Foul weather has kept most boats in their slips this week, but ?? surfcasters are limbering up their rods and getting a jump the winter ?? perch season.

It is still a bit early for perch, though reports are filtering in of ?? a few barred surfperch caught here and there from local beaches. Some ?? of the male barred surfperch caught recently are displaying the ?? seasonal spawning colors. Mike Baxter, sponsor of the Annual Sandcrab ?? Classic Surf Perch Tournament is keeping his eye on developing ?? conditions. "It may be a result of increased freshwater runoff, but ?? the red tide is starting to develop in patches locally." This could ?? have an adverse affect on surfcasting for perch because it lowers the ?? visibility of near shore water.

With the weeks of big surf, most of our local beaches will soon be ?? developing structure to hold feeding perch. Look for rip currents and ?? deep spots or "holes" near shore, where the waves are not breaking. ?? Recently, the beaches near Rio Del Mar have been producing the best ?? reports for surfperch, but any given beach on Monterey Bay can ?? produce from one day to the next.

"Don't underestimate the piers for perching," Baxter reminds us. Ed ?? Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait concurs, citing a recent afternoon ?? when two anglers caught a good number of barred surfperch from the ?? wharf, fishing just behind the surfline. On Tuesday, one of the ?? regular fishermen at the wharf used shrimp as bait for a big calico ?? perch. As the season progresses, we will see increasing numbers of ?? barred perch caught from the surfline, and an increasing variety of ?? perch from the local wharves.