Fishing Half Moon Bay 7/10/09 - tips/warnings?

Hi all, first post.

Going to HMB tomorrow, 7/10/09, haven't fished there before but reading a bit it looks like just outside Princeton Harbor and inside Maverick's is the spot to hit.

Any guidance or tips on location, gear, bait etc. would be appreciated, will be looking for Rockies/Lings, planning on shrimp flies/squid, diamond and other jigs.

Also taking one newbie out, plan to have him properly equipped but any warnings or safety tips specific to this location would be appreciated/respected as well.

Thanks!

Jason

Go with someone knows the place very well or at least experienced, we always emphasize on the safety PFD, RADIO, Can Horn WetSuit, etc..

Tip #1,

Fishing during a small craft advisory is not advisable when you're on an extremely small craft.  25 knot winds sound like fun but they're really not  

Watch out for the boilers as you go out the jaws (harbor) to the right . The first time i went out there with the NCkA Crue it was a little fogy and almost ended up on top of one. fishfinder;~Depth 30+ the all of a sudden it read 2ft. I watched Mooch pull out a ling casting at it. Theres a few of those boiler out there so be care full and have fun!

Heed the others warnings and don't go tomorrow. Monterey bay might be a better spot given the weather. When you do go to HMB I would leave the diamond jigs at home and focus on swim baits, scampys or shrimp flys. Most of the fishing there is very shallow and I like the plastics better in shallow. Don't get me wrong I love to fish the Iron but I find the metal jigs work best in 80+ feet of water.

Let us know how you do wherever you go.

-Eliot

25 Knots? Wow, I must not be checking the right weather sources, I was looking at a surfing related site with forecasts for 2-3 ft. at 7 seconds and 7-8 knots WNW. I'm not nutty enough to go out in 25 knots, much less drag a noob along.

I'll do some more looking around, but if anyone has a good HMB weather site I'd appreciate a link.

And thanks for the tip on the buoys and boilers, great info!

J

So I checked other posts and found this just below mine:

http://www.pacificwaverider.com/36n/

Which is forecasting 5.7 ft swell diminishing to 5.1, wind 7 knots WNW.

Where is the 25 Knots/small craft advisory forecast coming from? Further out? I'm just looking at fishing right off the point just outside the harbor.

Thanks again all!

Great info, thanks! And agreed, no substitute for eyeballing it.

Plus, I'm happy to just enjoy a day on the beach if the conditions aren't safe.

Wetsuit/radio/gps/pfd/spare paddle in the box - check...

Looking at just south of the point, wanting to use it for shelter from NW swell and wind.

J

25 Knots? Wow, I must not be checking the right weather sources, I was looking at a surfing related site with forecasts for 2-3 ft. at 7 seconds and 7-8 knots WNW.

NOAA  (The day forecast was the same)

ZZ545-110430-
POINT REYES TO PIGEON POINT TO 10 NM-
233 PM PDT FRI JUL 10 2009

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT


TONIGHT
NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT.
NW SWELL 4 TO 6 FT AT 7 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG.




Point and click

DATE                 FRI 07/10/09            SAT 07/11/09            SUN 07/12/09
UTC 3HRLY         10 13 16 19 22 01 04 07 10 13 16 19 22 01 04 07 10 13 16 19 22 01
PDT 3HRLY         03 06 09 12 15 18 21 00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 00 03 06 09 12 15 18

WIND DIR          NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW NW
WIND SPD          16 20 20 18 20 21 23 21 19 16 19 15 17 18 18 16 15 15 15 16 17 20
WIND GUST         20 25 24 21 24 25 28 25 22 19 20 18 20 22 22 19 18 18 18 19 20 25


Surfline has the nearshore winds at around 10knots and another wind model had it at 13-14.

Always best to look at a couple different sources and visualize the forecast.  All that offshore slop eventually makes its way to the coast. Independently, 10-13 knt wind is fishable, 4-6 ft swell is fishable....combined with short periods and and 3-5 ft wind waves & nearshore swell bouncing off the rocks is gonna make it alot of work and an uncomfortable trip to say the least. Plus its been blowing out there since wednesday, might be alot of surge and crappy fishing in shallow. 

The good thing about HMB is that there is some NW Protection so it can be fishable in tight when the green can is rocking. That and forecasts can be wrong. 


How was it?

 

Turned out to be a pretty decent day on the water!

I don't think the wind got over about 7-9 knots and stayed mostly below that, swell was mixed NW and SW so slightly choppy but still pretty flat, 2-3 feet with an occasional 4-5 footer, no whitecaps.

Got skunked on fish though, after coming back in talked to the Ranger and it turns out I should have gone out a bit further to hit the dropoff, nothing was happening in the shallow areas. Time to get a depth finder.

Worked along the jetty and in the shallows south of the giant golf ball, plus drifted south from there a couple of times. Tried along the rock walls inside on the way in too. Lots of young Sea Lions watching us, but no fish...

Ya I believe from the jetty out about 300-400 yards is sandy bottom.

In the lee of the point its usually pretty mellow.  Its shallow with alot of sand like previous poster noted but there's structure in there the further you get from the jetty, its usually marked by kelp. There's fish to be had but the quality isn't always there.   

The only problem with working the deeper ledges out there is that they're more exposed to the open water conditions. At the green can I've had a couple trips that were fishable in the am then turn to snot in the afternoon so we hightailed it to the inside where it was still fishable.  The mav cam was showin a decent short period bump, no white caps but alot of texture on the surface.