differ – and do quite well in that difference – but it’s been my experience that when it comes to perch, you want to concentrate on the flood.

To my mind, the reason behind this decision is no different than my wanting to focus on the incoming tide when I’m duck hunting a tidal marsh. One, the flood means water, which – obviously – both ducks and perch are huge fans of. And two, the flood tide inundates areas previously dry, thus laying out an all-you-caneat buffet, again for both birds and perch. Does this mean you can’t catch perch on an outgoing tide? No, it doesn’t; however, I’ve seen it both with channel cats under high-water conditions in the Midwest, as well as with sturgeon here given an ebb tide. Falling water – be it naturally receding floodwaters or an ebb – can potentially leave fish stranded, often with most dire consequences to their health and well-being. I, unscientifically mind you, believe fish can sense this drop, and follow the drop into deeper water until such a time, e.g. the flood tide, that they can safely return. Conjecture? Sure, but it makes sense to me. So the incoming tide, it is.

Location can be tough. The Long Beach Peninsula, for instance, is 28 miles long, and at any given time, perch can be found anywhere along that 28-mile stretch of sand. Historically, I’ve had my best luck from, say, the Cranberry Road Approach south to Beard’s Hollow, and I’ll tell you why: terrain. Above Ocean Park to Leadbetter Point, the near-shore topography is extremely flat; that is, very few deeper holes and troughs that might attract cruising perch. The further south you go, however, these deviations in bottom topography increase. Now, you’ll find pockets and pools; long narrow channels running parallel to the shoreline. Just the sort of bottom structure, per se, that perch gravitate toward.

How do you find them? Two words: low (and) tide. You’ll see the best perchers running the beach at low tide, making note of these pockets, pools, drop-offs and channels. Then, it’s a matter of going back at the flood,

A lot of surfperch angling occurs, well, in the surf, but jetties also offer a perch to catch the nearshore fish. A slip bobber setup worked well for author MD Johnson’s granddaughter Adrionna McClellan off the Columbia’s North Jetty. Note that the rock structures are shipping navigation aids and not made for fishing off of. Always keep an eye out for large waves. (JULIA JOHNSON)

Good offerings for surfperch include hardy natural baits like clam necks and plastic ones like Gulp! products, as well as sand shrimp. (JULIA JOHNSON)

and working those same areas noted at low tide. Understand, though, that these changes in bottom topography are constantly changing; here today, and gone a couple days from now, making this low-water scouting an ongoing process.

Two places I’ve always had good luck with perch on the LBP are the waters on the north side of the rocks at Beard’s Hollow, and the stretch of Benson Beach adjacent to Campground “A” in Cape Disappointment State Park. After watching a Pontiac Grand Am get swallowed by the flood tide years ago inside the “bowl” at Beard’s Hollow, I no longer park there; rather, I park outside (north) and walk down to the rocks. There’s some deeper water – scour holes, I would imagine – on that north side of the rock that attract and hold perch, even through the tide turn. As for Benson Beach, the sand here slopes outward at a greater angle than it does to the north, giving surfcasters relatively easy access to deeper water – and theoretically perch – just offshore.

So, with where and when behind us, let’s now take a look at some of the things I’ve learned over the past 30 years that I’ve been chasing these little red-tailed devils.

STOP THROWIN’ SO FAR! DAMMIT!

I think it’s a guy thing – an American guy thing – this “bigger and farther must be better” concept. Oh, I’m sure it applies in some instances, but with surfperch? What I’ve learned after years of trial and error – that, and watching and talking with anglers who actually know what they’re doing when it comes to perch – is that often, I’ve been overthrowing my target.

I’ve been working under the impression that I have to throw way out beyond the horizon in order to catch fish, when in fact, if I’d done my homework, i.e. scouting at low tide, I could be and should be casting not far off my boots into those deeper water pockets and pools and channels. Moral of the story? If throwing all you have isn’t working, then back off and try tossing a bait or two close.

SHORT-LINING

My wife Julie and I watched a young man work the rocks on the ocean side of the North Jetty one morning, and catch perch after perch. Without casting. After having all I could handle, I walked up and used my patented, “I know I shouldn’t ask, son, but I’m asking … What are you doing?” He laughed, and then took the time to explain in depth. It’s important to note that he wasn’t, oh, 100 yards out on the jetty from the beach, and it was near the height of the incoming tide.

