Rocks/Surf....
Hey Adam,.... The area around Ft. Bragg has a bunch of very good places to fish the rocks/surf. Almost any beach with a creek/river outlet/mouth will produce perch and the rocks will produce an wider variety of fish plus shellfish, if you're interested . For ready access to rock fishing, the Mendocino Headlands are always good. There're beaches in and around Ft. Bragg, itself, that've been cleaned up (from decades of pollution) that should produce . The real keys to all of this area are:
avoiding private property .
avoiding crowds (at this time of year, it's gonna be busy up there) .
finding relatively calm waters .
If you're fishing rocks in calm waters, use an intermediate sink rate line and weighted flies (clousers, shrimp patterns, etc.). Otherwise, you'll spend a bunch of time untangling your line and contributing flies. I always did well on incoming/high/falling tides . Nothing during low tides.
Surf fishing equipment/flies are pretty much the same as elsewhere along the coast.... Sometimes, low tide is better on the beach/surf. The surf is sometimes calmer then and you can observe the bottom better then.
I'd recommend going to a bookstore and picking up a copy of a booklet titled, Mendocino County Coastal Fishing & Diving Access Guide by Rouvaishyana . In Mendocino that'd be Bookwinkles.... This booklet describes locations, directions, fishing available and some features of interest for the entire Mendocino County coastline.
One major caution, watch out for heavy surf or large waves... They can come up even if the surf is relatively calm.... Lotsa rock fishin' guys have found that out the hard way.
"America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote."
Author unknown
Bookmarks