Anybody remember the old Treasure Island Pier?

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#1
Treasure Island Pier

Treasure.Island.Pier_batangpinoy.jpg
Date: May 22, 2011
To: PFIC Message Board
From: batangpinoy
Subject: Treasure Island Pier


It's sad to see a great pier for a variety of fish that can get caught go to waste. Caught my First Salmon, Halibut and Biggest Striped Bass here when my dad used to be stationed here in 1994.

Posted by Crass

Its' definitely one local pier I’d like to see rebuilt

Posted by Ken Jones

Wish I could have fished that pier...but never did.

Posted by Crass

With the way it looks these days I’d hope nobody would still try! Making pipe bombs would probably be safer

Posted by kyosanyn

Wow! I would have loved fishing that pier. Great view of the city.

Posted by batangpinoy

You would have loved it Ken.

Treasure.Island.jpg

Posted by Ing

Is it closed or still available?

Posted by batangpinoy

Actually I fished at the end of the pier last month. The right corner end of the pier is what I like to call "Ray Corner" all you catch in that corner is Bat Ray's. Right middle of the pier is your Striped Bass, Halibut, Salmon and Rockfish Side. Left Side when in season is your baitfish side—anchovies, sardines, herring shiners and your occasional Mackerel. Also Perch is caught all around the Pier. I miss that pier so much. It’s now condemned. Cops kicked me off when the saw me on the pier. Can't even Fish at your own Risk on that pier.

Posted by sfbayman

Hey, Batang...I have you one better. I fished that pier in the late 60s and on. Back then, the pier had an "L" shape as it made an almost 90 degree turn to the left. The right corner all the way to the end of the pier facing the City had the best shark and ray fishing anywhere in the bay as it is DEEP. My first 7 gill was caught there. Huge perch were caught almost everywhere by going under the pier and catching the numerous sand crab for bait that inhabited the rocks. The biggest halibut I ever caught weighed over 35 lbs and was caught on the left hand side of the pier using top smelt on a floater. It was not uncommon to limit out on halibut in March and April as well as full limits of huge red/rock crab. I recently tried plugging the rocks next to the pier for halibut and striper and didn't get a strike. I also tried previously this year after fishing with some of the board members back in April on TI for nada as well.

Posted by ing

Fort Point pier in the SF is following a fortune of Treasure Island Pier. It is destroying scary fast. At now already difficult to walk. Why muni doesn't care? That great place is attracting a lot of people for recreation, fishing, crabbing and tourism. Are they waiting for complete destroying and after close it at all?
 

Red Fish

Senior Member
#2
What Ing said about Fort Point aka Torpedo Wharf Ken. I couldn’t hardly roll my “granny cart” to the end of the L the one ☝️ time I went this year. The last time I believe I went on there was when you came out with black bass Bob’s daughter when she was doing that travel show that was part fishing called “Hooking Up With Mariko Izumi.” She is probably married with little ones now.
Yeah, that’s scary that TI Pier was never rebuilt which puts the fear in me that others like Berkeley may be on the road to “Gone but not forgotten!”
 
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Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#3
Piers and fishing do not rate high on the list of needed infrastructure projects although in my opinion, and YES I am biased, they are still one of the best family venues.
 

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#6
And then there was this proposal from a couple of years ago... don't know its status but given the money crunch.

Bay Bridge officials planning $18 million fishing pier to lure sightseers

San Francisco Chronicle By Matier & Ross, January 21, 2018

Treasure island Pier.jpg
New $15 million fishing pier being planned for the base of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge off Yerba Buena Island. Photo: Matier & Ross, Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Bait your lines, boys and girls — Bay Bridge officials want to build an $18 million fishing and sightseeing pier at the base of the eastern span where it meets Yerba Buena Island.

“People would get a new parklike amenity with access to the bay — a thing everyone loves,” said Metropolitan Transportation Commission spokesman Randy Rentschler.

And while some may view a 6,000-square-foot sightseeing platform — connected by a 120-foot-long, 15-foot-wide walkway to the backside of a little-traveled island — as a boondoggle, bridge officials say it’s actually a bargain.

In fact, it may even save money.

Here’s the story:

To obtain the federal, state and local permits needed for the new eastern span, builders had to agree to take down the old span’s foundation piers — all the way to the bottom of the bay.

“They call it demo below the mud line,” Rentschler said.

So for the past year, bridge crews have been setting off underwater charges to implode the old piers at a cost of $94 million.

The problem is that the final pier, adjacent to Yerba Buena, is too big and too close to the island to implode safely.

The cost of demolishing the pier piece by piece would be at least $15 million.

So, bridge officials are proposing to keep the underwater portion intact and put a fishing and sightseeing pier on top.

“Keeping the pier would save money and save us several months of jackhammer demolition,” Rentschler said.

As for leaving the concrete piers just as they are?

“We can’t,” Rentschler said. “The rules are the rules.”