Mill Creek/pacific valley

Mill Creek in Big Sur

Mill Creek is a few miles south of Limekiln SP and is the Northernmost launch in the southcentral fishing zone, other than limekiln itself.

The parking lot has only half a dozen spots, but there isn't much to do here, so there's plenty of parking.  Every time I've seen it there's been a camper that some commercial fishermen live in parked there too. There is a somewhat precarious trail through some rocks for about 50ft  to the beach, a cart doesn't help at all and the best bet is to carry the kayaks down with two people and load them up on the beach.  

This beach is pretty exposed, but it's got a couple things going for it. The beach is steep, so the waves don't break for very long, and there are some rocks throughout the surf zone that break it up.  These rocks are somewhat hazardous if you fall in, so watch out.

Straight out there are some kelp beds that are usually loaded with coppers,blues and gophers.  The commercial guys hit this bed pretty extensively, so the best bet is to move a few patties either north or south - but the commercial guys have more range than a kayak, so you can't really get out of their kill-zone.  However, they're mostly interested in live fish, so fishing deep you are going to find the least pressured fish.

The bottom drops off quickly, and armed with a FF you can find deeper reefs.  For the 2005-06 fishing season, it's only open from 120-240ft deep, which is less than a mile offshore here, so that'll be the only game in town.  From Mill Creek to pacific valley the bottom drops off dramatically, making this the best area for these deep-water seasons.  The area around limekiln tends to be shallower.  There is another launch, about 5 miles south, in pacific valley.  It's extremely protected by large offshore rocks and a couple coves, the bummer is that it's over a stile, through about 1/2 mile of pasture that gradually slopes downward (with fairly level trails), down a 15ft scree at about 45 degrees, and across 20 yards of flat pebble beach.  This is the place to use a good kayak cart with offroad tires.  There is a huge kelpy reef here, that hopefully is out of range of the commercial guys at Mill Creek.  To me this looks like a spearfisherman's paradise, I'll find out in a few months.

Pacific Valley: http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=1637&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=2002

That place looks sweet.  I would be in for a trip down there.

mill creek, yes very good launch point  i have done it a few times, you are right about moving, go souththere are some good reefs one in partickular   is south about 1.5 mile. i would to hook up with you guys if you want to come down. chef

Chef-that area looks good for halibut too with all of the sand. Have you ever tried it?

I didn't launch from pacific valley, but I did hike around down there.  The best coves were actually the back ends of the rocky finger-channels in the middle of the pic, the open beaches had pretty gnarly surf, as you can see from the photo.  

There was some evidence that people had camped in those little coves (firepits and a big jug of water), being that it's hundreds of yards from the road I think you could get away with that if you were quiet and left no trace.

When I went down there, my FF transducer had detatched, so I wasn't really able to scout it well, and just fished on the outer edges of the kelp.  With a functioning FF you can work in the deeper areas.  I noticed I caught more coppers, china and olive rockfish than up here.

P.Spark-  Have you ever been to the Plaskett Campground, Big Sur.  It's shown in an image on the right hand side of the link you posted.

http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=1641&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=2002

I'd be curious if there was a good launch from there 'cause the structure looks phenomenal, sooo much kelp   Also the points and coves would be great protection if you showed up on a bad day....I always like to plan a secondary launch that way if it's blown out or swelly I don't have to head home.  

Ken

just a bump on this post as its a nice place to fish