Surfcasters from around the state are gearing up for the 8th Annual Sandcrab Classic, our yearly perch derby to benefit the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project. And, a Watsonville angler has smashed the size record for monkey-faced eel, astoundingly for his second time in one year!

The Salmon and Trout Project operates a hatchery for steelhead and salmon as well as sponsoring ongoing projects to restore breeding habitat, and to provide hands-on education in our local schools. Funding for the Project is always critical, but a yearly boost is provided via the Sandcrab Classic, the brainchild of Mike Baxter, charter boat skipper and host of The Let's Go Fishing Radio Show on KSCO 1080 AM. While entries are now closed for the March 10 event, additional donations are always welcome and can be contributed at the derby banquet, held at Portuguese Hall March 10, from noon to 4pm.

Surfcasting is getting better now the giant winter wave train has abated. Southern beaches continue to provide limits of barred surfperch, and the rocky areas of Pacific Grove or the Santa Cruz North Coast hold the giant black and striped perch, perennial winners in the Sandcrab Classic. On a sunset scouting mission last Sunday evening, this writer even managed to catch four barred surf perch up to 13 inches from Twin Lakes Beach in just an hour's time. When I can catch perch, the fishing must be good. For those who prefer fishing perch with bait, Capitola Boat and Bait or Bayside Marine can provide, and The Angler's Choice on 41st Avenue has live bloodworms and sandworms ordered especially for Derby anglers.

Most of us never register a record-size fish. Kayak fisherman Jim Russell from Watsonville has done so twice now, both in one year. Last March 26, 2011, Russell speared a 4-pound 12-ounce Monkeyface Prickleback Eel while free diving in the Monterey Bay. The Monkeyface is not really an eel, it just looks like one, hence the name. This matched the previous California State diving record from 2007. On 7/31/11, Russell's record was bested by one of his dive partners Harold Gibson, who shot a "monster" 6-pound 6-ounce Monkeyface to claim the dive record as well as exceeding the hook and line record set in 2005.

Russell had his revenge last week; bringing home a giant 6-pound 10-ounce Prickleback he speared "somewhere near Monterey. It was a catch tinged with alarm as well as irony. Russell recounts "When I got him out I saw right away he was definitely the biggest Monkey I have ever shot! I swam him back to the yak and was sorting through the stringer and scaling and gutting fish when somehow he came back alive, jumped off the yak and started swimming away! I jumped in right after him, dove down and grabbed him with my bare hands underwater and brought him back up. Right when I get back on my yak I hear a voice behind me- 'I saw that!'...turn around and there is my friend Harold, the current record holder!"

Jim had his catch weighed on the certified scale at Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing, and learned Tuesday the California Department of Fish and Game has accepted his submission as the new record-holder.