Went to Elephant Rock with my father and a few of my friends. Got there at around 11, in anticipation of a high tide at 1:30 or so. The wind was up a bit and the water was cloudy. Over the next two hours, using cut salted anchovies (my deepest appreciation to those authors of the archived posts on how to salt anchovies) we caught about seven rockfish, six of which were released. Didn’t catch anything else, either. Well, except for a crab and a bullhead.
As for stripers, when we arrived there were about nine anglers tossing hair raisers and what-not in a stretch of about twenty five feet of brick-a-brack, about sixty feet to the right of the pier. Not sure why everyone was packed in so close to one another. One good-sized striper (24-26”) was observed floating in the water in front of them. We also observed this group catch a ray, which was released.
At around 2pm, as we were packing up to leave, a man told us that he had seen anglers on the brick-a-brack catching limits of striped bass and then going home. When asked the time this was observed, it was said this was observed around noon. The veracity of this report is judged to be questionable, since we were at the pier by 11 and nothing was doing. It was concluded that this individual was probably an enemy agent and his information should be disregarded.
There was also one young guy tossing a lure from an Ugly Stik and who said he had gotten a bite from a halibut. All in all, nice day. On the continuum of fishing satisfaction, this trip fell somewhere in-between “why did I bother?” and “best trip ever,” more towards the former, but definitely not the latter.
Rainbow Seaperch
Date: June 17, 2002; To: PFIC Message Board; From: cougar; Subject: Elephant Rock Pier
Living in Berkeley and having some business to do in San Fran today…packed a grungy t-shirt and shorts…decided to hit Tiburon for the first time…from 5-7:30pm…just a smidgen of a different atmosphere from Richmond piers… is it Caprieeee… restaurant like the car or caprice? After investing in a 50-pd. max fish weigh scale…parked across the St. wandered down to the rock…what a beautiful spot, tides a churning, flung 1 pole w/ one 10/0 hk and 1/2 a sardine (tail)…1/2 hr later as stinky and sinker would say zzzzzzz 747 take off… 20 min later walking rig over to rock landing next 2 caprieeeeee… a 42 pd. ray… released unharmed…1hr later zzzzzzz 747 headed to the far east…..same deal got to rock landing people eating in rest… noses to the window… maxes out scale… pliers handy, hk out and released…Chinese lady present wanted the wings, but w/folks chomping on their 30$ steaks didn’t think it was wise to carve up this great animal w/ my pocket knife….Bay Bridge, Golden Gate, and now…
Small cabezon
Date: July 7, 2002; To: PFIC Message Board; From: bigfootsf; Subject: Elephant Rock Pier
I went to Elephant Rock this afternoon with a few friends. We fished cut anchovies from the left side of the pier, and ended up hauling up the usual suspects: several (very) small rockfish, a cabezon, about three perch (silver and barred)…and one fish I can’t quite identify. The photo is below. The color was striking, the same color as the local kelp. Very pretty fish. Anyone have any idea what it is?
We also had a rather bad experience with a family of fishing jerks that shared the pier with us. There were six of them: three sons, the mother and father, and what I would guess was an uncle. They set up their spread on the right side of the pier (we saw them coming and staked out the left half for ourselves). They were fishing squid, anchovies, and whole shrimp.
The first fish they caught was a rockfish, approximately THREE inches long. I saw them haul it up, unhook it…and then throw it into a bucket. I was incredulous. I said out loud to the closest one in their family, one of the kids,
“You gotta be kidding me.” I said.
“What?” The kid said.
“You’re keeping that fish?” I didn’t want to give the kid a hard time, but I was genuinely shocked.
“I dunno,” the kid said, then walked off. Shortly afterward he left the spot and went to fish on the other side of the pier.
I recognize that there is no limit on such rockfish, but at the same time, I was beginning to figure out why there were no decent-sized rockfish to be caught there. Generally, I go to great pains to leave people alone while fishing. But this was making me angry.
Some time later, the father caught a small (4”) striped perch. His family marveled at it…and then threw it in the bucket. I spoke up and told them that it was illegal to keep perch. They started talking to me in… well, people get edgy when you identify race on this board, so let’s just say I didn’t understand their language (though they thought I might, which is a clue in and of itself for those who have met me.) They acted confused, then acted as though they got it, and the mother did a half-smile and moved towards the bucket as though she was going to release it. I stopped paying attention, until a few moments later I realized she was shoveling all of their fish (including two 3” rockfish and a 5” rockfish) into a plastic bag. She scurried off with the bag to the car. Inside the bag, I have no doubt, was the perch.
We had to stop them from poaching two more times, once on an under-sized crab and the second time on yet another perch, a nice barred one. I was starting to lose patience with these people. I told them that you couldn’t take perch until after July 31st. They kept trying to talk to me in, er, their language, though I know for a fact that the kids spoke English. I finally got the point across, and the woman put the fish down to take the hook out, and then, feeling my eyes burn holes in the top of the head, gradually gave in and tossed the fish over the side. I watched her wait for me to turn away again, but I wasn’t having that. The fish went over the side and I left her alone. She looked kind of disgusted with me, which made me feel really good.
The great thing about this is that, aside from the 5″ rockfish (which was no catch in and of itself) we completely outfished them. We caught more fish in more varieties, and caught quite a few keeper perch. And we released EVERYTHING (in good shape, mind you) and made a big show of it. “Oh, look at this beautiful fish I caught! I think I will let it go!” I could feel the envy from the right side of the pier. I dislike triumphalism, but in this case I found myself relishing it. IN! YOUR! FACE! POACHERS!
