After breakfast, we headed to the Westport pier with our bucket of freshly caught ghost shrimp. It was sunny, but quite breezy and a bit chilly—though still comfortable enough for fishing. We started around 11 a.m.

We used size 2 and 4 hooks, and both fished mostly with a hi‑low rig baited with ghost shrimp. Luke added small floats to the leaders on his rig, which seemed to work very well.

Luke ended up catching eight fish in total, while I unfortunately caught none. A bit of a bummer for me—but I was genuinely happy to see Luke have such success. He kept five of the eight fish, choosing the ones he felt were large enough: two Striped Perch (Embiotoca lateralis) and three Pile Surfperch (Phanerodon vacca).

That evening, Luke cooked the fish for dinner, and they were excellent—fresh, delicate, and very satisfying after the morning’s effort.

Although I was disappointed not to catch a fish myself (I did a couple of bites but could not hook the fish), I was now confident that I understand how to catch these fish and would expect to have better luck next time. I always try to look on the bright side! Over the course of the weekend, I learned a great deal about surf fishing—hi‑low rigs, braided line (which I had never used before), ghost shrimp, and the importance of location and timing.