So anybody know what works for the outsized and overly elusive Pile Perch? Caught a couple big ol 10 - 12"ers that put a decent bend in an ultralight combo. Problems with the pups pecking off the pile worm piece / 2 beads and weight in a jig dunking arrangement.

I'd like to find something that the tiddlers might avoid long enough for more wily veterans to engage coz its kinda fun esp. since the old F.I. ferry slip is a long cast from my berthing quarters.

Go find some of those baby crabs about 1" across the back. Just look under rocks near the shoreline. Hook through the back and drop into the water without weight. A natural presentation is the key.

prawn meat kills them even better than the crabs do.I myself enjoy fishing for them on my 4' ultrlight.

Rockfish catches them on his fly pole!!!

When you catch one of the little ones, take note of its mouth size and be sure to use something bigger than it can swallow. You could try using a white fly with sparse red yarn tail and doused with scent. Hook size does make a difference between being pestered by the little ones and getting the bigger ones.

Went out to the pillings again last night. The water was full of plankton and coon shrimp/crab clustered about on mid-high tide. Managed to net a few shrimp and used them. The rat patrol was out in force feeding on the shrimp I guess cause I caught a few of the ugly buggers before they ate all me leaders!

Caught many a pile perch off the oregon coast using white or white/red feather crappie jigs. Sand shrimp have been best bait followed by mussle's. Don't have to worry about the bait stealers down south though so mostly just use sand shrimp.

I had good luck fishing for pile perch this summer with a friend and we found that if you use a lil corkie, like for steelhead fishing, one of the small ones and use a peice of pile worm. Then we just jigged it off of a lip where it was deep. Great fun on a 4' ultralight.

I used to hide a #1 hook inside a mussel, shell and all. worked great for keeping them little peckers away.

i tend to do really well when i take some whole muscles and just break them up into a chum. Then i take a small peice of the muscle, and stick a small hook through it and drop it in with the chum. I'm sure this will work with all types of bait though.


Reynees

anybody having any luck with the perch lately? i've been wanting to take a little drive down to nisqually reach and fish them off the pier(there's some BIG ones down there) but i've never had much luck getting them to bite