Date: January 15, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: DSRTEGL
Subject: Paradise Pier 1/15- Slow
And very, VERY, cold! BRRRR!! I was wearing thermals as well. Fished for only a couple of hours before numb hands made me give up in disgust. Only two sanddabs caught off the pier that whole time for about 15 rods. That's right... I said sanddabs off Paradise!!!?????.... Funny, there were quite a few invisible fishermen out there today it seems. The Park Ranger was giving a nod to keep an eye out. Not one bite other than a couple of crab wiggles for me.
Date: March 26, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier
Got to Paradise about 8AM. First fish on ghost shrimp was a 13-inch calico perch! I was so happy with it I kept it. I don't usually keep perch but this one was worth keeping. About 15 minutes later I get a big take down. Mr. sturgy visits me again. A 54-incher, walked to shore. A guy who was there for his AM walk helped me out. I had to climb down the cement blocks on the side of the pier to scoop the fish up. What a nice surprise. JTF69 and Redfish joined me in the PM. I also caught a 20-inch striper and a couple of medium sized rays. Pretty darn good day. I ended up bringing all the fish home as I thought JTF wanted the striper but he had to go on a date. Hope he got as lucky as I did. Now I have lots of fish in the fridge. Next week, I think I'll hang out in SF, maybe it’s time to hit the beach!
Date: May 17, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise pier today 5/17
Figured we would try out the pier for some halipers or a stray sturgeon. Got there at about 8a and stayed till about 4p.m. Fished using anchovie pops and squid. Only fish landed was a 21” flounder. Funny thing is that it was caught using an artifical grass shrimp from the Berkeley Big Gulp sample pack that I got. Just tossed it out like reg. bait and let it sit until fish on. The highlight of the day was when my bud caught a shiner and was using it for bait using the Berkeley float rig and got slammed hard and eventually broke off by a huge halibut. It ran straight for the pylon.We never did see it but could hear it slapping it’s big tail under the pier just as it broke off. Then not 5 min later I had thrown out a peeler crab (same big gulp pack) on a sliding rig and a huge striper slammed it. We actually saw it jump and break the surface as it spit out my hook (all in all a great day).
Date: June 22, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Fun day in (at) Paradise. 8AM to 4PM.
Took about 20, less fortunate people who don't normally fish, (to me that's less fortunate), out to spend a day at Paradise Pier and barbeque and fish. The spot didn’t let us down. We caught heckafish. It was bat ray after bat ray, with a few nice stripers thrown in the mix and just about every other kind of ray and shark that hang out in that area. The biggest ray which broke off at the pier was about an 80 to 100 pounder. HUGE sucker! The rest of them were mostly medium sized, 24 to 36 inchers with a bunch of dinks in the mix. It just so happened that KTVU channel 2 news showed up, doing some kind of story on the dwindling fish population, particularly fingerlings. Didn’t quite get the whole story from the guy. Anyways, they did a little interview with me about fishing and the showed me on the news fighting a ray, (which just happened to bite during the interview), but then they cut to me holding up a couple of stripers like that’s what I was fighting. Pretty clever guys, huh? I missed the clip but my wife saw it on TV on the 6 o'clock news. Don’t know if it'll make the 10 o'clock news. It was a beautiful day and the ones who went fishing instead of napping were very content with catching rays and the stripers just added to the excitement. Bait used was fresh dead anchovies. Crabs weren’t much of a problem at all today. I also got to test out some tackle that I had modified, starting with a 505HS Jigmaster that Alan Tani tricked out for me. The reel casts very well, even though I did backlash a couple of times but the spool spins so cleanly that I have to get it dialed in right. I also brought along my Penn 555 that I just had magged and it casts great too. Now I'm all set when I start to target sturgeon
Total fish today: (about 4 to 10 people fishing)
3 stripers at 28, 25 and 23, about 5 or 6 dink stripers.
3 leopard sharks at 48, and 2 about 24 -maybe about 5 small assorted sharks, sand, soupfins or smoothounds?
1 thornback ray about 24 inches
2 skates
Batrays all day long. Too many to keep track of. Once we had a triple hook up going, and another time we had a quadruple hook up.
Also smelt kingfish bullheads, etc.
Don’t know if the full moon last night had anything to do with the great fishing today. Tide was low when we got there and we got a good part of the incoming. All in all, a great day.
