Your Guide to Catching Bay Area Rockfish from Shore

Rockfish are one of our favorite fish to catch from shore when we’re fishing the ocean. They fight hard, bite aggressively, and you can catch them on pretty much anything. The number one rule is location - make sure you’re fishing the right spot! Keep reading for more details.

How to Catch Rockfish

Before we dive into the details, just a gentle PSA to always keep your eyes on the ocean! There can be big waves by the ocean, and people foraging and fishing the coast here have been swept into the water by rogue waves. Always check the wave forecast, and be safe.

Where do I fish?

Rockfish like rocks, as you can probably tell by the name. You’ll never find rockfish far from structure - they often hide under boulders or ledges underwater, waiting to ambush prey. What this means is that in general, you always want to fish as close to structure as possible - try and fish as close to the bottom as possible, in order to keep your bait and lures in the strike range for these fish. Note that there are some exceptions to this rule - in particular, blue and black rockfish are often suspended off the bottom by a number of feet.

What this means is that when you’re out at the coast, try and place your bait near visible structure - this means boulders, rocky outcroppings, and ledges that make prime rockfish habitat. You’ll likely get snagged, but that’s probably where the fish are going to be! Bring a good pair of polarized glasses to help you find this structure. In addition, try and fish the deeper water if possible - rockfish in general like deeper water, and only a few rockfish species come very close to shore. If you’re fishing an area that you know to be extremely rocky, you can instead just try casting as far as possible into the deeper water away from shore.

Your Gear

In general, when you’re fishing for rockfish from shore, I don’t think you really need a heavy duty setup. I like a medium or medium-heavy rod with any reel you’re willing to get scraped up, armed with anywhere between 20-60 lb line. Some people like using heavier line if possible — when you get snagged, you can basically bend your hook out of cracks and through the kelp that covers the California coast. However, I like the extra casting distance that the 20lb line gives you, and I think it’s a lot more fun to catch fish on that lighter line. Regardless of the weight of the line, you should use braid as your main line, and then tie on a topshot of mono leader. The braid can help you cut through kelp and other snags. Additionally, it gives you a much better feel of your bait at the bottom, which I think is really important when dealing with waves and other current..

If you want specific recommendations, my current setup of choice:

Quantum Optix Size 40 Reel

My current reel of choice. It's pretty cheap (~$20) so I don't feel bad about banging it up, but it still works pretty damn well. The Size 40 Reel fits 310 yards of 20 lb braid, which is a perfect amount for rockfishing or crabbing or other ocean-related fishing activities.

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Berkley Cherrywood Fishing Rod

A cheap 7' medium heavy rod. Despite its low cost, I find that it handles pretty nicely and is pretty sensitive. I've caught some big rockfish and small lingcod on this rod, it definitely gets the job done.

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PowerPro Braid 20 lb

My go-to braid fishing line. It's very nice quality, and I've never had to deal with phantom tangles or line breaks or anything like that. It casts pretty well too.

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Berkley Trilene Big Game Monofilament

My go-to mono fishing line for rockfishing. This stuff is super tough, and does really well even when rubbed up against the rocks. I use 15 lb as topshot or leaders for my 20 lb braid setup.

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Fishing with Bait

When the goin gets tough, natural bait is always the way to go. If a fish sees a piece of squid or fish, it’ll bite and hang on even in the worst of conditions. When you’re fishing for rockfish, I usually recommend squid, shrimp, or pieces of cut fish. Shrimp often works great, but unfortunately the surfperch like it a lot as well - sometimes they’ll hit the squid before your bait even hits bottom. So if you want to just target the rockfish, try and stick with the squid or fish. Anywhere from a small piece to a entire squid or fish will work for the rockfish. I’ve also fished whole herring for big lingcod and cabezon, which can have some pretty spectacular results. If you can’t carry fresh bait with you, I resort to Berkley Gulp Sandworms, but they aren’t my bait of choice.

