Central Coast, Sand Dollar musings

#1
Hey folks. I decided to head over and hit the sand at my typical San Simeon spots, but with all the rain my go to spots were turbid, washed out, and not looking too fishy.

I headed down to Morro Bay with the idea of catching some bait, and then heading out to a cove I knew that had produced some good perch and rock fish in the past. I fished the south T=Pier for about 1.5 hours with nada. Not even a bump. I was about to have a bite to eat at Tognazi's and head home, but something told me to keep at it.

A while back, someone had told me of a beautiful beach a bit to the north in southern Big Sur. What the heck. I decided to head north to Sand Dollar Beach. What an absolutely gorgeous spot, but in its winter attire it had very little sand.






I can't seem to get the pics to show (if someone here can make em work I'd be grateful), but it was wet and absolutely gorgeous. A lonesome beach with some cool surfers willing to chat with an old fisherman and one heck of a trough right out front of me. My setup was a 8.5' Ugly Stick steelhead rod matched with an Okuma Ceymar C40 with 10 lb main line. I used a c-rig with 8 lb fluoro leader and either Gulp SW's in camo and bloody as well as SC's. There were tons on SC's on the exposed sand flats, but most were larger than I wanted. It even held quite a few of these.



The BSP's weren't huge with my best going about 9", but I got about 10 in about an hour before I hid from a down pour with my new buds.



It slowed down and I got back at it and a school of these made a showing.




I thought at first they were Walleyes, but looking at them they don't have the black tipped fins of Walleyes, so I think there are Silver Surf perch. Who knows, I'm a geologist not a fisheries biologist and all I know is they bit my line and were a pretty cool catch. One was about 7", which was the biggest I've ever seen.

Alas, the day was running out and I still had to trek 3 hours back to home. I ended up catching about 16 perchies in an absolutely gorgeous setting. NOthing huge, but a good bite none the less. I picked up my gear, wished my new friends well, and nodded a good bye for now to the beach, but it knows that I will return
What a great day to be alive.

Thanks for the vine, and here's to good catching and adventures.
 

Seth

New member
#2
Thanks for the report, I’m going perching in a few days so it’s nice to see someone getting em out there.
 
#4
That is a spectacular beach, one of the biggest sandy beaches on the Big Sur coast. I have not had much success there, but hope springs eternal. I will be camping in the area in early October and will definitely be hitting that beach.
 
#5
I camped at Plaskett Creek Campground (right across the street) on Christmas Eve. I spent all my time collecting mussels, snails, and limpets from Jade Cove during the ultra low tide. I met a family of four (Mom, Dad, Son, and Daughter—all in waders and rain jackets!) who hadn't caught a thing on Sand Dollar.

I will agree with the OP. This is a gorgeous beach!