Heading Up North!

[Salty]

Hey all! Hope everyone's doing well. I'm in need of some advice or suggestions for an upcoming trip...

So a buddy and I are heading up to NorCal next week for camping trip. We're bringing our kayaks and gear(both have 2020 Outbacks and will be including waterproof and cold-weather clothes in our bags) and have a few places we're already planning on hitting. The whole trip isn't just for fishing. We'll be doing some hiking/landscape photography as well. But if we can get our kayaks in the water 2-3 times, we'd be stoked. Not planning on keeping any fish unless we get a killer halibut, a fat lingcod or a lucky(legal) salmon or something. Bringing devices to release rockfish at depth too, though we're likely not going to be targeting anything too deep anyway.

So here's my biggest issue: We've never kayaked up that way before. We're aware it's a different world up there. Been there many times, but never on a kayak. Wind, waves, currents, weather are all amplified x 100. So far, the weather looks good for the trip, but the swell is going to be a BIG problem... Literally. Long-term forecast in the region is calling for a huge NW swell, generating waves of over 10-20 feet along most of the coast and bigger in some spots while we'll be there. That means most of of our plans for a reasonable beach launch are probably going out the window...

One of the places we were looking to try first was San Simeon. Looks like the beach is pretty sheltered from a NW swell at least up North inside of the point. Anyone have experience fishing in this area? If that swell is going to be thumping on the North end of the beach, we may just skip it and keep booking it up North to the Monterey Bay area and stick to protected bays or harbors. Want to have some fun and get away, not get myself killed in the process.

Montana de Oro was on our list since I've camped there before. But I know that beach launch will likely not be safe(or smart) when the local swells are calling double-overhead.

Our furthest North destination is a tiny primitive campsite about 30 miles North of Fort Bragg(won't be fishing that spot as a beach launch would be like paddling through Pipeline with this swell...). If anybody has any suggestions for a place to safely get a kayak in the water between LA and Fort Bragg, I'd be extremely grateful. If a campsite is nearby, even better, but we're planning on putting some miles on the truck anyway so that's not a huge deal. Again, not looking for any secret honey-hole numbers. Just general launching areas or local advice. I know there are guys here that have forgotten more kayak fishing knowledge than I currently have accumulated. So any bits or pieces of that knowledge from anyone that's fished this region would mean a lot.

Thanks everyone!

Eric