Fishing in British Columbia > Members' Fishing Reports

Redtail Surfperch, WCVI

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clarki:


Although I've fished with the kids for perch off inshore docks, my buddy recently turned me onto fishing for redtail surfperch on the WCVI. It's a fishery I had never tried before. Very cool to be beach fish in the surf of the North Pacific.

From California north, traditional tactics for surf perch are 1+ oz of weight with hooks and bait, but I found them fairly close to shore and had great fun tossing a 1/8 oz jig tipped with a chunk of Berkley Gulp sandworm.

Biggest fish was 15" and the strength of their fight surprised me! Based on their shape, size and fight I felt like was catching cold water piranha.

Seeing how tight to shore they are, and how I can get by with 1/8 oz, going back with my ultralight noodle rod. That should be some sport.  :)

Rodney:
Sweet.... :o I'm going back in September so will have to try it out... How close are we talking about? 50ft?

clarki:

--- Quote from: Rodney on June 30, 2020, 12:02:26 PM ---Sweet.... :o I'm going back in September so will have to try it out... How close are we talking about? 50ft?

--- End quote ---

In my case last night, around 30 ft. But it really depends on the bottom structure.

For my first hour I was chucking a 1 oz weight as far as I could to the last set of breakers nearest shore and trying to drift in. It was my first time fishing the surf and I was trying to read the water and understand what was going on out there.

I moved down the shore and start fishing in fairly tight, noticing that there was some calm water between the last breaker and the shore break, and a bit of sideways rip current. That was the ticket and I landed my limit in under a half an hour.

Suggest fishing a couple hours either side of high tide. The jig head worked well (shout out to Gooey). I got hits fishing it dead, slowly retrieving or twitching it .

Interestingly, all the fish were female, and I learned last night that redtails are viviparous, meaning they give birth live young. Weird to see amniotic sacks/wombs of the females full of developed, but not yet viable babies.

Blood_Orange:
Very cool! Never heard of these fish before.

Rodney:

--- Quote from: clarki on June 30, 2020, 12:44:57 PM ---In my case last night, around 30 ft. But it really depends on the bottom structure.

For my first hour I was chucking a 1 oz weight as far as I could to the last set of breakers nearest shore and trying to drift in. It was my first time fishing the surf and I was trying to read the water and understand what was going on out there.

I moved down the shore and start fishing in fairly tight, noticing that there was some calm water between the last breaker and the shore break, and a bit of sideways rip current. That was the ticket and I landed my limit in under a half an hour.

Suggest fishing a couple hours either side of high tide. The jig head worked well (shout out to Gooey). I got hits fishing it dead, slowly retrieving or twitching it .

Interestingly, all the fish were female, and I learned last night that redtails are viviparous, meaning they give birth live young. Weird to see amniotic sacks/wombs of the females full of developed, but not yet viable babies.

--- End quote ---

I think I'm actually more excited about this than coho. :o

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