Monterey Bay

For Monterey Bay I like to launch from:

- Otter Cove / favorite, its quiet, easy parking and free, always harbor seals to see and lots of cabezon, lings, rockfish, maybe halibut. never any issues there.

- San Carlos / Breakwater Launch / 8.00 parking and scuba divers all over the place. rude folks who run the deli shop. thumbs down compared to Otter but its still a launch point. fish wise, go south and towards lovers point. beware of the hopkins boundaries and the "save the seas and animals" people in kayaks. good place when swells are high and pumping everywhere else.

How do you get to Otter Cove?  Is the lauch far from parking?

How do you get to Otter Cove?  Is the lauch far from parking?

in monterey, follow the water and go south, pass lovers cove beach, past lovers point and about 1/4 mile south of the point is a pul out parking area for otter cove. bring the kayak down the stairs and launch from the seaweed beach, typically its loaded with seaweed but launching there is easy for the most part. paddle south to coral street or even further south to point pinos.

i like otter cove for fishing and skin diving. lots of fish and lots to see.

best of all, no tourists to weave around and not many enviro's to come and harp on you for fishing. i have never had issues there.

on the other hand, sometimes a local senior club paints there with their easels. just lower your kayak down on a strap from the top of the wall and walk down with the rest of your gear. easy as my wife and i do it all the time.

even the shallows here have big lings. last year i saw one reef on the south side of otter on a calm day. this one reef had 4 lings sitting atop of it. also lots of big olive rockfish and big cabezon. all in less than 30 feet of water.

I just noticed that there is a camera on top of Embassy Suites in Sand City that gives a good view of the lower bay.

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/weather/index.html

When it's all done loading (its the last thing to appear and can take a minute) on the top right there will be 4 cams you can click on showing different areas.

Yeah.  That' s the one they show on the news for sunset shots........

Hi, John

I try to locate Otter Cove based on your description. I find this place. Is It otter cove? Please confirm ...
http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=200402153&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=2004

YEp.  That' s it Eric.

Here's a few links:

Otter Cove

San Carlos

Del Monte

California Diving News Dive Sites

at otter cove there are often people fishing from shore. i would like to know how they do nearshore. my wife did fish from south otter and got some nice rockfish with largest being about 19" form the shore. she just sat on a rock and fished while i was out diving for fish. i think most folks figure that the deepedr you go the bigger the fish. i was near south otter cove towards coral street in 8-10 feet ofwater and caught a ling about 34" which had its head sticking out of a hole. i awlays see lings near the rocks there. i would like to spend a shore fishing day there sometime.

Thanks,  John, Pat and Fredie, your info is helpful.

I see lots of folks shore fishing there and rarely see much caught.  Well, except that day that Randy and I were nearly skunked and the guy on shore gleefully waved his lingcod at us as we paddled in............

I see lots of folks shore fishing there and rarely see much caught.  Well, except that day that Randy and I were nearly skunked and the guy on shore gleefully waved his lingcod at us as we paddled in............

that is sooo mean. i would have walked over, pushed him in and take that thing from him! 

I shore fish Otter Cove area on a regular basis and it's a great spot.  I rarely get skunked there and have never yet been skunked fishing off that high wall.  Cabs and Grass RF make up most of my shore catch there with Browns, Blues, Stripped perch, Lings and Gophers making occasional appearances.  Never knew there were bat rays over there (the link in the post above mentions there are a lot of them).  That is awesome as I love catching big rays and can't wait to catch one from my yak.

IMO, The whole "deeper is better" thing is horse apples (that's right, I said horse apples) when it comes to certain rockfish and especially cabs.  I have plenty caught cabs and rockfish in literally inches of water.  I have caught nice size cabs in less than 3 feet of water.  There's a cab spot I know near Otter Cove (between it and the golf course) where the water is usually 3-4 feet deep.  Even got a few shorty lings there.  2 weeks ago, my shore fishing buddy nabbed a 5lb 2oz grass rockfish from shore (really - weighed it, photos and everything . .it looked like a big hawg LMB) near Carmel.

By the way . .I live in Monterey and shore fish constantly.  I got a yak last winter - just as the water got heavy so it sat idle most of the winter.  Been out a few times this year (the first was a most excellent guided trip with Alan Bushnell) and I love it.  Now that I know there are rays out there I will be hitting that area way more often.   

Strange as it may seem . . I never keep fish because I am allergic to them . .but I am completely nuts about fishing.  My favs to catch are leppies and bats because they are so bad*ss.  I have fought a few rays for almost an hour from shore . . . . would LOVE to see what happens when I am floating around in my yak and can't just "show 'em whose boss' with my big old Torium/uglystick  combo.

Sorry for being such a lurker (have been lurking here since Oct 05).  I wanted to get some yak experience before I started tagging along or inviting folks out to fish.  I will definetly post in the hookups for my next outing - which sadly can't be next weekend because I have other lame plans.  I look forward to fishing you guys/gals.

Chris

hey chris, thats a great place you are talking about. my wife loves to fish off the rocks at otter cove. i have done a lot of diving there and you are correct. there is lots of nice fish in shallow there. its an often overlooked spot.

once i was snorkeling over about 10 feet of water at otter cove and i saw a halibut finning over the reefs going towards lovers point. the thing was big too. that place has everything. someone once told me they landed a WSB stright out of otter cove and it was 35lbs.

amazing plance and hopefully it will always be that way. thanks for sharing your knowledge of the place.

john