First Lingcod From Shore! 3 Days Searching North Big Sur
By @VINCEGOESFISHING
This blog will be available as a full length video on YouTube. Find it here or on my channel @VINCEGOESFISHING after 4pm Pacific on 10/19/26.
THE PADDLEBOARD THAT LED TO BIG SUR
The last time you saw me, I was climbing up a rock cliff to get off the beach.
When I got home, I thought:
"Dude, that was super dangerous and terrifying."
But I faced that fear.
And on the other side of it, I got a huge boost of confidence.
Then came a realization.
It would have been so much safer to just jump on a paddleboard and paddle into that spot.
From shore, there are whole stretches of beach I can't access.
With a paddleboard, I can get into better positions.
Fish better water.
Fish the deep rocks offshore.
So I bought one!
Soon I'll be launching it after work, a few times a week, and fishing locally.
But right now, I'm headed to North Big Sur.
My first time ever.
"I'm not familiar with these spots, so I'm at a big disadvantage."
The more you fish a spot, the better you get at fishing it.
So the plan is simple.
Scout.
Fish.
Learn.
And hopefully catch a few fish along the way.
THE PINES OF THE SEA
First stop: Carmel Highlands.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Coastal pines everywhere.
Bigger ones than I'd seen farther south.
Granite rocks.
Calm, deep blue water.
Strips of foam along the seams of the currents.
I even caught myself wondering where I might live someday.
South Big Sur.
Carmel.
Goleta.
Bodega Bay.
I'll fish them all for the next year or two, and see what they're like at different times of the year.
Then I'll figure out where I like it best.
But first, time to gear up.
THE SWIMBAIT RIG
I went straight to my weedless, snagless swimbait rig.
Battlestar 5" Rib Bait.
1/2 oz XLS Weighted Swimbait Hook.
1/8 oz Tungsten Flipping Weight in front of it.
5/8 oz total.
Why 5/8?
I experimented a few days earlier.
The 1 oz got snagged.
The 3/4 oz got snagged.
The 5/8 oz did not.
"If I need more weight, I'll add more weight."
FINDING THE WAY DOWN
First things first.
Which trail gets me to the water?
I pulled up the Apple Note with my GPS coordinates.
Wrong path.
Back up. Try another.
Then the right one.
And the water looked unreal.
So clear.
I wanted to start casting from the top.
But the shoes weren't gripping as well as I'd hoped.
So I took it nice and easy.
Then I checked the tide.
High tide was at 2:52.
It was 4:30.
Outgoing, and sunset was coming.
Not the best tide.
But workable.
LISTENING TO MY GUT
There was a rock I wanted to hop to.
I climbed over to take a look.
"Something tells me don't do this. I'm not going to do it. I got to listen to my gut right now."
So I stayed put.
Sometimes the best decision is the one you don't make.
THE KELP MIRACLE
Then something happened that I've never experienced in all my years of fishing.
I worked my swimbait all the way down into the kelp.
Let it drag all over the place.
Then gently popped it back out.
Pop, pop, pop, and sink.
Pop, pop, pop, and sink.
Every instinct says jerk hard.
But if I jerk hard, I'm setting the hook on the kelp.
So I pop it gently.
Gently.
Gently.
And it just comes right out.
Even with the hook tip exposed.
"That to me is a freaking miracle."
And it wasn't the first time.
It was a theme.
You can do this with bull kelp.
DAY ONE: NO BITES
I wasn't seeing sea lions.
No seals.
No dolphins.
No pelicans.
No birds.
But wasn't willing to give up yet. I had yet to cast from the rock I intended to fish off in the first place.
To reach my casting rock, I waited for the swell to ease up, then sneaked across.
Remember, the tide was going out.
Don't do this when the tide is coming in.
You could get trapped.
I made my casts.
No bites.
But on the way out, I noticed something about the rocks.
In South Big Sur, there's a lot of shale. Sharp, almost like razor blades.
Here in North Big Sur, it's granite.
Beautiful granite boulders.
Loaded with veins of what's probably quartz.
"It's just absolute artwork."
I even found sea salt, dried in the rock.
I said good night to the ocean.
I had Thursday night, then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning.
Two full days and a couple of half days.
Plenty of opportunity.
So let's go find where we can buy bait, dinner, and a place to camp for the night.
HOURS AND HOURS OF SCOUTING
Back at the car, the real work began.
Big Sur is massive.
Now I know why they call it Big Sur.
So I started mapping out landmarks, north to south.
Then I studied the bottom structure.
When I see something I like, I grab the coordinates and punch them into Google Maps.
See where they land in relationship to my landmarks.
Then drop them into my list, right between two landmarks.
It's a lot of work.
Hours and hours and hours of scouting spots.
But this is part of it.
THE SEARCH FOR SQUID
Good morning.
My first thought: I need squid.
I called everywhere in town.
Decided to hit the fish market.
