Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: vancook on February 21, 2023, 10:16:05 AM
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Has anyone fished for Surf Perch in Tofino? The family wants to plan a trip for August/September and figured I'd bring a rod along. I believe there are Surf Perch in the waters there, I could be wrong.
Is there certain times of the year that are better than others or is it a year round fishery?
thanks in advance
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There was a thread on these forums about this topic a few years back that had some info IIRC, though I couldn't find it using the search function. There are lots of results from threads that mention Tofino and perch generally, but none with specific info. Maybe someone else remembers where the thread was...
Edit: Found it in the member's fishing reports area:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=43554.msg413999#msg413999
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Nice find, Blood_Orange!
I’ve fished for surf perch on three trips to WCVI in the months of June, July and November. Caught perch on all occasions. They are there and Aug/Sept is perfect. It’s great fun to wade wet in the ocean and fish for them. Such a visceral, raw fishing experience. Word of advice: never turn your back on the ocean when wading. If possible, wade backwards when exiting the water, or always keep looking over your shoulder. Be especially cautious if you are in the water and looking down when unhooking a fish.
Feel free to PM me if you want some pointers.
The fish in the previous linked post were caught in early July. This fish was caught flyfishing in June
https://imgur.com/a/5Gz3oQK (https://imgur.com/a/5Gz3oQK)
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Nice find, Blood_Orange!
Half the time I can't remember what day of the week it is. But I can somehow remember a thread I read once three years ago on a fishing forum ::)
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Nice find, Blood_Orange!
I’ve fished for surf perch on three trips to WCVI in the months of June, July and November. Caught perch on all occasions. They are there and Aug/Sept is perfect. It’s great fun to wade wet in the ocean and fish for them. Such a visceral, raw fishing experience. Word of advice: never turn your back on the ocean when wading. If possible, wade backwards when exiting the water, or always keep looking over your shoulder. Be especially cautious if you are in the water and looking down when unhooking a fish.
Feel free to PM me if you want some pointers.
The fish in the previous linked post were caught in early July. This fish was caught flyfishing in June
https://imgur.com/a/5Gz3oQK (https://imgur.com/a/5Gz3oQK)
Glad to see you reply on here Clarki and thank you Blood_Orange for the link. I also found that report yesterday.
I've been wanting to participate in this fishery for years but haven't had a trip planned for the island in sight. Fortunately my wife suggested we take a trip with the kids this summer and I knew this was my chance to finally do this lol.
Clarki I will definitely PM you for some info, thanks for that. Much appreciated.
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Clarki is the resident Surf Perch expert now. No name change required tho'. ;D
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Good. clarki has more panache than “rhodoterus”
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I personally don't have any experience with surf perch fishing, but I can tell you that beach fishing for Coho that time of year is a lot of fun. I've had pretty good success from McKenzie Beach just wading out and tossing a croc spoon. Sunset is usually the best fishing from my own experiences. No matter what you fish for, its such a beautiful place that it's hard to have a bad time.
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I personally don't have any experience with surf perch fishing, but I can tell you that beach fishing for Coho that time of year is a lot of fun. I've had pretty good success from McKenzie Beach just wading out and tossing a croc spoon. Sunset is usually the best fishing from my own experiences. No matter what you fish for, its such a beautiful place that it's hard to have a bad time.
Oh this gets better and better. I'm staying at Mackenzie Beach Sept 4 to 8th. Going to have to try for both.
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I gave it the ol half arsed college try in mid feb last year. There are some fairly detailed posts on flybc as well...... my timing regarding the tide was off so it really felt like I was just drowning worms.
I was 100% certain I was going to make fish cakes out of them. Being certain of success is one way to guarantee failure. After that delicious piece of humble pie, I fired up google earth in the morning and went cutty fishing. basically any stream that spilled into a larger body of water held fish in feb.
Like ShaunO said, I'd be focusing on salmon. I'm sure it would be a lot of fun hooking into coho off a paddle board. regardless, your timing should be excellent for great fishing. enjoy your trip.
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Tonquin Beach is the place to go. There are giant rocks there you can stand on and cast off of for both Coho and other fish. I never got the elusive Surf Perch despite Clarki giving me plenty of expert advice. Perhaps Clarki needs to do guided tours for Surf Perch over there.
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I saw a utuber catching surf perch with a small pink salmon fly near some rocks on Chesterman Beach, easy access. I have personally tried long beach near green point, only caught sand in my reel. Saw many sandcrabs washed up on Florencia beach, maybe promising. I did not have a rod and it was a decent trek in.
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Tonquin Beach is the place to go.
Tonquin beach is named after the destruction of the 1807 constructed Tonquin ship. A fascinating read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonquin_(1807_ship) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonquin_(1807_ship))
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Long Beach and much of Florencia Bay are flat beaches which mean it stays shallow pretty far out. Perch hang out just outside the spot where the waves start breaking, but will chase into the break if they see something attractive.
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I never got the elusive Surf Perch despite Clarki giving me plenty of expert advice.
There’s a saying “You can lead jacked55 to water, but you can’t make him catch fish” Or something like that! 😀
Long Beach and much of Florencia Bay are flat beaches which mean it stays shallow pretty far out. Perch hang out just outside the spot where the waves start breaking but will chase into the break if they see something attractive.
Yeah, those long sandy beaches can be vast and intimidating. But learning to read the water and understand the bottom structure, and where the fish are likely to hang out, helps.
Videos like this one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LszY1Gci-x8&t=62s (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LszY1Gci-x8&t=62s)are helpful. So can doing doing some scouting at a low tide.
I prefer to fish a couple of hours around the high tide and find that the fish can be found in water surprisingly tight to shore given the right tide and structure.
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Is fishing allowed on Iona jetty? If so would it be a good place for surf perch?
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Try searching for "Iona" on this forum. There are 4 posts about this location from ye olden days of 2010. Here's one of them:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=23661.0
The jetty is a sewage outflow pipe, in case that affects your thoughts about retention. The jetty goes out 4km above water, then another 2km underwater before being discharged into the ocean, IIRC.