Date: July 2, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Caught some nice fish today at Paradise.
It was fun until the wind picked up and blew us off the pier. Fished from 7:00AM till about 2PM. The rays were out but not a whole lot. Just enough to keep us busy. Fished with DSRTEGL, Angrybeav, Kyle and Rita joined us later and 1014 and some of his friends were there. Garammar Police and MountainViewFisher were there too. I must’ve gotten about 5 or 6 brays, the biggest was about 35 or 40 pounds. I also got a 27” striper and a nice leopard, probably about 36”. Rita’s husband barbequed and after we were done fishing we had some great food waiting for us. G-dude had his rod wrapping gizmo at the picnic area and he brought some pot stickers too. Yumyum! The pier was a little crowded today, lot's of other people there too. I didn't participate in any of the rod wrapping, but I really admired some of the rods I saw today. I don’t think I could ever fish with anything like them, at least not the way I beat my stuff up. All in all, a fun day until the wind picked up. Oh yeah, Red showed up fashionably late but it’s all good.
Date: July 24, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: angrybeav
Subject: Pre- Paradise MMGT or hoop net hi-jinx
I got to the pier after 7 a.m. and before I could get set up Mel hooks into this huge ray that takes him from his spot (if you fished at paradise with Mel you know the spot its his) all the way to the other side, the ray then ran for the shore and then back to the pier the ray is huge. So I grab my hoop net and lower it down drop it the last foot right on its head and it gets away. Completely my fault, felt bad all day about it. Mel did catch a nice limit of stipers and I'm sure that made his day a little better. After that hi-jinx I caught a 28# pound ray before the event started. I had a great time congrats Peter.
Date: July 27, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: tacofish
Subject: Paradise Pier
We fished the pier from 11:00 - 3:00pm. Lotza action thoughout the incoming tide. Couldn’t keep up with the bait checks due the number of take downs on six rods and my meager attempt to learn the throw net (again). My wife and son weren’t going to come near the bait box with the swarming of yellow jackets – they’re starting to get really aggressive. So, it was up to me for baiting and casting... it felt good to be their deck dog.
Used calamari for:
6 leppies - none over 30"
4 Rays - none over 10#
1 J-Smelt - On a 7/0 hook!
At least a half a dozen other runs, pharms, or short strikes to throw in the mix. All in all, a busy day!
Date: August 12, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise pier thurs 8/11
Hadn’t been to my favorite pier in about 3 weeks so I thought I'd spend it there with my daughter and a friend who hadn’t fished in over 15 years. Well just as I had suspected, it was a fantastic fishing day. My friend hooked into his first shark, but lost it to the piling gods, lol. I caught about 8 sharks in all. The 2 largest were a 30” smoothhound, and the 46” leppy in the above pic. It was perfect fishing conditions. Nice warm sun, no wind, clear water, and good company.
Date: September 24, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 9-24/Scooby Dooby Derby
(In reply to: Re: Paradise Beach Pier 9-24/Scooby Dooby Derby posted by alantani on Sep-24-05 7:38pm)
I love that Jigmaster! Ihave the 505HS dialed in just right and can launch it pretty good. I caught the 50” leopard shark pictured above with the reel, coupled with a Daiwa 11’ Sealine Surf casting rod. No major backlashes today. It was cool fishing with everyone and it was a great day weather wise, until about 1:30PM when the wind started howling. As far as the derby went, Angrybeav's daughter won it with the striper pictured above. We knew we couldn't compete and didn’t even take our kiddie poles out of the packages. Terrible, ain’t we? A major milestone for me today was my first ever encounter with a bat ray stinger. It sliced me on my finger and hand. The rays stinger was tangled in the net while I was trying to set it free and I stupidly grabbed the back of the tail section to free it. That's what I get. Took a while for the bleeding to stop, and the pain and numbness to subside, and the swelling is almost gone. (Notice the band aid in the pic of me reeling in the leopard). As Red mentioned to me afterwards, Pescare’s idea of a well stocked first aid kit made perfect sense. The swap meet never really developed, as everyone seemed to be more into fishing. At least not until Bcooney showed up with a handful of rods and reels. I got some excellent deals from him on stuff. Thanks Brian! Also a first for me, I never saw a seal actually take a fish off a hook from someone until today. Some guy had a maybe legal striper on the line waiting for a net and the next thing you know, a huge shadow appeared underneath the fish and it started turning white and I thought it might be a huge shark, (I’ve been watching too much shark stuff on TV), but it turned out to be a harbor seal looking for a handout. Took the guys fish and snapped his line the process. The real heroes of the day was Tacofish and his wife. They ended up giving a nice spinning set up to a older handicapped gentleman who fishing on the pier. The guy was so happy he couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear! To Tacofish and wife, a great big WTG! It was cool fishing with everyone today and hope to do it again soon!
