Does anybody have any suggestions for rigs, or what bait to use to get into some pile perch at the pier? I haven't done it for a really long time and forgot how. Thanks for the help.

I heard through the grapevine that piling worms were no longer legally harvestable. If so, then I'd go with live sandshrimp or prawn. Good luck and let us know how you do.

I've heard that you can also use nightcrawlers, is this true? What is the technique for fishing for these off the pier?

go to the shoreline and turn over the rocks. See those little crabs? Grab a handfull that are less than an inch across, use a size #4 hook, and let it drop without weight. They hammer them.

i have used the crabs that u find under the rocks on the beach and i have had luck with sand shrimp. good luck

Old Fisher,

I've been using some very small (1/32?) crappie jigs with a drop of shrimp oil and catching striped perch over on this side of the pond. Using flies to when tide allows. The fish are good size (12-14"), pretty and fight hard on ultralight tackle. Low tide has worked best for me, which makes it easier to find them. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this technique would work well for the Edmonds pier very well since it is up so high. You might want to go with more weight to be able to control depth and position better. Bait, like crab or pile worm (if legal), off a light leader should work well off the down tide side of those piers. Have fun they are a hoot.

I used to use pile worms dug out of the sand, but I suppose many other things work as well. I have even caught them on flatfish, cast and retreived. If you get a chance, try casting off the beach at Picnic Point Pond...was always a favorite little spot of mine...shhhhhh. Used to use a slip sinker and just let my bait rest on the bottome.....very effective. Catch a few crawdads out of the pond as well! Have Fun!!

Though I haven't tried catching pile or striped perch in years your post brought back some great memories of my childhood. I spent nearly every weekend and many weekdays during summer vacation fishing Kayak Point pier south of Stanwood for pile perch. In fact I spent so much time there the rangers gave me a summer job cleaning the park one summer.

My bait of choice was always pile worm, though other shore invertebrates work well.
Interestingly, I was never able to catch one on fish of any kind a very few on terrestrial worms. Shore crabs were always a standby when the tides were too high to get other bait but didn't work seem to as well.

Pile perch densities, like many other marine species that were once common in Puget Sound, have been depleted. Today it is rare to see more than a few caught each summer day on the pier I can remember the migratory fish entering Port Susan Bay in June/July each year spawn. Another bit of interesting information about pile perch that makes them so interesting is that the females are fertilized internally resulting in the birth of live fish. Anyone who has caught a ripe female in August can most likely remember the experience.

Oh yeah, where can you catch them. Not many places this time of year. Though I used to catch a few in the winter near Deception Pass. Bait.......pile worms, sand shrimp, mussels, tube worms, crabs, and clams all work well.

Thanks Old Fisher...............Mykissed

I fished it this weekend and i filled up a bucket full of them on satruday and sunday. The bait of choice was pieces of shrimp. What a blast on light gear!

How do you deal with all the fork like bones? I love the taste but the bones are a huge problem. Is there a special way to fillet them to eleminate most of the bone? Just curious. There are large numbers of them here in Seattle at Pier 86. Anyway, it's good to hear that you were successful and I'm sure they were tasty.

Nope, i just filleted them normally, surprisingly they didn't have very many bones in the fillet. Oh yeah and boy were they every good, fried them in beer batter yummy.

I hope that was a small bucket. I think the limit is only 10 fish.

1/16 or 1/32 oz jig head with either small piece of shrimp/prawn or smallest plastic grub you can find(probably 1" or 2")

As for rigging, I find that having your weight on the end of the line provides a great deal more sensitivity as well as greater ability to set the hook on these nibblers. For one, having a bell, bank, bass, or pencil lead sinker on the end of your leader stretches the mono taut and thus all and any strikes are more easily felt. For the jigs, you could either lower them straight down or use a slip float.

When fishing whatever you use, I personally recommend that you not jerk the rod around since it tends to scare the fish away. Don't worry, they'll be back as long as the bait is still hanging on the hook. You'd be surprised how small a bait they'll go for as long as it has plenty of smell to it. The technique I find the most exciting to use is casting toward one of the pilings, letting the weight sink a little, then closing the bail and let the bait "swing" through the water until is directly below me. Usually the bigger fish will hit the bait on the drop and having a tight line helps in bite detection.

As for tackle, I would say that sticking to hooks no larger than size 2 will be fine. Just make sure that if you're going to use the smaller hooks like size 6 or 8, have needlenose pliers handy for unhooking fish that have swallowed the hook which in most cases is almost always. To compensate for this you might want to try using a long shanked hook such as O' Shaughnessy. An Aberdeen would probably work well too.