I am heading up to the Morrow Bay area, could anyone give me some areas to fish. I will be in a kayak so areas close to the Bay would be appreciated. Also, if there are any tips on what plastics or flies I would appreciate it.

See ya!

leave the plastics out of the water...USELESS. but if you want to try go for it. There are however really good spots all around outside of the harbor as your leaving head straight to the left and about 100-200 feet out there is sand and its good for halibut. The only problem is the party boats sort of fish the ##### out of it.
matt

Not much in the bay this time of year. If I was going to fish in the bay, I'd try the channels off of the natural history museum. Try the low to incoming tide for best results. Bay ray and Shark on squid, stillfishing on the bottom is about the best bet.

Andy

I would have to agree with Andy about that. There are still some sharks and rays out there. If I remember right, last year I caught quite a few batrays in the winter. Another fish that's in the bay this time of year is starry flounders. I guess they spawn in the winter. Last year my brother caught two that were over 20" on cut mackarel. If you wanted to ditch the 'yak and fish from shore, the surfperch should be good right now. Another fun thing to do from shore is fish the rocks (tidepools) for rockcod. There are several good spots around here and the rockcod will cooperate all year. If you need some info on setups or directions, reply and I could give some more specific information.-Phil

Thank you Phil for the assistance. I primarily use a fly with sinking line, but whatever it takes to catch fish I am always open for suggestions. Please supply me with as much as you can.

Peter

You know i've never actually seen it done here, but i've heard about flyfishing for surfperch. If it was a fairly calm day i'm sure you could get some in the surf. I'm not to sure about what flies to use though. I usually catch them on motoroil grubs, ghost shrimp and sandcrabs, so maybe something that resembles one of those. Another type of S/W flyfishing that i've actually seen done here is going for stripers and WSB from the north side of Morro Rock. They can be taken on live chovies and minnow imitations, so maybe a streamer or something might work.-Phil

Fishing for rockcod off the rocks sounds like something my boys and I would like to try. I'd appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Also, can WSB or stripers be caught of the rock this time of year?

Robert,
That's cool that you and you're friends want to start doing some rockfishing. The first thing that you need to do is pick up a tide book, as the best times to go is during low tides, or better yet minus tides. There are basically two ways to catch rockfish from the rocks. One is fishing for them with a rod and reel. With this method you need a setup capable of holding 20-30lb line a 3oz wieght, 2/0- 3/0 hooks and squid for bait. Bring plenty of tackle and expect to hang up often. The second method is poke poleing. This method can actually be more effective than the rod and reel. You're equipment for this is normally a bamboo pole 8-12ft long (pvc pipe or something similar also works well) a coat hanger and a hook, that's it. I like to use squid for bait, but I know guys who use artificials. To setup your poke pole, take a piece of the hanger 16-18" and attatch it to the end of the pole, attatch your hook to the end of it. There you go you got yourself a poke pole. Now for the fishing. When you get out there you'll notice that most of the rocks drop down a few feet and then undercut back into the rock making a shelf. This is where the fish are. What you want to do is drop your line right along side of the rocks and hope the fish come out and get your bait. If your poke poleing you can bend the wire according to where you want your bait to go and put it right in their face, forcing them to bite. This is why poke poleing is so effective. Try both methods each one has its place. What I usually do is bring both, you can cast out somewhere and then go pokin' around in the rocks.
For places around here I like Montana De Oro with hazards canyon probably being the best spot in that area. Another one of my favorite places is the area north of Cayucous pier or any rocks north of Cayucous for that matter. Explore around, you're bound to find some spots with some good fish.
The last, and most important tip that i'll throw in is. The rocks are very slippery BE CAREFULL!
Oh yeah one more thing, when you go be sure to report on how you did.-Phil

If you are going to put up the yak and want to try something fun, there is a tiny pier/dock there near one of the coffee shops. Go out there at night (after 10 pm) and fish the end of the incoming or outgoing tide - you half to time it right or the drift is to heavy to fish. Use a heavy rod with some heavy line and use a big 5/0 or 6/0 hook and a whole squid, use a dropper loop tied far enough from the sinker to keep the crabs off your bait - set your clicker and just wait. I have caught several bat rays there (and released) over 100lb and quite a few in the 50-60lb range. Hell of fun just for the fight. There are big leopard shark in there if you have mackerel or bloody bait- have caught a leopard there over 5 feet in length.