Newbie questions

Hello everyone!

I am kind of new around here... Anyways, I wrote a thing in the intro, but my name is Cliff and I am pretty much new to kayak fishing/diving.

I live in Salem, Or and dive/fish out of a Cobra Tandem (with my girlfriend).

Anyways, I have a ton of questions since I am pretty new to this, I was hoping maybe some of you guys could help me out with some of them?

So when you go out to the ocean to fish/dive, do you have to time it with the tides? For example, go out with the low, come in with the high... Or can you pretty much just head out at anytime?

Also, if you don't have a fishfinder, how do you find a reef or know where to start fishing at?
For example, I went out of pacific city, and paddled out to haystack, but it was difficult to find a spot to fish/dive, and I ended up diving right next to the rock itself. However, if we were to try fishing, how would we know where to drop in and get our lines wet?

I have a bunch of other questions too, but gotta get some sleep...

Thanks in advance,

Cliff

I have never owned a fishfinder.....so I look at where the smokers are fishing in closer than most other boats for finding the underwater structures. I also fish with friends on power boats and mentally log in what I think is doable in my yak. Also, most any wash rock is just the tip of a small reef, and usually holding fish. Here in Brookings, I look for (and find) lings hanging at the edge of kelp beds close to wash rocks.
 as for timing with the tides...I try to fish 2 hours before high tide and come in about 2 hours after high tide. 

Cliff.. great to see you made it over here.  Lots of good info and experience floating around NWKA and with luck a few more divers!

Tides are not that important when surf launching.  For some locations they can effect where the break is and thus the ease of launch but for places like PC its not really an issue. 

My advice would be to pick up a basic depth finder with GPS.  Depth finder is really useful and almost a requirement in my book, plus it makes finding the high spots for spearing easy.  GPS not only allows you to mark good locations (critical for diving) but also allows you a level of safety when the fog rolls in.  Watch the sales and decent models can be found in the ballpark of $200