Posted by angrybeav
Fished from 7 am to 3 pm. Good fishing most of the day, my daughter was the only one to catch a fish on a Looney Tunes pole (small striper livelining). I caught 3 rays, correct me if I get this wrong Mel caught 1 ray and 1 50” leopord, Mel’s friend caught 1 ray, Redfish caught 1 large smelt which he probably had more fun with because a seal was jumping out of the water for it as it was coming up and I didn’t see if Tacofish caught anything but I’m sure he had a good time I know I did.
Date: October 1, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Fishinchris
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 10-1/ sharaybutt
Fished Paradise from 7 am to 2 pm. I brought a friend, his son, and mother and had a great time. J.P. Bait would only sell live bait to boat customers but sold tray anchovies 5 for 15.00 to poor shore anglers. Total for the day was 4 bat rays for myself 2 for my friend and he caught a 51” leopard shark his son caught 3 smelt. All fish caught on tray anchovies on hi-lo rig. Summer hours for the pier until after DST hope that helps Mel. There was a guy fishing a couple of benches away who caught a sub 15-lb halibut on frozen bag anchovies on a hi-lo. I gave him a net assist since I was the only one with a hoop net. Its really a shame that most people fishing on piers don't bring a net to land their own fish it should be a requirement, And the guy had no stringer or cooler with ice to put it in he just pushed it in the shade for the next 4 hours while he kept fishing, it looked pretty bad when he left.
Date: October 23, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise is pretty slow.
At least it was yesterday. Fished from 7AM to 5PM. Caught a bunch of rays but not a lot, with a lull period in between each one. Towards the end of the day, I was broken off 3 times in a row, the first 2 ran like freight trains, probably big rays. My line I was using hasn’t been changed for a long time, mostly due to my laziness. I’m changing it out this weekend. The last one was a huge leopard, which I managed to get up to the pier but broke off during the netting process. The tide was weird yesterday, and it was a very slow moving afternoon tide. My friend also caught a few rays, and some other people caught smelt and small sharks. We also managed to get a few bigger sized dogfish or sand sharks in the 2 to 3 foot range. Fish were only reachable with long casts. Bait used was anchovie pops.
Question for conventional users: On one of my breakoffs, I had my clicker on and my reel in free spool when it started singing. I picked up my rod and set it in gear and when I did that the fish almost yanked my rod out of my hands and my line snapped. I guess my drag was set too tight? Should I have done it differently?
Date: October 29, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishinchris
Subject: Paradise 10-29 7am to 2pm
Fished with tray anchovies and ghost shrimp for whatever was biting, the pier was deserted only one other guy out there fishing near the rocks. Slow start but my friend and I ended up catching 6 rays (5 to 20lbs) 3 sharks (1 leopard, 2 smooth hounds all around 2') and 1 25' boat (2500 to 3000lbs) all released.
Date: June 4, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier and BP. 7AM to 7PM.
Least I didn’t catch any smelt. Actually, I didn’t catch much of anything. On my first cast at Paradise I got slammed by a big shark type bite that busted my hook line. (50 lb test). Once again, laziness prevails. I didn’t check my line before rigging up. It was probably old. I did manage to catch a small ray and a couple of bullheads to keep it interesting though. DSTEGL also showed up but we both split about 1PM.
Date: July 29, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: gyozadude
Subject: Paradise Mud Marlin and Shark GT 2006
I had a good time today at the 3rd Annual Paradise event. I saw a lot of fish caught, and even ate some freshly caught striper. I also didn’t get skunked like at most GTs. I actually hooked AND landed a small ray, which probably placed like 13th on the list.
We had some good rays. A 62-lb one by Mel won the derby. A 56-lb’er by Redfish's partner placed 2nd, and a last minute ray by Rockin' Robin measured 29 inches across and over 10 lbs I think.
