Ocean fishing from shore?

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FX

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Sep 28, 2005
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110
We will be taking the rv to Half Moon Bay for 4 nights on new years weekend.? I have never fished the ocean from shore and was wondering if there is anything to it.? I know a lot of the fishing is off limits after the 1st but I have heard the Bay Area is great for sturgeon.? I have called the charter boats and all the ones I call say they are not going out after the 1st.? So, if fishing from shore is as easy as it seems I might just give that a try.? Any help would be great.
 
[The basic tools are a long rod, longer for beach than for rocks.? My beach rod is 13 feet.? Rock rods are more like boat rods 7-8 foot.? ?The rod should be able to throw around four-six oz. of lead.? ?The reel can be a big spinner, but I like the old Penn 140 Squidder conventional spool.?

The ground tackle is pretty simple.? ?A hook of appropriate size for your bait.? ?A sinker on a dropper of low test line -- around rocks in particular you want to be able to break off the sinker if you get hung up.? ?In rocks in particular, I used old auto spark plugs as weight -- cheaper to lose.

Bait with whatever seems to be locally productive.? Down here bloodworms and sand crabs are a big item.? Other goodies include a sand spike to ground the rod, a bucket in which to schlep your stuff and your catch.

On the beaches look for rip currents to cast into.? ?Be careful of surfers.? Give them a wide berth.? ?They tend to blunder in to your tackle fouling it badly; they have a zero bag limit; besides they are hard to clean and have a gamy flavor.

On rocks, be extremely careful of rogue waves, do not get out too far out on the rocks or on breakwaters.? ?On beaches understand that you are going to get wet feet.? ?Gardener boots are handy.


PS.? ?I accidentally called your message up to the edit routine.? I immediately exited it with no changes.? Sorry.
 
Carl has given you some good tips, but I don't know about the spark plugs. Reminds me I've never changed the spark plugs in any of my diesel engines.

If it's the one at the harbor, the campground at Half Moon Bay is very close to the water and there's a great view of the ocean from there. It didn't look like it could accomodate many RVs though. I might have taken a photo or two while we were there (by boat), so I'll dig around in my archives.

When we lived in South Wales, there was a 40 foot tidal variation. So, if we fished from the piers, the water would be a long way down at low tide and almost lapping over the top at high tide. I also used to fish the beach. We'd go out at low tide which, because of the shallow angle of the beach, meant a long walk to the water. We'd cast into the surf and wait. That tide kept coming in, so we'd be walking back up the beach almost continually. Before long, the bait was in pretty deep water. Occasionally we'd reel in, either to bring in a fish or to "check it", then we'd restart with our line in the surf.

I must admit to never having ocean fished from a beach, pier or rocks in California, but I think Carl's warnings should be heeded.
 
Carl Lundquist said:
PS.  I accidentally called your message up to the edit routine.

Hey, that's my trick. It still catches me unawares occasionally.
 
Tom-  Looked it up last night.  It's called Pelican Point RV Park.  It's right near the water also.  It's been 3 years, but if I remember right it's kind of a cliff off to the watter below.  30, 40 or 50' maybe, can't really remember.  I guess I'll take my pole along and see what happens. 
 
FX,

Be safe and good luck. Don't forget the camera.
 
Wish me luck for tomorrow as well.  Going out to Rio Vista.  Spent $20 on frozen Salmon Roe.  There just has to be a sturgeon out there w/my name on it. 
 
I haven't had good luck with frozen bait. They do catch fish but, as far as shad is concerned, a fish can virtually suck it off the hook. I hope the salmon roe is better. Do you know if you have to use cheesecloth like they do with herring roe?

Looks like it will be a nice day at Rio Vista tomorrow after the early morning fog burns off. A little cool (62 degrees) and winds will be 5-10 mph.

Hope you get that big sturgeon.
 
I like you Tom ;)? ?You do all my research for me.? I was actually going to look up that stuff but you saved me the trouble.? Thanks

The main guy at Outdoor Sportsman (forget the name) said he feels and has heard that wrapping in cheesecloth reduces the amount of bites by 50%.  They gave me some thread to wrap around.  Well see.
 
Please let me know how the salmon roe works out because I've never used it and I'm curious.

As for the weather forecast, it's sitting right here on my computer, just a click away. But they got it wrong for today, so let's hope tomorror is right. I once heard a weather forecaster being interviewed on a radio talk show. He said that one of their mandatory classes is on vagueness - how to be vague with your forecasts. That way, they can't be too wrong.
 
Tom & others-
Beautiful day out on the delta last friday.  Not a great day for fishing though.  Since the water was calm, we anchored under the power poles and then near the Rio Vista bridge.  Only 1/2 a dozen nibbles and that was on the pole with the salmon roe.  Shad got NOTHING.  The roe stays together great with just the string, no cheese clothe was used.  I felt better when we headed back to pull the boat out and there she was again...the lady from Fish/Game.  She was doing the 'population study' again.  She let me check out the list, and out of 13 boats that had pulled in, only 4 had caught fish.  Of those 4, 3 boats caught 1 keeper striper, and 1 boat caught 2.  There were no sturgeon caught.  That was at Brannon Island launch, which I assume is the busiest one in the area.   
 
FX

Thanks for the report. I'm going to have to try salmon roe sometime.

Yes, Brannan Island is one of the busiest launch ramps around there, partly due to the ease of launching and plenty of parking. Also easy access to both the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. When we were trailering a boat behind the motorhome it was our favorite place to launch.

We also liked to take an overnight boat berth and sleep in the motorhome right above the berths. The price was right too; Back then, they charged $5/night for camping in their "Olympic campsites" and $5/night for a boat berth. But, if we paid $5 for the berth, they gave us the campsite for free. I'll bet the prices are much higher now.
 
I fish from shore in Puerto Penasco Mx. every month. The best dead bait I've found is small squid, it stays on the hook and is cheap.
 

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