Black Bass/Sea Perch Tactics

[Salmoncraze]

Hoping to try and catch some black bass on the annual salt trip this year. Best tackle to target them with? Bonus points for tips on targeting them on the fly. Cheers!

 

[brutus]

Hoping to try and catch some black bass on the annual salt trip this year. Best tackle to target them with? Bonus points for tips on targeting them on the fly. Cheers!

I have caught lots on flys, any minnows pattern works,, deep 7 line sink tip 10 ft of leader toss it close to the kelp then wait a few second then strip as fast as you can, they are easy to to catch

 

[RiverBoy]

anything

 

[Captain PartyMarty]

Don't even put your lure in the water, just dangle it above the water and they will jump in it

 

[eroyd]

There aggressive feeder when you find them. Caught several of them on Chartreuse Clouser minnows. Not usually on the bottom like other rock fish.

 

[Clint r]

For black rockfish I’ll use a 4” plug about 50’ back.

 

[Flashman]

As noted above, not important what you use. I use ~100g flat falls or small swim baits. The critical thing is to know where to find them. In my experience, they are most easily found around shallow reefs, rocks etc on open ocean. They love pinnacles <50-80' deep and breaking rocks. The more exposed to open ocean the better. They get fished out if an area is popular with people trolling for salmon.

They are pretty easy to locate using your sounder. Pick a likely spot, watch the screen. They will often be above the highest point of a submerged rock. I've found they hold position pretty well, so I'm often trying to hold position over the school and have to use GPS/chart to get back to the spot when I drift off. If it's a breaking rock, I cast right into the surf and often hook up within seconds on the retrieve. This is what I find they look like on the sounder, not my image, got it off google, but it's accurate.



Where are you going?

When I'm targeting them I prefer barbless hooks. Makes putting the little ones back easier. Once you're on a school it's non stop, hard to keep them off. The small ones seem to come up shallower so it can take a little cycling through to get the size I want to keep.

 

[mbowers]

If they are cooperating poppers and a floating line are the best. Otherwise sinking line and clousers.

Walk the dog with a bait caster and casting plug is also great.

 

[TipUp]

I've found buzz bombs to very effective (smaller the better) but doesn't really seem to matter what you use they are very willing biters. If you feel a bite, let some more line out they often bite then. Very good for fish tacos

 

[Rockfish]

Easy to catch once you find where they hang out. They will hit anything and usually we catch them on whatever we have down for salmon, even plastic. They tend to be mid water schooling fish more so than many other rockfish species. We usually find them in bays with rock walls and reefs but in a little more open mid water, down say, 50 feet (could be 30, could be 60). If we want to target them we go to one of our known spots, troll around and search with the sounder till we see a school, then adjust the riggers and stay on top of them. Don't take too many out of any one school, but with the Rockfish restrictions we have, that's not a big issue. We don't use chovies on them unless they are old beat up ones -too expensive.