About Sail Rock

Sail Rock is an outer-exposed rocky drop-off off Half Moon Bay, where the bottom falls from 260 to 660 feet along broken rock structure. Chinook Salmon move through in numbers from March to August, with trolling anchovies, spoons, flashers, and hoochies working the water column and mooching whole anchovies or sardines behind banana weights as a supporting tactic. Lingcod hold tight to the rock and peak from February to March and again from August to October, taking metal jigs, leadhead jigs with swimbaits, and shrimp flies, along with live sanddabs or mackerel and drifted cut bait. Black Rockfish stack over the structure from March and through May to September, responding to jigged metal and swimbaits or dropshotted plastic grubs, while Cabezon come off the bottom from April to May and July to October on squid, shrimp, and cut bait. The steep contour and rock bottom concentrate fish along the edges, making the transition between the shallower crest and the deeper drop the key zone to work.