Pete,
I was fishing at the last easily accessible beach from the road at Montana de Oro (there is a house/building right across the street and there is a large rock structure that kids are always climbing and playing on). To the right of the beack is a huge reef/tide pool area that is perfect for exploring and gives you access to water that is deep enough to hold good-sized fish. It's really sweet if you enjoy climbing around the rocks. Make sure you check the fishing season on rockfish...I'm not sure, but I may have been fishing illegally last week because I just read a report that rockfishing is out of season in Santa Cruz, so it might be here too. Oops! :-( I need to check on that. Hope that is enough detail for you!

B-Corb