So I went to Monterey Fish Co.
Wholesale to the public.
They had a box of squid.
Then I spotted the fresh stuff.
It had come in a half hour earlier.
I put the box back and grabbed the fresh squid.
I didn’t have ice to keep it on, but “I don’t think the fish get a tummy ache if the squid gets warm.”
THE WIND
The night before, I'd narrowed it down to two spots with my buddies.
Then I stepped outside.
The wind damn near tore my door off!
It was disorienting.
So I made a game plan.
First, eat.
Hunger is a distraction.
Peanut butter and apricot preserves.
Then, stay warm.
If you get cold, it's really difficult to regain your body heat.
So before prepping anything, I put on my jersey and my fishing jacket.
Then I could finish gearing up.
One step at a time.
THE POINT, THE CAVE, AND THE SPEARFISHERMEN
I found a little footpath down toward a point.
There was a specific rock I wanted to stand on.
Along the way, a cave with water dumping through it.
Then a gap in the reef, like an alleyway.
And a couple of spearfishermen.
That's a good sign.
The granite was great for walking on.
My feet stuck to it, as long as it was dry.
"Yes, we made it to the rock."
I rigged up 4 ounces of lead, threw out some squid, and waited for the magic.
But the wind was too much.
Then I remembered something.
There's a point to the south.
On the other side of that bluff, the wind goes right over the top.
Protected.
And if anything, it would help me cast.
So I walked down to the end of the point.
"It's so calm right here. There's no wind at all. This is exactly the spot."
THE EL NINO PROBLEM
Then the doubts crept in.
"I'm getting really discouraged. I just feel like I'm never going to get bit."
Session after session after session.
No bites.
This year is an El Nino year.
Warm water.
Yellowtail and all kinds of weird fish showing up.
The guys on the boats are doing really well.
The guys on shore are striking out.
So I started wondering.
Maybe the rockfish went deeper, to cooler water.
Maybe they're just out of reach.
It's September.
December through February is prime time, when they come in shallow to spawn.
But right now?
Not even a perch or a leopard shark.
ROGUE WAVES
Then I looked up.
A massive wave.
My rod was all the way over there.
I grabbed my things and backed up.
It had been so calm.
Then, out of nowhere, a big set came in.
I waited for it to settle, made a run, and grabbed my rod.
That was alarming.
But this was the perfect chance to share an important lesson with my audience.
Look at the wet rocks versus the dry rocks.
Wet, then dry.
Wet, then dry.
That line shows you how far the waves are reaching.
And as the tide rises, a big set will push that line higher.
So stay on the dry rock.
If the tide is rising, back up even more.
Stay in just the right spot so you don't get wiped out.
THE LITTLE FISH IN THE TIDE POOLS
In the tide pools, I spotted tiny fish.
A lot of them.
They looked like baby lingcod to me.
I'm not sure what they were.
But I noticed they travel in pairs.
One moves, the other follows.
Sometimes they come together and do a little dance.
Like they're playing.
THE LUMPY BED
The wind was blowing.
The bite was dead.
And there was no other south-facing protected spot to fish from. Man, I was exhausted, just trying to save some energy on this oddly shaped rock, baking in the sun.
So I made a bed.
My fishing jacket.
The towel from the bottom of my backpack.
"I don't think Mr. Hilton would approve, but for this old fisherman, this ought to do."
Extra firm.
Extra lumpy.
I felt like Tom Hanks on that island.
Wilson! Willlsooooooonn!
While I rested, I stared at my rod tip, hoping for a bite to save the day. No Such Luck.
Eventually, I decided the bite wasn’t happening here and left. On my way out of this area I noticed boulders embedded in the reef.
Breaking free.
Getting tumbled by the surf.
I don't understand why the stone changes quality from one side of this little canyon to the other.
I'd love to hear a geologist explain it!
SPOT TWO: THE OVERGROWN POINT
Spot two was one my friend Mickey picked out for me the night before.
The wind was still ripping.
So I brushed my teeth.
Took a nap.
Then, with the wind a bit calmer, I headed down.
Poison oak on both sides.
Ticks on my mind.
And brush so thick I didn't want to push through it in jeans and sneakers.
"If I was wearing my waders, I wouldn't mind."
I tried another way.
Slippery rock.
A bottleneck.
And I never made it out to the end of the point.
So I fished the cove.
A whole squid.
Twenty minutes.
Nothing.
I knew I was wasting my time.
THE LESSON
On the walk out, it hit me.
If I had just walked over and looked at the trail first, I would have seen the brush.
I would have put on my waders.
And that would have been a game-changing decision. I could have pushed through the brush and accessed the point I wanted to fish off.
The lesson: visually scope out the trail before you gear up.
It's little lessons like this.
If you apply them, and keep rolling forward with every lesson you learn, you're going to get good.
That's how you get good.
I WANT A LINGCOD
Here's where we were.
Two great-looking spots with squid.
