Tidepools, mussels, and searching for perch

On Friday I stopped by a much frequented tidepool spot to get some mussels for perch bait. I've heard that white seaperch are starting to show up in Oceanside Harbor, and I wanted to try for them on Saturday with the best possible bait.

With bait secured I spent the remaining daylight microfishing the tidepools. I caught the three most commons species from this spot.

Opaleye (Girella nigricans)

Rockpool / Notchbrow Blenny (Hypsoblennius gilberti)

Woolly Sculpin (Clinocottus analis)

I also saw lots of medium sized zebra chub, but they were too busy freaking out to be interested in eating anything. Usually I encounter largemouth blenny and spotted kelpfish in this area, but I didn't see either of them this time.

On Saturday my friend Emerson met me at Oceanside Harbor to look for white seaperch. We launched our kayaks from a public dock. There were some fish in the mid water column on the fish finder that turned out to be topsmelt, but I didn't see any schools of fish near the bottom. We fished pieces of mussel on small hooks, and within the first 30 minutes Emerson caught a white seaperch in about 12 ft of water near the rocky shoreline.

White Seaperch (Phanerodon furcatus)

Photo courtesy of Emerson Sims.

Sadly though I spent the next 6 hours trying to duplicate his success, but I couldn't get a perch of my own, and he didn't catch any others. Bycatch included garibaldi, rock wrasse, topsmelt, and opaleye.

Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) - caught incidentally and quickly released

Rock Wrasse (Halichoeres semicinctus)

Topsmelt (Atherinops affinis)

Opaleye (Girella nigricans)

It was a very sunny day, so I'm wondering if the perch bite best in the early morning or when it's overcast. I think next time I try for them I'll show up before sunrise and just fish the harbor pier instead of using the kayak. It's nice to be out on the water, but it's also a lot of work dealing with all of the gear and cleanup.

Here's the Garmin screenshot and stats:

Miles: 6:02
Hours: 6:19

More blog posts to come soon!