Barred Surfperch Fishing Guide
Saltwater · Water temp 50–76°F (ideal 65°F)
Quick Facts
- Also called
- Barred perch, surfperch, silver perch
- Family
- Surfperch (Embiotocidae): eighteen species in California, all livebearers
- Diet
- Sand crabs, in nine stomachs out of ten; bean clams and worms as the change
- Size
- Mostly under a foot. The record is 4.7 lb
- Young
- Born alive, two to three inches long, in spring and early summer
- Season
- October to June, schools thickest in winter and spring
- Range
- Bodega Bay to central Baja California
Overview
Barred surfperch are the fish of the California beach. From Bodega Bay to central Baja, on any sandy shore with a trough behind the first breaker, they are what a light rod and a sand crab catch, and the state fisheries lab that spent four years seining the Southern California surf in the fifties called them the most important species to the surf fisherman. Most run a pound or two; the record is just under five.
Two things about them decide everything. First, they eat sand crabs. The same study opened nearly five hundred stomachs and found sand crabs in nine out of ten of the ones with food in them, making up more than nine tenths of the volume, with bean clams and worms as the change. The fish lives in the wash because the crabs do. Second, they are livebearers. They mate in the fall, the females carry the young for three to six months, and they give birth to free-swimming, fully formed perch two or three inches long in spring and early summer. From the mating in October through the births in June the schools are in the surf, and that is the season.
They are also, by the same study's finding, a fish of the bottom of the tide. Catches dropped off as the tide rose toward high water and picked up again as it fell, with the incoming half a shade better than the outgoing. The angler who reads a beach at low tide, finds the troughs and holes, and fishes the first of the flood into them is doing what the data says.
Optimal Conditions
| water Temp | 50-76°F, ideal 65°F |
| air Temp | 40-90°F |
| wind | 0-12 mph ideal, tolerate up to 22 mph. The swell decides the day; the wind only decides the cast |
| pressure | Low. A fish feeding in breaking surf gives the barometer nothing to act on |
| light | Medium. A daylight feeder in turbid, aerated water |
| best Seasons | Late fall through early summer (October-June), with the schools thickest in winter and spring |
Seasonal Patterns
spring
The back half of the peak. Gravid females school in the first trough through March and April, and the big fish of the year are caught then, heavy with young. Births run from March into June, earlier in the south and later toward Monterey, and the state closes the commercial fishery from May through July for exactly that reason. Many anglers release the heavy females; a perch born in the net is a perch lost.
summer
Spread out and smaller. The schools break up after the births, the fish scatter along the beach, and a summer morning on the right trough still produces, but in ones and twos rather than dozens. The water is at the warm end of their range and does them no harm.
fall
The season turns on. Mating runs from October into December, the schools move back into the surf to find each other, and the fishing builds week by week through the fall. The second of the two seasonal lifts we apply, and the one that starts the year.
winter
The peak, with the larger of the two lifts. December through February the schools are in, the beaches are empty, and the cold water is no obstacle: this is a cool-water fish caught through the winter the length of the state. The four-year study found no relationship between water temperature and how many perch were in the surf across the range it measured, and the engine keeps the factor flat across it. Activity slows below 46°F on the model, which is colder than any California surf gets.
Best Times to Fish
dawn
The top of the curve, with a note. The four-year study named time of day as one of the things that moves inshore abundance but did not publish the hours, so the morning edge here is the surf anglers' consensus rather than a measurement. Pair it with a low tide and it is the best start the beach offers.
midday
Fine on the right tide, and the tide is what matters: the bottom of the tide at noon beats the top of the tide at dawn.
dusk
A second rise toward evening, below the morning on the model.
night
Low. A fish picking sand crabs out of the wash is working by eye, and the surf after dark belongs to other species.
solunar
Moderate, and the tide stage decides. A major period on the bottom of the tide is a good one; the same period at high water is a walk on the beach.
Weather Response
Little effect. Winter is the season and the fish are already in the cold; a front changes the swell more than it changes the perch, and a big post-frontal swell that closes out the beach is the real problem.