Morning started out gloomy and slow I'm told. But by the time I got there around 11:30pm, Mel already landed a ray, and a 31-inch striper. That’s my foot in the picture with a size 11EEE sneeker. The sun finally broke through around 2:45pm. The wind was occasionally gusty but otherwise, mild.
I think I witnessed more than a dozen rays caught, and that wasn’t all. There were also stripers, bullheads, keeper leopards, and even a dogfish. Someone brought a grill and we had dogs, burgers and even roasted striped bass.
Posted by gyozadude
(In reply to: Paradise Mud Marlin and Shark GT 2006 posted by gyozadude on Jul-29-06 7:30pm)
Above are pics of some faces of folks new and old. Neil (1014) brought a crew with him. He also invited fellow Southbay’er Lauren (sp? Loren) who arrived late like I did.
Dsrtegl kept me company and we talked about rod building somewhat. I had brought portable power and my rod winding machine, but it was just too windy on the pier to set that up and it didn’t look like anyone was too interested although 1014 did leave a Lamiglas blank for me to take home.
This was one of the few events where I kicked back, ate other people‘s food, and didn’t do much of anything except relax, breathe fresh air and fish a little.
And my little bat ray meant I didn’t go home skunked. Caught on squid, on sliding rig, 5/0 Mutu light circle, 30 lb leader, 30 lb braid main line.
Posted by mel
I arrived there at 7AM to these conditions. It was drizzly and overcast. Quite cold actually. The crabs were out in force stealing my bait. Around 8AM I extended my leader about 30 to 36 inches to keep it off the bottom. Then I get a nice hit and reel in this striper. I had to net the thing myself as I was still the only one there but crzyr8r and his buddies were just arriving. Other than a small ray that I foul hooked on its wing, that would be pretty much it for me until about 3PM. I must say that my net got a pretty good work out all day. When I got the derby winner up to the surface though, no one really volunteered to net the beast except for Unclesteve. Well, kind of. As we were looking at the ray in the water, we were kind of in agreement that it might not fit. (It’s a 36-inch lobster hoop too). I volunteered to net it myself so if it broke off, I couldn't blame anyone but me. I didn’t need help getting it into the net but I needed help lifting it to the pier. In all the excitement I forgot to take pics of the beast for myself but I did get a victory pose shot.
Date: August 20, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier 08-20, and upcoming derby info.
After the Miss Farallones thing was cancelled, (BTW, I drove by Fisherman's Wharf and saw the boat with no one on it when I went to pick up my fresh ‘chovies at about 5:30AM), I headed out to Paradise Pier. I also picked up some grass shrimp and pile worms hoping to catch whatever. The water was somewhat calm but it was overcast and cold, with a bit of a breeze. Brrrr!
I was the only one there and on my first cast I got a nice hit and run, set the hook, and it wasn't there. Don’t know what happened but it was peeling out line like mad. Oh well. Nothing to worry about though because on the next two casts I was rewarded with 2 medium sized rays. Must’ve been some kind of conciliation prize. Then it got dead. I mean real dead. I kept switching up baits and using different combos and waited for the bite to pick up. Didn't pick up until about 1PM or so but from then on, it was pretty hot and non-stop action. I found that I was getting hit pretty good on the grass shrimp so I stuck to that. Grass shrimp from hell. That’s a size 4/0 Gamakatsu! I actually caught about a 2-foot-long sand shark on that thing. I was switching my rigs and baits around, going from a slider to hi lo's, using grass shrimp until I didn't get bites on it, then switching to anchovies, etc, etc. It was non-stop shark and ray action and the other fishermen there weren’t all that experienced, (sorry guys), so I benched all of my fish myself. (Benching fish means you have to net your fish yourself and you have to stick the butt of your rod into the bench while you get the net ready). None of the rays were real big, maybe 24 to 30 inches across. One of the other guys fishing there caught about a 40-pounder and I had to help him net it. I had to because I was the only one on the block with a net. How can guys go fishing with no net?! At about 3PM, I got this big mama.
After releasing the leppie the ranger came driving up and handed me a piece of paper. It was info about an upcoming derby. Here's the info:
September 10th, 2006
8:00AM-1:00PM
Registration begins @7:30AM.
Registration fee is $2.00 — Parking is $8.00 — Excellent Prizes! (I'm copying this from the flier).
