Against the Tide

The tip on my big surf rod bounced, hard. Line started ripping off the reel as a big chunk of fish grabbed the clam neck and scooted back into the wave! I got a stupid smile on my face and shouted in happiness only to have the sound drowned by the waves. Watching my line heading up the Pacific, I almost drowned the rest of me as a sneaker wave slammed into my chest, sending a shower of salt water into my open mouth! It doesn’t get much better than this.

After several minutes of tug of war with fish and waves, I managed to bring my prize onto the sand. As a lifelong perch fisherman, I’d caught a lot of pan fish, but this was a different story. The three-pound red tail hardly fit into the opening of my clam bag, and after I had managed to pull a few more to shore, I had to put them in the truck; their weight was pulling the belt off of my waders!

It’s always fun to discover a new kind of fishery, especially in your backyard. A couple of weeks ago, my buddy Milford called me to brag about his latest trip. “We went out on the beach as soon as the clammers were done,” he explained. “Cast your bait out into the incoming tide and these big perch give you a heck of a battle, and a good meal!”

I wasn’t having much luck with sturgeon or salmon and I needed a change. Digging though my gear I found a big Loomis casting rod I hadn’t used in years and put on a medium size Shimano spinning reel with 15-pound test line. There weren’t any snags out in the ocean so it should work fine. I got out a stretch belt and threaded on a plastic bait box, a big clam bag in case I actually caught anything, and headed for the surf.

Searching the Coast
I drove out to the beach entrance near the Astoria Country Club and headed south. Since I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, I watched for folks out fishing in the surf. The sand was riddled with holes where the clammers had dug for the bivalves during the outgoing tide. Sure enough, about a half-mile to the south, there were a half-dozen folks casting out into the waves.

Joining them on the sand, I kept my distance. I’d be close enough to watch and learn, but wouldn’t intrude on their casting lanes. I baited up my hook with some old freezer-burned clams I found that morning in my bait freezer and cast out into the surf. It took awhile to get a feel for the fishery.

Casting into the surf requires a weight that is heavy enough to cast out as far as you can go, and one that will hold in the sand and not get driven back to shore right away by the waves. On this day it proved to be about three ounces of lead. It’s best to have sizes between three and five in your vest in case your line is a little heavier or the surf has more power. It’s more fun to play the fish with lighter weight, so you have to tweak it a little each trip.

Choosing Equipment
You also need some good waders. This is an “in water fishery.” To get out where the fish school, you need to have a pretty long cast and it helps to wade out in the surf a bit. Hip boots would take too much water, and you need to be watching your line, so it’s best to be safe with a full set of waders and a good rain slicker that will deflect the water if it splashes up head high!

I watched as the folks fishing next to me hauled in a couple of crabs. These bait stealers are usually too small to keep so they are a bit of a bother. I noticed that my big surf rod was getting a little better distance than any one else’s. They were using nine-foot rods, much like steelhead gear, while my 10-and-a-half-foot surf rod, got better distance. The bigger rod got a little heavy after an hour or two of casting, but it gave me an edge.

After one of my casts went far out into the surf, I felt a quick rat-a-tat-tat on the line. When the second bite came, I set the hook and felt a good weight on the end. I wasn’t sure what I was going to see as I pulled in the line. Finally the fish got close and I took a look. It was a big heavy perch, mostly silver but with red fins and tail. Chunky and deep, it carried nearly a pound and a half along its 13-inch length.

Surprise Success
During the hour that I fished, a caught nearly a dozen of these hefty perch, the smallest was about 11 inches long and the biggest a tad over 14. We also caught a few smaller perch species, but none had enough size to keep. Everyone caught a few fish, but I really had the “hot rod” this trip. As I left the water, a few of the other fishermen came up to look at my catch and ask what I was using for bait. These fellows were Japanese Americans (folks who, like us Norwegians, have a history of loving fish!) who had come from Portland to chase these red fin perch. They were using fresh sand shrimp they had dug for bait—excellent bait but easy pickings for the crabs. I gave them the rest of my freezer-burned bait and left the sands triumphant. A rare event in my fishing life!

During the next week I went out to the sands several times, taking my son Steve, who, fishing in a wet suit, was able to get out really deep and catch most of the fish. Our fish kept getting bigger and bigger. Our next trip we caught several that were about 15 inches long, and during the last trip, managed to get a couple of monsters, the biggest of which weighed three pounds and was 17 inches long! I thought it might be some kind of record, (the fish look huge at that size!) and found that the Washington State record was a full pound heavier!

According to a little Internet research and the folks on the beach, the fish run from May to August all along the sandy beaches from Northern California to British Columbia. When you take your RV to your favorite campgrounds near the coast, you might want to haul along a little surf fishing gear. Look for low tides and a few other fishermen in the surf, and with a little luck you may end up with a lot of really big fish to fry!

Bob Ellsberg’s column, Fishin’, appears monthly in RV Life and rvlife.com.