Monterey, California - Shore & Charter Fishing

[shortcircuit]

Hi all,

Off to California for honeymoon part two in a couple of weeks time! Will be staying in Monterey for a couple of days, in the Monterey Bay Inn ,which is right on the shore. https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Monter ... efbd?hl=en

If anyone has fished in Monterey, some info would be great!

Shore Fishing
Our hotel is right on a beach, so I would love to have a cast from the beach, or the rocks beside the beach. Any advice on species, rigs, bait etc would be great. Also if there is a tackle shop where I could do rod hire? I'm also unsure about the licence situation, do I require one.

Charter Fishing
After a little googling there seems to be a good few options for charter fishing, with rock cod and ling being the main targets this time of year. From what I can tell, the charters I have seen tend to be 6 h in duration starting at 6.30 am! Even I find 6h on a charter a long time, so there's no way the wife will go for that! I was wondering if anyone knew of charters that might only go out for 3-4 hours, and at a less ungodly hour!!


Thanks in advance

[Tanglerat]

Dunno about that part of the world, but congrats on the nuptials.










































Acquisition of both a wife and a Fishing Permissions Officer in one go.

[shortcircuit]

Thanks tanglerat, I actually got married back in December but was only able to get away for a short trip then. This is like honeymoon part II !

[Stan]

The aquarium in Monterey is fabulous. It is also worth going whale watching as they have blue whales there sometimes ....up to 120ft long.

You should be able to get charter details when you are there.

As far as I remember there are thousands of seals living locally.

Enjoy the holiday. If you go to Carmel say hello to Clint

[fish r man]

The aquarium is class well worth a visit they had a white shark there when we visited, as far as I know you need a licence to fish from the beaches but not from the piers kinda strange,all sorts of stuff to be caught from the ends of the piers .

[TaiwanTuna]

Hi ShortCircuit, congrats on getting (gotten) hitched! I live Micky Mouse but i am somewhat familiar with Central CA.

First off, the preservationists - I shall reserve my opinions on the ducking liberals to myself for now - have successfully closed all fishing, shore or boat, to most of CA.

As most have said the Aquarium is world class. So much wonder. The main tank have several schools yellowtail, yellowfin and bluefin, which makes offshore fisherman like me 'emotionally erect', as Steve Martin said in 'LA Stories'.

But i digress

http://www.seemonterey.com/things-to-do ... s/fishing/ has some general info.

http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/thread ... gs.564175/ is an excellent start to your query.

it's all rockfish and lingcod this time of year. Rockfish are not much sporting fish, but sure are tasty. Lings are fun to catch. if you have the option, use light line, like 15lb with wire leader, or big white squiggly tail pinned on a 10- 12 oz lead head.

if you have more questions, email me at oliverchang0410@gmail.com

I just saw that you might be back from CA already....how was it?

[TaiwanTuna]

Hello ShortCircuit,

I had a dissertation written about the regs, specieis, tackle, charters, what/when things to do when not fishing, etc, etc, then i realized you're probably back already.

anyway, congrats on getting (have gotten) hitched. how was the fishing? what did you catch?

report, please

[shortcircuit]

Hi Taiwan Tuna,

Thanks for all the info, there would have been plenty of interest there if I had seen it before I went!

We were only two and a half days in Monterey so I wasn't able to swing a six hour charter for rockfish and lingcod! And there wasn't anywhere where I could rent tackle, so I couldn't go fishing from the pier, something I saw a lot of people doing.

The aquarium is absolutely amazing alright, perhaps the best one I've ever been to.

On a side note, I was up in Napa for a few days, and completely unknown to me they have very good sport fishing up there- they have striped bass that migrate upriver to spawn, they run to 40lbs. In addition to that, there are sturgeon in the Napa river. Also plenty of largemouth and smallmouth bass fishing locally. Of course I found this out the day before I left!