Ft Ross - Saturday the 2nd.

So you guys think if the current forecast is accurate the fort ross cove will be fishable?  I was thinking about salt point but the fort ross cove looks protected from a NW swell.

It gets pretty windy up there.  IME rockfish sit tight in their holes when the surf/surge is up.  

Last time out there it got pretty hairy unless you were within a few hundred feet of the shore.  That was from the wind mainly and the forecast doesn't look good in that dept.

Weak, dude.  

It's been beautiful for most of the last two weeks, now that the promised land is in sight, the weather turns to shite.

Bob and I will still be at the cove around 6:30AM. Wunderground forcast covers a huge area. Who knows, maybe it will be decent in the morning. If nothing else, if it's an OK launch but ugly conditions we're still gonna fish the beginner's cove.

Stillwater cove is like a box canyon, it should be alright no matter what the wind is doing.  I ended up retreating to the cove my first time out when I had no sea anchor (quickly rectified) caught a few blues and gophers inside - the bottom is 30+ feet in the middle of the cove and it's solid rock.  Fort ross cove is many times larger, so the wind/swell can still get inside it.  

Since you live close, it should be worth a shot.  It's a 3 hours drive for me though so I'll sit tight, maybe try linda mar on the chance it's fishable.

I was at stillwater cove early in march and it was definatly not still water.  The swell must have been coming from the south west because big waves were coming into the cove.  I think im gunna head up to fort ross sunday even if it is rough and try to fish inside the cove.

Right now...

www.iwindsurf.com is predicting low wind for the morning of the 2nd... W or NW at 5 to 7 knots until 10:00, kicking up to 10 knots by noon, then low teens for the afternoon (this is for inshore at the Bodega Marine Lab...)

NOAA is predicting NW swell of 8 to 10 feet for Sat... so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

Erik

NWS still has:

 .SAT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. NW SWELL
 8 TO 10 FT. PATCHY NIGHT AND MORNING FOG.

-Allen

I went out this morning along the Sonoma Coast State Beach south of Jenner as a test run for this weekend.  The beach (about 18 mi south of Ft. Ross) is pretty exposed to NW swell, but today's 5-8 ft swell were doable.  A bit scary at times on the way in, but not any more so than surfing around here. I went out pretty light, just a few lures in my life vest and my rod.  If I went out with my full armament I would have been a bit too unstable.

As for the fishing, I caught a few small blacks in about an hour, so it was less than fantastic.

Anyone still planning on hitting Fort Ross or Stillwater Cove tomorrow morning?  I could be convinced to check it out, the wind is suposed to stay low in the morning, but I don't know about the 7-9ft swell.

Brian

Here's my plan... I'll check the swell and wind later tonight and early in the morning.  If the swell is 8 feet or less at Bodega Bay, I'll go to Fort Ross.

Wind looks like it may cooperate... but swell much larger than 8 feet limits your range up there, so I may go to plan B.

If the swell is more than 8 feet, or very short period, I'm thinking of packing up my surf rod and heading to Ocean Beach / Mussel Rock / Pacifica to try for stripers.

Erik

The Bodega Bay bouy is showing 9.8 ft and quickly rising.  That's too bad because the wind forecast for tomorrow is now very nice.  In fact I'm at the Marine Lab right now and there is barely a breeze.

I guess I'll be working on increasing my WAF by staying home most of this weekend.  Maybe some time next week.