When February rolls around it’s time to think halibut in the bay and one of the best spots to hunt or fish for them is around Big Rock. Bass are starting to bite about now, too. This area of the coast is great for spear fishing or for dangling bait and drifting offshore, especially for the larger halibut that come into shallow water to spawn about this time of year. Diving or fishing this part of the coast can be very rewarding, and I highly recommend that you give it a try.
Beach Access for Divers One drawback along this shoreline is limited access to the beach from the road. However, there are public access gates just north of Big Rock and just south of Moonshadows Restaurant. You can also walk under the highway bridge at Las Flores Creek, and if you’re lucky you might find an open gate at one of the apartments along there, too. There are stretches of sand between pebble beach areas that make for an easy surf entry unless the surf is up. If it is, wait for a calm day because the visibility sucks during a large swell. It’s an easy kayak trip up from Las Tunas Canyon public beach, but a longer haul for boats out of Marina Del Rey.
Diving Halibut love to hang around the edges between and outside the offshore rocks south of Las Flores, in the sand between the structures at Moonshadows reef, and just outside and along the edges of the large rocks south of Big Rock. If I was beach diving, I would work the sand along the edges of any of these areas for halibut. If I wanted bass, I’d dive in the larger rocks south of Las Floras or on Moonshadows reef. Both are a fair ways out so consider towing a float to make it an easier ride back to shore. If I had a kayak, or if I was diving from a boat, I’d drift dive one way through any of these same areas, but I’d concentrate on the deeper edges along the outside of these structures for halibut, or through the middle of them for bass. Oh, I should mention that these are great spots for lobsters too, especially along Moonshadows reef (the exact coordinates can be found in my Santa Monica Bay Diving and Fishing Log).
Fishing When I was a lad working weekends and summers on fishing boats out of Pacific Ocean Park and later from Santa Monica Sport Fishing, we’d spend a lot of time during February and March drifting for halibut through this area. Afternoons would be best after the sea breeze comes up to enhance your drift and let you cover more ground. The sand and mud bottom between 40 and 60 feet of water brought the best results. My favorite drift was to start outside of Moonshadows and let the prevailing west wind push us down to just past Big Rock. We made some excellent catches of large flatties along here, and maybe you can do the same.
The rock structures at Las Flores and Moonshadows hold fair populations of sand bass with a few calicos mixed in. Sheephead hang around Moonshadows in fair numbers, too. Both of these areas produce well when the fish feel like biting, and they’re worth checking out for bass from time to time, especially later in the year when the water warms up. I love this stretch of the coastline, and once you try it I think you will too.