How do you actually rig these baits up? Well, I like using a so-called high-low rig - a setup where your weight is placed at the end of the line, and two hooks hang off dropper loops a few inches above. You can buy these rigs on Amazon, or just tie them yourself following the guide here. Sometimes when fishing for rockfish, I won’t use the top dropper loop to avoid potential snags or tangles. I usually use anywhere from a size 2 to a size 6/0 hook for rockfish - they tend to have large mouths, so the larger hooks are helpful for good hookups. Any type of hook will work, but I like circle hooks to avoid gut hooking any fish.

If you want to fish a whole baitfish, I typically just put a single hook right through the lip, and an optional stinger hook through the tail. You can also try cut-plugging the fish like salmon fisherman do to get it to spin in the water, but I don’t love doing this all the time since it puts a lot of twist in your line.

Here are the sinkers I use for my high-low rigs:

Cloth Bags

I hate snagging off and leaving a hunk of metal at the bottom of the ocean. As a result, I recently switched to using cloth bags, which I fill with gravel and small rocks at the fishing spot and hopefully biodegrade in the water. I've found that these cloth bags work incredibly well. They snag much less frequently than the metal weights I used to use, and the fish don't seem to mind. In addition, they are much cheaper.

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Ultra Steel Bullet Weights, 3/4 ounce

I usually use steel weights whenever I can. While they tend to be somewhat more expensive than lead-based weights, they lack most of the toxicity and developmental impacts of lead. In regards to your own health, you should use steel weights whenever possible. However, steel weights can be hard to find in larger sizes.

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Lead Sinkers, 2 ounces

These lead weights are much cheaper than steel, and come in much larger sizes. However, keep in mind the toxicity and developmental impacts of lead. Use at your own risk.

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Recently, I started using a Texas-rig style approach for fishing my bait, a familiar term if you’ve ever fished for bass before. In its simplest form, it’s an egg or bullet sinker like the one I linked above that’s allowed to slide freely on your line, at the end of which you tie on a hook. I try to fish it without putting too much tension in my line to try and let the bait drift around naturally. I’ve found that it tends to snag somewhat less than a high-low rig, and it’s much easier to maneuver around beneath the water to fishy-looking spots. Try it out and get your own thoughts!

Fishing with Lures

When fishing from shore using a lure, in general you want to use a similar approach to bait. Try and fish as close to the bottom as possible - I like basically hopping my lures over the bottom repeatedly. You’ll get snagged up a lot, so try and use heavy tackle.

In terms of hard baits, most people use some sort of jig, which can get pretty expensive. As a result, I like sticking with soft plastic setups. I like using the soft plastics on a Texas rig or jighead if I plan on covering a lot of water, or a dropshot rig for a more finesse presentation. Here are some of the swimbaits I use:

Berkley Bonefish Ribbed Swimbait

If you don't want to use bait, this is a good all-around swimbait for rocky-shore species. I usually fish it on a Texas rig or jighead, or occasionally a dropshot rig. Try and fish the lure as close to the bottom as possible (unless you're fishing for black or blue rockfish).

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Keitech Swimbait

The swimbait that most people swear by. I honestly have had better personal success recently with the Berkley swimbait, but people have had some awesome catches on these Keitechs.

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You can also probably use any other generic soft plastic, including bass-style plastics. I hear people have had decent success with Senkos and creature-style baits, which I’m not entirely surprised by. One trickier thing about fishing these types of baits in saltwater is that you need to deal with the ocean currents. Thus, a lot of the slower falling techniques that bass fisherman use, like wacky rigging, don’t work all the well from experience off the California coast. But if you can find a nice calm patch of water, I’m sure it’d work just fine, but I’ve never had too much luck.

A lot of fishermen also like using something called a shrimp fly, which are typically used off boats. I typically don’t bother off shore since you’ll lose a ton of these rigs from snags, but if you need the extra attraction:

Shrimp Fly

Tip these with strips of squid or fish, and fish it like a high-low rig. It basically gives your bait a little extra flash to draw finicky fish in.

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What are some good spots?

Really, the best strategy is to pull up satellite view on Google Maps, and look for rocky locations on the coast that look accessible. Good places to start are Pigeon Point, Davenport, Santa Cruz, Carmel, Muir Beach, and Jenner.

We’ve written articles on rockfishing from shore at the Half Moon Bay Jetty, in San Mateo County and in Santa Cruz County - check them out!