Surf perch paradise

Published 6:52 am Wednesday, May 23, 2018

LONG BEACH — The surf was a little rough but the fishing was good for Long Beach’s popular annual Surf Perch Derby on Saturday, May 19.

“A great Saturday! We won the surf perch derby in Long Beach,” Taylor Delauney said on Facebook. “Team FoF! $300 made us holla! Just over 33 pounds of fish. We almost had big fish with a 2 3/4 pounds, but in the last 5 minutes a big whopper showed up.”

Surf perch — sometimes combined into one word — are a dietary staple for some Washington coast residents, who can often be seen casting in the vicinity of Fishing Rocks on the south Seaview beach.

Writing in the The Spruce Eat blog (www.thespruceeats.com), Hank Shaw made these observations. “Pacific surfperch is a shore-angler’s staple. Pacific surfperch is a tasty little fish that, from an eating perspective, fits in with its distant cousins the rockfish, snapper, sea bass, porgy and bream. Any recipes you find for these fish work with surfperch. Perch can be as large as 4 pounds but are most often far smaller when they are caught.

“Several kinds of surfperch exist, including the rubberlips, redtail, calico and barred surfperch.

“But none of these is a real perch. Pacific surfperch can be found from Alaska to Baja California and is easily caught from piers, jetties and beaches.”