Daiwa Rod and Reel and Gift Certificates, $50, $25, $25. —(Western Sport Shop)
Okuma Rod and Reel —(Western Boat and Tackle
$25 Gift Certificate — (Loch Lomond Live Bait Shop)
Annual County Park Passes — (Marin County Parks) — *if it's for 2007 those things are worth about 75 bucks!*
Derby categories include: Biggest Fish (by weight)
Most Fish, 1st Fish, Youngest Fisherman. (Got that Justin?)
I might not be able to make this one. I have a salmon derby on the same day but if the salmon fishing is still dead... Hey, since this is not a PFIC or UPSAC event that means we can cheat! (just kidding!). Anyways, I cut out of there at about 4PM, happy that the action picked up. The weather remained horrible and although it did clear up, the wind picked up fiercely. Still glad I stuck it out. I can tell I caught a lot of rays by the way my back hurts.
Date: September 10, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier Derby, quick report for now.
About 36 anglers, about 40 fish caught. I won the first fish category, (batray), and I won the most fish category, about 8 or 9 fish. 4 or 5 batrays and 4 stripers, 16, 18, 20 and 26 inches. PFICer's present were Red, Minnow and his Dad. I wanted to win the big fish category too, because the big fish was a ray only about 25 or 30 pounds. Oh well. Can’t be too greedy, huh? I won 2 gift certificates for Loch Lomond Bait and Western Sport Shop totalling 50 bucks, a 2006 parking pass, (which I already have), an Okuma spinning outfit, (Elite 40, retail $34.99). After the derby I was talking with one of the rangers and he said when he gets the 2007 parking passes he would mail me one. That's worth 75 bucks so it wasn't a bad day after all. There were also some halibut caught and some decent sized skates in about the 12-pound range. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Good day to be out on the water!
Posted by cheddah
Congrats! I didn't know there was a derby scheduled there today. Yesterday was super slow. I was asking all the people that left the pier if they caught anything and most said no. I asked one of the rangers there how the fishing was recently and he said it was slow too. Haha I got to check out your picture at the base of the pier when I was there too! What did you use for the stripers? Frozen chovies? I didn't venture out to the end of the pier when I was there yesterday. Just stayed at the base and caught a bunch of perches.
Posted by mel
Everyone caught fish, but I had an advantage. Red caught a shaker halibut, Robin caught a nice sized skate and a couple of rays, (Robin had a good hit once and he wasn't by his rod as he was returning from the restroom and one of the judges picked up his rod and set the hook and his line snapped!). As for Minnow, he was on the board with a 4 or 7 pound ray, (I forgot), and he was in the lead for a long time. There was a kid who was fishing near us for a long time and he was very quiet and stuck to himself. I struck up a conversation with him and found out that he was from a group of people fishing on the other side but he saw that we were catching fish on our side so he moved to the other side of us but staying out of our way. He was a very well mannered and polite young man and he sat watching his rod for hours without catching anything. Right at the very tail end of the derby the kid’s line started peeling out on his light set up. We cleared the way for him and Red and I coached the kid as while fighting his ray. He was doing a lot of things wrong but made adjustments well and listened to us. The ray eventually wrapped around a piling right below us and he was at a standstill. I could see the direction of the line below and where the ray was wrapped. I quickly grabbed my net and dropped it far into the water to make the ray swim in the other direction. It worked and the ray swam out but I almost got the net tangled in the line. Red grabbed the net from me, the line went free and Red netted the ray for him. Afterwards, I felt kind of bad for Minnow but we would’ve done the same for him too. Sorry Justin, I know you were hoping the kid’s line snapped, but in my book, you are still the KING FISHERKID!
