Started the day off at San Francisco's Pier 7 around 11am and fished till 2pm. I took the ferry from the East Bay and made the short walk over to the pier. I was taking to heart the principle of fishing for the fish that are there...not necessarily the fish you wish were there (although I did a little bit of that too). Pretty sure I was the only fisherman there who spoke English, so I got all the questions from curious tourists; it's fun to chat with people from all around the world.
Getting there at high tide, I threw out 2 crab snares and immediately caught 5 crabs on about 10 casts - all sub-4" red rock crabs. They're devilishly good at stealing bait from snares. Interestingly, I only caught one of them in the snare loops, the rest just wouldn't let go of the squid. Lesson learned - bring some type of crab pot next time...snares weren't very effective.
There were around 8-10 other fishermen out there, all fishing large bobbers. Nobody was catching, so I can only assume they were targeting jacksmelt. Many appeared to be subsistence fishermen, but everybody was nice. I eventually threw out anchovies on one pole hoping for a halibut and whole squid on the other hoping for a shark or ray - no takers, unless you count the crabs (or ???) that devoured my bait.
Downsides: Pretty much every bench there, and the pier itself, smell strongly of urine. There were some homeless flopped-out on some of the benches, and a guy hanging out smoking pot and blasting music (I'll give you a hint: it wasn't Wagner).
Given all the negatives, it was still a reasonably pleasant day by the water.
Getting there at high tide, I threw out 2 crab snares and immediately caught 5 crabs on about 10 casts - all sub-4" red rock crabs. They're devilishly good at stealing bait from snares. Interestingly, I only caught one of them in the snare loops, the rest just wouldn't let go of the squid. Lesson learned - bring some type of crab pot next time...snares weren't very effective.
There were around 8-10 other fishermen out there, all fishing large bobbers. Nobody was catching, so I can only assume they were targeting jacksmelt. Many appeared to be subsistence fishermen, but everybody was nice. I eventually threw out anchovies on one pole hoping for a halibut and whole squid on the other hoping for a shark or ray - no takers, unless you count the crabs (or ???) that devoured my bait.
Downsides: Pretty much every bench there, and the pier itself, smell strongly of urine. There were some homeless flopped-out on some of the benches, and a guy hanging out smoking pot and blasting music (I'll give you a hint: it wasn't Wagner).
Given all the negatives, it was still a reasonably pleasant day by the water.
