HMB rockfish question. Plz.

First trip in my new kayak this morning.  Beautiful day...and sore arms from paddling.  Everything worked, which is the good news.  The bad news is that I had trouble finding fish.

I paddled out of the harbor, made a hard right and traveled west parallel to the jetty.  Paddled through a bunch of kelp in 15-20' of water until it dropped off into about 60'.  Never made it to the buoy due west of the harbor.

Was I in the total wrong spot.  I've seen posts that south of the red buoy is ok, but I didn't even notice that one.  Any help would be greatly appreciated and earn you a cold beer if we ever meet up.

Thanks,
Phil

Bummer.  Everyone gets skunked.  Next time try to get a hook up with some HMB guys that fish that area allot.  Most of NCKA guys are happy to share intel.  I have learned a lot from fellow NCKA members. 

I don't know the area, but IMHO screw the jetty and go find structure that land lubbers cant get to. it's always close by. Structure, structure, structure. Fish downhill from the rocks to save tackle. work along a submerged ridge. If you dont have sonar...terrain above looks alot like the terrain below.

Be really careful cutting the corner and going along the jetty.  The waves do break on the reef through there.

If you follow the reef south on the inside,  you'll come to a green buoy that you can safely hook around.  From the green buoy, you should be able to see the red buoy just the the south.

-Allen

I fished around the green buoy (labled #3) yesterday, but didn't spot any structure or irregular bottom on sonar.  I saw the next buoy south (couldn't tell if it was red or not) across the ingress/egress channel to the harbor.

Will try there next time.