Anyone know if they're starting to catch them off the piers in the sound yet?

I went diving on saturday and saw a school that must have been a couple hundred in mukulteo (sp). I speared a few and they were all feeding on fry, my guess is smelt or herring but I'm not sure.

Anybody have any luck flyfishing for them?

I've caught them the last three time I've been out. All caught on a Cerise beau-Mac jig. I can't say I was targetting them but they are fun to catch on a light set up. What do most people use to catch them? I couldn't keep them from hitting my jig the last time. I don't plan on keeping any, I just fish to be fishing. Good luck.

MJ

size 8 white krystal flsh shrimp with a 6 lb flouro carbon leader with a smear of shrimp smelly jelly drives them wild. fished in stealth mode can be really productive and diffrent. good fishin, Ben

Would someone please teach me about pile perch? This sounds interesting and I am always looking for another excuse to fish. Do they gather around piers this time of year? Are they good eating? Are they caught in the Redondo/Tacoma area?

Also known as surf perch, they're basically a big saltwater panfish, like bluegills, with the same rule: a big fish can have a very small mouth. I've caught them up to 14" long and you can barely stick your thumb in their mouth. There's a few different closely related species, the striped ones are really pretty. Piers attract them, and I've seen them around Redondo and Dash Point, but a better spot to fish for them is at Des Moines, because of the large sunken reef around the pier. Sometimes there's the added excitement of a lingcod grabbing them on the way up, too. Though you have to release lings up until the season starts in May. Perch are livebearers and move in close in February to spawn, but can be caught all through the summer after spawning. What I use is one of those crappie or perch rigs with two or three size 6 hooks, baited with a green sandworm, or piece of shrimp. They're really keyed to the tides, and I've had it where it was dead on slack tide, and I didn't get so much as a nibble, and as soon as the tide changed, they wouldn't stay off the hook.

One more thing: They are not a very fecund species, they produce maybe about 5-20 offspring per year. So treat them gently and return those that are too small to keep or obviously gravid (pregnant) to the water unharmed if possible. Keep in mind that the larger ones are usually females. It really sucks to open one up and find it's full of dying babies.

The ultimate perch bait is piling worms. They hide in barnacles and mussels on the pilings. Just go out at low tide and bust off some mussels and you'll find them. Careful, they bite!

I've always had more luck looking for pile worms under rocks in the sand, myself. Shrimp is the next best bait, and by far easier to get, as you can buy it at the grocery store. I'll be going down to Des Moines tomorrow or Thursday, so I'll let everyone know how it went.

as a kid growing up next to manchester dock we would get a bucket of muscles, crush them up and throw them in the water. in about 30 minutes you would have every perch in the area clumped together and sand crabs and small muscles would nail them. you couldn't use anything else because about every other fish would be there also.

Thanks guys for the great idea.
Almost forgot how much fun these guys are. Just went out an hour ago to drop off mail and such. Took my trusty ol' noodle rod tipped with a little white crappie jig along with me and stopped off at the nearby neighberhood pier. For 15 minutes it was fish on. C&R of course. Nice fish and pretty this time of year too. Man they hit hard, they're like Super Crappies. Should be alot of fun for the kids. Think I'll toss the bug rod next time the tide is flatter.

The deadliest bait by far is a little crab, 1/2" to 3/4" across fished on a dead fall with NO WEIGHT. Use a #4 or #6 egg hook. I've had perch "look" at pile worms, but they always SLAM the tiny crab.