I lived and fished the SF area for 14 years, so I have some firsthand experience. In the mid 80's it was decent fishing with fish to about the mid 20's, but mostly smaller. I fished the open beaches in SF proper but there were guys who fished south of the city off the cliffs and on the rocks that did very well on surface plugs. In the mid 90's fishing went in the crapper and it was hardly worth investing in a new spool of mono.
It is almost all daytime fishing and its mostly 'Mickys' a fairly large metal in a Charlie Graves style. Hair raisers which is a bucktail and various surface plugs: PP, pikies, darters and poppers.
The wind never stops blowing in your face and sorry to disagree with you Throwin Timber
but its a pea soup fog there most of the time and that is as humid as it gets. I've been away for a few years and things have improved. Oh also the normal surf has 4 or 5 waves breaking at all times, it is like a storm surf on the east coast and the waves usually fairly large.
Hybrid Mode