These people really made me angry. Not only were they deliberately breaking the law, they were doing so in front of their kids. They were also using language as an excuse in breaking the law. And they were keeping THREE INCH ROCKFISH! There was maybe two teaspoonfuls of meat on each of those fish. How much meat are you going to get off a four-inch perch? What’s the point? They were just incredibly stupid, wasteful, and ignorant. It’s people like them, whether they’re wearing a suit and tie and skirting clean air laws, or fishing illegally and recklessly, that are screwing up my planet, and they all better knock it off soon and fly right, or they’re all going to hear from me soon.
Rock crab
Date: July 26, 2002; To: PFIC Message Board; From: bigfootsf; Subject: Not a whole lot going on at Elephant Rock
I spent most of today at Elephant Rock, fishing with the ex-boss in the morning, and then solo in the afternoon. Very slow, I picked up one tiny rockfish for about five hours of fishing. Sigh. However, there are some mentionables/items of interest/questions I’ve culled from the day:
- I met some guy who was fishing the pier for a while, we were talking, and he seemed to know a great deal about fishing, particularly Ben Lomond, where he’s had good luck with pearl-colored Storm swimbaits for striped bass. He also mentioned actually seeing striped bass school underneath Elephant Rock. As I left to get some lunch, I saw him rig up his line with a leader with about five large stainless steel hooks attached to it. It looked like something out of the “Hellraiser” horror films. I asked him about it, he said it was a good rig for stripers, jacksmelt, whatever, his voice kind of drifted off. I didn’t press and I left. I don’t know the law on hooks, really, all I know is that I never use more than two. Kinda felt like he was on the other side of the law on that one. Anyone set me straight on that?
- After lunch, I returned to see Captain Hook had been replaced by three other people, a man in his twenties and two twelve year old boys. At first I thought oh great, another delightful day of fishing with poachers. I chatted with the older guy a bit, it turns out he knows perch are no-take for another week, and I begin to think he’s ok. The kids are busy hauling up jacksmelt. After a while, he gets a small bat ray, and then another, a larger one. Takes him a while to fight it, it’s a real fighter. He gets it under the pier and then suddenly hollers for me to take the rod so he can land it in his crab net. I think, “Oh #$*&”: I’ve never fought a bat ray before. I grab the rod anyway, keep the tip up, follow it when it moves, and keep reeling the line in when the thing starts to run. Jeez, what a workout. After five minutes, I want to hand the rod to someone else. Eventually we get the ray up on the deck. He says it’s forty pounds, but I think it’s more like thirty. The wingspan is probably about 36”.
The guy pops the hook out (which has been bent considerably out of it’s original shape), the fish is in good condition. I tell myself now is not the time to interfere, he caught the fish, it’s his business, and whatever he wants to do with twenty pounds of meat that has to be soaked in lemon juice or vinegar or whatever and that just tastes like imitation scallops is up to him. I go back to my rod.
A few minutes later, I notice he hasn’t budged the ray out of the crab net. I get up to look at it, and the stinger is missing, apparently he cut it off. He’s talking with a couple of spectators, and I hear him say, “I don’t know what to do with it!” I point out it’s still in the net and we could just heave it back over the side into the water (it’s about a ten foot drop.) He quickly agrees, we grab the crab net rings and lift it up, and it goes back into the water. I’m not sure what its chances of surviving are without the stinger (the rest of the tail was uncut), but otherwise it was in good shape.
- After he had landed the ray, one of the kids who was with the guy grabbed a filet knife and asked if he could stab the ray because it was “really fun”. I was horrified. To my relief, the guy said no. The kid was disappointed. Throughout his stay on the pier, the kid wanted to stab fish, even little jacksmelt they were catching. To their great credit, the other kid and the guy weren’t having it: once the other kid was holding a fish, and stab-boy came along with the filet knife and tried to stab it, whereupon the other kid let it fall between the metal planks of the pier floor back into the water.
I fear this new generation, with their blood and gore first person shooter games (not heady games like the great WASTELAND), taste for actual violence as entertainment, complete lack of empathy, antipathy to everything, and desensitized to anything that doesn’t happen to them personally.
Date: August 19, 2018; To: Ken Jones; From: Bob Griffin: Subject: Re; Elephant Rock Pier
Posted by Ken Jones — Perhaps a freight train?
Date: September 19, 1018; To: PFIC Message Board; From: MattShock; Subject: Elephant Rock
Left Reno with wife in tow at 01:30 and had live bait and rods in the water at Fort Baker (yet again…) by 0630. Set up was the same: one rod for salmon, another with a 3-way rig for “Halipers,” and my wife’s two rods with high/low for anything and everything. The Fort Baker grind was a tough one. The water was nice and clear, small tides, and the wind was bearable…but the fish didn’t seem to get the memo for the day. Managed a few small brown rockfish on a Carolina rig and white curly tail grub. Also managed a nice, electric blue lingcod off the deep end on the high/low, but he was undersized so released after the photo op. No bites whatsoever on the salmon trolley, or the other live bait rigs. Fished inshore, mid-way, deep end, ocean side, marina side… you name it, I fished it. I even cast some rigs underneath the pier into the pilings with no result. Decided to change location at about 1530 and head to Elephant Rock.