Fort Ross fishing from coast

Hi - I'm taking my family to hike around fort ross this weekend.  I've been kayak fishing in the area and it's great but I'm not sure I'll take my kayak so I'm thinking about doing some fishing from the coast as we hike.

Is there a beach/coast access at Fort Ross?  Or maybe a good place close by?  Should I use a rig similar to kayak fishing (jighead with a strip of squid) or something else?

Thank you.

You can fish off the rocks on either side of the sandy beach at Fort Ross. There a few trails that lead you down to the bath tub area also. You could also walk down to reef campground and fish around there. Just try and stay out of the wind and be prepared to lost a few rigs in the kelp. From shore I usually fish a dropper step-up w/one hook. Less snags.

great, thanks!

If you take the rd down the second trail you come to takes you to the north side of the north cove you can fish some deeper water it's pretty protected unless you have a south swell. There are some pretty big rocks you can get out on but don't fish there if you have a south swell

Thanks mickfish - I'll try those rocks, it should be a NW swell tomorrow.

I've rockfished for many more years than I've yakfished.  It was always very alluring to cast out into water that I thought would hold more and bigger fish - this also led to lots of snags and lost gear.  My Dad always told me you only need about 2' of water to catch a cabezon...  Years ago along the Lost Coast on a backpacking trip I was casting out into 4' of water in some kelp and kept losing gear.  I had been washing my hands of ab guts at the base of my feet in 2' of water...  After losing 3 setups out in the kelp I said F#*% it!  I'm going to put my bait right here at my feet in 2' of water where I've been washing my hands.  I was shocked as we caught 7 fish in a row, the last being a 10 pound cab.

You may want to try something similar, and good luck to you.   

you're right.  That happens to me sometimes when I go poke-poling, I usually catch monkey-face eels in holes but also RF near rocks in very shallow waters.  That's always fun.

When I went to Sandy Beach earlier this summer,  I witnessed this one guy have a great day from shore. He was in the center of the beach (not even on any rocks) and he cast out to gaps in the kelp bed. He was using an 11 foot surf rod with 40 lb. test, a single dropper loop, and a 5 oz. torpedo sinker (which tends to be my go-to rig from shore for rockfish). He ended up with 3 chunky grass rockfish, a legal greenling, a 27 inch lingcod, and an ENORMOUS buffalo sculpin. The buffalo sculpin was so large, that, upon looking at it at first, I thought it was a cab.
Good luck!

Just be careful of the rocks though.  Sometime those wave will come hard and mean.  Make sure you have strong footing if you decide to get on top of them.  Be safe and save us some.

A Larry Green article years ago about fishing from rocks was touting the use of a styrofoam bobber and about 4 ft of leader to an octopus hook and squid chunk. This works very well in the spaces between the kelp.

Larry Green was the man! I miss that guy. I used to look forward to hearing his radio show.