No bites.
The water seemed dead to me.
No baitfish.
No birds.
No seals.
One otter.
But a spearfisherman told me there were a lot of fish in the water.
I should have asked what kind.
I could have driven north to Santa Cruz and fished sandy beaches for perch, striped bass, and halibut.
But I didn't want that.
"I want the freaking rockfish, dude. I want a lingcod."
So I wasn't going to change games.
I wasn't going to give up.
"This is what happens when you go on a mission. You just don't know what's going to happen. But you have to take it one step at a time, adapt, and persevere."
DAY THREE: GEOLOGY ABOVE AND BELOW
The next morning, I got another bag of squid.
And the night before, I'd found something very interesting on the maps.
The wind usually picks up around 11.
If it did, I'd look for a protected spot.
If not, today would be a scouting mission.
And that would be okay too.
"I can't say, 'Hey guys, I'm going to catch a lingcod today.' That's not realistic. All I can do is keep trying, one step at a time, one day at a time."
Driving over one of those classic Big Sur bridges, I looked at the cliffs.
Sheer.
Then I remembered the offshore contour I saw on C-MAP the night before.
Deep canyons, just offshore.
The same thing happening above the water is happening below it.
Underwater canyons.
Underwater reefs.
And the same rocks and cliffs, on land.
That's the fun part of fishing for me.
How the geology meets the marine biology.
And along the way:
An estuary with a river outlet.
A striper mecca.
A lighthouse way up on a rock.
A forest of trees I couldn't identify.
So beautiful it made my heart skip.
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
I love being on adventures like this.
And I'm so stoked about what I did.
Quitting the usual path.
Turning a Toyota Prius into a camper.
Traveling the California coast, making fishing videos.
Nobody told me to do that.
That was me following my heart.
People will tell you what they think you should do.
If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
Nobody can see what's inside your heart.
So make your own choices.
Make your own mistakes.
Learn from them.
Chase your dreams.
SEARCHING FOR A WAY DOWN
Then I looked over the edge.
It was terrifying.
And I wondered, how am I going to get down to the water?
I parked at the first pulloff and started walking the road.
Miles of shoreline to search.
No trail in sight.
And I don't want to bust out the ropes and start rappelling.
I was out here alone, with no emergency beacon.
If something went wrong, I couldn't push a button and call the Coast Guard.
So I had to dial it back.
I can't push myself to 100%.
I'm keeping it at about 70%.
Then I spotted a person fishing off a rock right where I wanted to go.
"There is a way down, guys."
I pulled over at every turnoff and searched.
Some footpaths were just people looking over the cliff.
Some were bathroom breaks.
The drone stayed in the bag, since it's a no drone zone right now.
Then barbed wire.
A locked gate.
Possibly private property.
"I'm not going to cross private property markers."
I scouted the whole roadway.
Finally, I found a public access location.
And I decided to fish from there for the rest of the day.
THE SQUID WEAVE
There was a creek running nearby.
Fresh water, grass, deer.
Which means ticks.
So I stayed clear of the vegetation.
Then I rigged my bait.
Something a little different.
I bent the squid head down against the body.
Then went right behind the eyes with my hook.
That way I could use the whole squid.
Then I wrapped it with magic thread.
Wove the hook tip through the threads, out and back down.
It wasn't coming off.
I didn't even wash my hands.
I let them get squiddy.
First cast, I was probably in the reef.
Not where I wanted to be.
So I walked down, launched it into the middle of the little cove, and walked back up.
Bait deployed.
Now we wait.
FISH ON
"Oh, that felt like a nibble. What was that?"
Then again.
"That's a bite. That's a bite. Oh yeah. That's fish on!"
I fought him from the rocks for a second to get him past the reef.
Then I scrambled down.
"Is that what I think it is, dude?"
"It's a nice ling. It's a freaking keeper."
"I caught my first lingcod from shore."
Green and orange.
So beautiful.
After three days.
Two spots with no bites.
One overgrown trail.
Rogue waves.
And a lot of searching.
A QUARTER INCH SHORT
Before I put my fingers in his gills, I measured him.
I think it's exactly 22.
But to keep a fish, you have to absolutely confirm it.
So I tried to find a flat surface for the tape.
The tail reaches 22.
But it might be a quarter inch short.
So I released him.
"Send it."
"First lingcod caught from shore, guys. And it was a quarter inch short."
No regrets.
That's fishing.
WHAT I LEARNED
Three days.
Three lessons.
Scout the trail before you gear up.
Listen to your gut.
Watch the wet line on the rocks.
And keep searching and fishing until the magic happens.
I'm just getting started with North Big Sur.
And I'm bringing you with me.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you on the next episode.
"Fish safe, fish hard, fish legal, chase your dreams."
GEAR FROM THIS TRIP
And, Fresh squid from Monterey Fish Co 160 Municipal Wharf 2, Monterey, CA 93940
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