His bait, he told me, was small salad (cocktail) shrimp soaked in Smelly Jelly Garlic. His rigging was a ½-ounce egg sinker, bead and swivel, culminating in an 18-inch monofilament leader and a size 6 baitholder hook. Instead of casting out away from the jetty, this kid was simply flipping his bait to the base of the rocks, where it would swirl around in the surf until, invariably, it was discovered by a perch. Simple and effective; just like I like it. I’ve since used the young man’s technique on the North Jetty, as well as other rock structures, with good success.

SLIP BOBBERS

My brother-in-law Gordie is a fantastic fisherman, never hesitant to try something different. One afternoon in September, when the silver bite was nonexistent on the jetty, he switched sides and riggings, downsizing hook, line and bobber from the larger previous versions to ones a bit smaller, swapped his anchovy for a hunk of clam neck on a size 6 hook, and proceeded to bobber fish for perch on the ocean side. I was impressed; he did quite well, though the surf that day made for a pretty rapid-fire cast-and-retrieve, cast-andretrieve routine. Still, it proved that bobbers can work for perch, and so we tried it elsewhere.

Beyond Tokeland but before you get to North Cove is a little place called Hidden Beach, which, in case you’re wondering, isn’t that very well hidden, and in fact is quite popular during the summer. In trips past, we’ve caught perch from the inside – the beach side – of this stretch of sand, using a Carolina rig consisting of a ¾- or 1-ounce egg sinker, 5mm bead, swivel, and a 24inch leader with the aforementioned size 6 baitholder hook; other times, we’ve thrown what the YouTubers call a “High/Low Rig,” which is influencer-speak for a traditional sinker with a pair of droppers/hooks spaced above.

But on the bay side of the short jetty at Hidden Beach, I’ve had good luck throwing a slip bobber rig not far off the rocks. Nothing elaborate – a 1- or 1½-ounce Beau Mac slip float, inline (swivel) ½-ounce sinker and a 30-inch monofilament leader. The only thing quirky, per se, with this rig is the hook, that being a safetypin-style double hook. Mine are from Mustad, and are known technically as a double live bait/liver hook. Not to say a long-shank Aberdeen-style cricket hook and some Magic Thread won’t help secure your sand shrimp – it will – only that these safety-pintype hooks hold a shrimp well, while making for good positive hookups.

Experimentation is key here. Try setting the bobber stop the length of the rod, or roughly 8 feet, and then go deeper and shallower until you find fish. Play with distance from the rocks, too; close, far – but not too far, as it’s the rocks and the abundance of food that attract the perch.

No need to try and reach Japan with that cast. The fish may be closer to shore than you think. Johnson releases a smaller surfperch to grow some more. (JULIA JOHNSON)

SAFETY PIN HOOKS ’N RUBBER BANDS

I never did catch the name of the Asian gentleman who, despite a language barrier, was all too happy to show me his preferred method for bagging perch. These were primarily striped surfperch, with the occasional redtail. The place was the Westport Boat Basin; specifically, the first short jetty north of the Harbor Resort and just off the observation platform, though I’m sure his method would produce catches from any of the Westport jetties, as well as those up and down the Northwest Coast.

This gentleman’s rigging consisted of the above double live bait (safety pin) hook on roughly a 24-inch monofilament leader; however, where his differed from what I’d seen previously was in the weight. When he tied his swivel to his mainline prior to clipping on his leader, he’d leave the tag end long. Then, he took a piece of hollow-core lead, the

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length/weight dependent upon the current at the time, slipped the tag end through the hollow core, and doubled it over alongside the lead. This he secured to the hollow core with a small rubber band, the kind that kids use with their braces.

He’d cast his bait – always sand shrimp – upcurrent and let it slowly work down. When he’d hang up in the rocks, which he did from time to time, a sharp yank would pull the tag end through the hollow core, and he’d retrieve everything but a short hunk of lead. Easily replaceable.

It was a learned technique, he explained through pantomime and broken English, but I caught on. How to cast. Where to cast. Where the strikes would happen. “No fish,” he’d say, pointing to either side of a small nondescript current seam. That’s where you want to cast – and cast, he would, and almost without exception, be rewarded with a beautiful blue-hued striped perch. I learned quite a bit from that gentleman, including the fact that fishing is a common language.

Surfperch are, Captain Obvious, where you find them, but there’s no shortage of them. Some days they’re there; some days they’re not. They come and go, just like the tides that support them. So try something different. Move down the beach a ways. Scout at low tide. Hook up this bait. That bait. And, if all that doesn’t work, try holding your mouth a little bit different. Hell, who knows? NS

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