Apr. 19, 2003 - East Goleta Beach - Big Perch

[LeapinBass]

Bryan and I surf fished East Goleta Beach this morning for 2 hours. We were targeting halibut with the 3 inch Big Hammers. The halibut weren't over-abundant but the massive perch were. We got 3 short halibut along with at least 15 barred surfperch in the 11 to nearly 17 inch range (largest was 16 7/8 inches). Most of the perch were in the 13 - 15 inch range.

All of my fish were caught on the 3 inch Sea Wolf colored Hammer with a 3/16 oz. Assalt Round Ball Head and Pro-Cure Shrimp sauce.

Bryan's fish were caught on the 3 inch Bleeding Mackerel with a 1/4 oz. Assalt Darter head and Pro-Cure Shrimp sauce with one fish on the Excalibur Minnow crankbait.
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[JapanRon]

Hey there LeapinBass,

Sounds like more was leapin' than the bass! Awesome, I must confess, I've never got close to a 16 7/8inch BSP. Must have been a real rush. Seems like the big perch are happy to chomp on the 3inch and even 4inch hammers and a few other softbaits for the last 10 days or so. Maybe I should put away the finesse noodling pole for now and just chunk 3~5inch stuff for the halibut and whatever decides to take a whack at them.

East Goleta, Humm.. How was the Sunday crowd (beach and surf)?

Great report, Thank you,

JapanRon
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[LeapinBass]

The beach had no one on it as we were only there from 6:45 - 8:45 am.

We fish for halibut quite a bit using the 3 inch Big Hammers and large perch "by-catch" are not uncommon. We've had a few days in the past few years where we've caught monster perch like that on the swimbaits.
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