Anyone ever launch from Bodega Head?

I have paddled out of the harbor.  Just wondering if anyone has tried this launch?  Here is a pic of where I am talking about.  http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=12584&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=current

Cross-referencing the date and time of the photo with historical data from the Bodega Marine Reserve and NOAA, the picture show what's it's like ~30 minutes after a 1.8 low tide with winds at 5-6MPH.  The NOAA data may be erroneous since I see NO wind-speed over 20MPH for the entire year!???

http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/view_text_file.php?filename=46013h2002.txt.gz&dir=/ftp/data/historical/stdmet/

http://www.bml.ucdavis.edu/links/tide2002.html

Rockhopper fishes the Bodega Head Jetty all the time and post on PFiC. This is his neck of the woods and should be able to give you a heads up on launch conditions, facilities, etc.

I wouldn't recommend it... that's a tortuous spot to say the least.  You might be able to do it on a really nice day... but that's a big "might".

That picture shows it about as nice as you'll ever see it.  Usually there are multiple breaks and submerged wash rocks just out from the beach.  

You are way better off launching at the little beach at the base of the breakwall and paddling around the head.  The beach just off the road on the west side of the harbor before the road it turns up and over bodega head to the spot you see in the picture.  

It's a longer paddle but guranteed safe launch and landing.

Erik

I failed to notice that NOAA historical data is different [than current data].  WSPD is in meters/sec and WVHT is in meters.  That makes it ~12-13 MPH wind and ~8 foot swell - not exactly ideal.  Anyway, I spoke to someone at the BML and they said that area is a seal haulout.  I avoid haulouts like the plague.  This is the same area where a friend was circled by a GW while in his kayak.  Is it a coincidence that he bought a PB soon after that?  lol

I guess it's the harbor launch for me.

I agree with Erik. The best place to launch would be at Campbell Cove.

Mr (or Ms.) Whitey is definitely out there sometimes. A friend of mine from work said he saw a small GW (maybe 8' or 9') cruising INTO the harbor while he was fishing the Doran Jetty, and once while I was fishing the Bodega Head jetty the silence was shattered by a hundred sea lions all barking at once. I happened to have my binocs with me that day and saw dozens of sea lions shooting out of the water up onto the rocks just south of the jetty (Seal Rock). I never saw any signs of a shark, but I can only assume that's what spooked the sea lions so bad.

I've had "halibut like" strikes on swimbaits already this year, so maybe they're on their way in already. Two years ago I read reports of double digit hook-ups with double digit flatties all through the harbor. It was posted on a bass board and there were plenty of pictures to validate the catches. Some of the 'buts were well in excess of twenty pounds.

One of the deciding factors of me purchasing my 'yak. Those pics and the pics of my buddy holdin' some awesome rockies from Ft. Ross.

It's a hassle getting your kayak down the steps and the launch is very possible, but only on certain days. More into the summer, it gets calmer, the last couple of years it has been good fairly often, but the weather pattren has been somewhat light in terms of afternoon wind.

So here's the deal, you have good chance of finding a relatively calm morning launch, and that would be hatch battoned down launch that has a somewhat possible chance of a roll over. Then you fish and coming in you may find the increased afternoon wind will have raised the surf action, with a possible chance of getting rolled in to the beach. Definitely possible, just not gaurenteed dry.

But say you drive up and look down and don't like the looks of the launch, you can back track to the uturn corner where you climbed up on top of the head and there is parking lot there that is a great launch site. Sand, flat and short carry, complicated by a very low bank you must get down, but is really pretty easy. And it's free!

I have paddled out of the harbor.  Just wondering if anyone has tried this launch?  Here is a pic of where I am talking about.  http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=12584&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=current

Cross-referencing the date and time of the photo with historical data from the Bodega Marine Reserve and NOAA, the picture show what's it's like ~30 minutes after a 1.8 low tide with winds at 5-6MPH.  The NOAA data may be erroneous since I see NO wind-speed over 20MPH for the entire year!???

http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/view_text_file.php?filename=46013h2002.txt.gz&dir=/ftp/data/historical/stdmet/

http://www.bml.ucdavis.edu/links/tide2002.html

It looks like a long haul down to the beach from the parking...or even longer up from the beach.

I've ab dived from there. If you look at the picture you can see a light spot coming down a little ravine to the beach a mite north or left in the pic. This is a trail with some stairs in it. You could use kayak wheels to get up and down it with some difficulty. Two guys could also do a carry, it's not that far, but coming up would be a bit of an effort. I have a friend who has done it. It would save you a half hour of paddling to get off the head fishing.

There may not  be a record of 20mph winds right there, but the wind is gaurenteed to come up around half the summer days to blow up some good surf.  In fact to dive there you need a relatively calm surf of swells under 6 foot and 13 seconds, at least I do.

Just the same I enjoy the paddle out. Last year I did a trip out from the beach in the harbor. First I caught a seal, then I caught three undersized ling cod. I thought, this does not bode well. Then I got out to the bouy and the boats weren't doing  very well that day. Suddenly, my pole took off and 20 to 25 minutes later I had a 25 lber in my lap.  

Some one told me later that they had seen an news item in USA Today about a kayaker of the head catching a big salmon and it must have been me. I didn't talk to anyone, but there were some boats around and I remember a boat yelling at me as I was in harbor paddling to the beach,"hey, you the kayaker that caught the big salmon!" So there was my fifteen minutes of fame and no one knew my name!

At the foot of the jetty at Bodega Head is an area that's fairly open. You can "land" there and pull your kayak over the jetty, it normally wouldn't be that difficult. In fact some of the BASKers go there on high tides and wait for their chance to paddle through the opening.

However, there are two very large trees at the base of that jetty right now that were washed up a while ago, that would make the paddle through impossible and carrying the yak over pretty tough.

Not sure how long it'll take for those trees to wash away, if ever, but they make heading out on the jetty by foot a little easier.