A warm week in winter does nothing much. A warm year is another matter: the state attributes the poor years in this fishery to El Nino warming and the weak upwelling that comes with it, which thins the food in the surf.
Valued for the sea it makes rather than the pressure. A small, clean, settled swell is perch weather; a steady barometer on its own is not a signal this fish reads.
Runoff muddies the surf near river and creek mouths, and the perch move down the beach from it. After a storm the sand itself has moved, and the holes and troughs you knew are somewhere else: read the beach again at the next low tide.
Proven Techniques
Soft-shell Sand Crabs
The bait, by a wide margin. Dig them from the wash where the receding wave leaves the little V-shaped marks, and keep the soft-shelled ones, which the perch take first. A size 4 to 6 hook through the back, and change the crab often.
The Carolina Rig
A sliding egg sinker, a bead, a swivel and eighteen to twenty-four inches of light leader. Just enough lead to hold in the wash and no more, so the bait moves with the water the way a crab does. Six-pound line is plenty and makes a two-pound perch worth catching.
Read the Beach at Low Tide
Walk it at low water and look for the troughs, holes, cuts and rips: the darker water, the places the waves stop breaking, the rip where the water drains out. Those are where the crabs collect and the perch feed, and they are invisible at high tide.
Fish the Bottom of the Tide into the Flood
The study behind this profile found the most fish in the surf through the lower range of the tide, both sides of low water, with catches falling away as high water approached. The last of the ebb and the first two hours of the flood, in the hole you found at low tide, is the plan.
Small Grubs When the Crabs Are Gone
A two-inch grub or a small soft plastic on a light jig head, crawled through the trough, catches perch all year and is what to use when the sand crabs have moved. Motor oil and clear-red are the colours surf anglers have settled on; the sand crab is still better.
Barred Surfperch Fishing Questions
What water temperature is best for barred surfperch?
The honest answer is that it matters less than for most fish. The four-year surf study behind this profile compared catch per net haul with water temperature across the sixties and low seventies and found no relationship at all, and the species is caught through the winter up to Bodega Bay, where the surf drops into the low fifties. Our profile runs 50 to 76°F with an ideal of 65°F, the middle of the span the study measured, and the factor is deliberately flat across it. Fish the tide, not the thermometer.
What is the best bait for barred surfperch?
Sand crabs, and specifically soft-shelled ones. They are more than nine tenths of what the fish eats, and they are free: dig them out of the wash where the waves leave the small V marks in the sand. Bloodworms, mussel, bean clams and small pieces of shrimp all work, and a small grub on a light jig head catches perch when the crabs have moved off a beach.
When is the surfperch season in California?
Late fall through early summer, with the thickest schools in winter and spring. The fish mate from October into December and the females carry the young through the winter and give birth from March into June, and from the mating to the births they are schooled in the surf. The state closes the commercial fishery from May through July to protect the females at birth; the sport fishery stays open, and many anglers release the heavy fish in spring.
Why do people say to fish the low tide for surfperch?
Because the study that counted them said so. Over nineteen months of beach seining the most fish were in the surf through the lower range of the tide, on both sides of low water, and catches fell away as the tide rose toward high. The incoming side was a shade better than the outgoing. Low tide is also when you can see the beach: the troughs, holes and rips where the crabs collect and the perch feed are plain at low water and invisible at high.
Are barred surfperch good to eat?
Good, mild and small. A two-pound perch gives two modest fillets, which is why a growing share of surf anglers release them, especially the big females in spring. They are also sold live as bait for halibut and striped bass, which tells you something about the size.
Is a barred surfperch the same as a redtail surfperch?
No, though they are cousins and anglers north and south of San Francisco tend to catch one or the other. Barred surfperch are the beach fish from about Monterey south to Baja; redtail surfperch take over on the northern beaches, from Humboldt and Del Norte counties up into the Pacific Northwest. The tackle, the bait and the tide advice are the same for both.
Best Months for Barred Surfperch
These are the months our scoring lifts barred surfperch activity for pre-spawn or autumn feeding. Open one for that month's calendar.
Related Species
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