How did I have an advantage? I didn’t post a report yet but I prefished the pier on Friday. Before I even did that I hit the local bait shops and got fishing reports as I haven’t been in the area for a while. No one knew anything about rays and sharks but I knew that there was a huge school of stripers in the area. Not just at Paradise but also north of the Richmond Bridge. There's a bigger school with bigger fish up north. One of my friends caught 7 keepers, the biggest going 27 inches and also caught numerous shakers and lost a bunch on a hair-raiser. All within a 2 hour window. If you look around and scout the areas there, you’ll be able to see the fish busting the surface. Not easy to do when it's windy though but look for diving birds and cormorants. And seals. Anyways, I hit the spot Friday armed with a variety of baits but found a good steady bite on fresh dead anchovies. I had steady shark and ray action all morning. In the afternoon I was getting little striper pecks and I managed to catch a 20 incher. The biggest ray went about 30 to 40 pounds and would've easily have been the winner. I caught a lot more fish on Friday and I had the place all to myself all day. I knew Sunday was going to be a good day so Red and I showed up early before anyone else did to claim our spot. Because the pier was so empty Friday, I was able to move around and see which area produced more. So... yes. I did have an advantage and I do make it hard to challenge me on my home pier but what the heck. I love that spot! And to all you guys striper hunting, here’s a hint. I caught more stripers there than rays yesterday. (I think. I lost count on the rays but it was close). Just take care of the place and don’t litter. The rangers there are very nice people and very fisher friendly. Another hint: Fresh dead ‘chovies on a hi lo, wait for striper bites, throw hair raisers. You’ll catch sharks and rays on the bait but at least you won't get bored.
Date: September 17, 2006
To: mel
From: PFIC Message Board
Subject: Paradise Pier.
Dead, dead and dead. Except for... Arrived at the pier about 7:30AM with my wife. Armed with fresh dead anchovies and some big time gear, I wanted to fight some rays to tune up for sturgy season. All I caught was a smallish ray in the AM. Was joined later by Grapeape, Grammer Police and his GF and 2 girls, age 7. Thank God they found plenty of other things to keep them occupied. It was dead! DEAD! Around 2PM though, Joey had something on the line and he let one of the girls reel it in because it was her birthday. She kept reeling and reeling... we looked into the water and saw a huge shark. At first I thought it was a big leopard and I heard Joey yell 7-gill! I grabbed the net, Joey grabbed the rod and I got the beast into the net only to have the net tilt because the thing was just not cooperating. Got it on the second try and lo and behold, it was a 54 inch 7-gill! What a birthday present for a 7 year old. I can see it now when her friends ask her what she got for her birthday and she says, “a 54 inch 7-gill shark!” The shark was released and if it wasn’t for that, well it really would have been a bummer of a day, fishing wise. At least it made the long drive for GP and his crew worth it. We cut out about 4PM. The weather was absolutely beautiful today. Sunburn for everybody today!
Posted by grammar police
Mel summed it up nicely... Sunburn weather and no wind made for a great day of fishing. I just wish someone would have informed the fish that Paradise Pier was in fact, just that!
Other than Mel's recap I have a few pictures to share. It was nice to meet your wife finally and to see Kevin again. Thanks for the moosubi (sp?) it was all S. talked about on the way home. Even Shannon enjoyed it knowing it was spam. I must say, most 7-gills I catch seem to disappoint in the fighting category. This monster bit like a sub 2-foot leopard and took no line off the bait feeder Okuma. I made sure the shark was hooked and brought over a cooler for R. (The b-day girl) to stand on. Those Paradise Pier rails are pretty high for a 7 y/o to fish over. The cooler did the trick and while R. was reeling in, she said “it is heavy, but I don't think there is a fish on!” I quickly told her to pause and flipped the bait feeder and only then, did the shark take maybe 5’ of line. Slapped it back down and told her to crank. Shannon assisted with stabilizing the rod while R. continued to reel. Thinking a small leopard was about to surface as the lead broke through the murky water, I was shocked by what I saw. A nice sized 7-gill made a few tail slaps as his jaws were out of the water. No runs from the surface, just a bit of splashing. I yelled “SEVEN” and the word “NET.” As soon as I turned around, both Kevin and Mel were there ready to deploy. To ease in landing I took the rod and did the backup dance to position it within net range. Mel got the shark in on the second swing. Shannon took pictures of the action and prize.
Date: October 7, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier. What fun!
At least for me it was. What a beautiful sunrise. Got there about 7AM and hooked up immediately on grass shrimp. Turned out to be a smallish ray, and I got about 3 in a row during the bottom of the outgoing. As soon as the tide turned around the bite died out. Danthefisherman was there early too and he also got some rays before it died out. Fatsmalone and his friend showed up as well as Guycognito. Nice meeting you guys! It was pretty dead with a ray here and there during the entire incoming tide. At about noon I got what looked like a striper bite and I set the hook. Felt like a small striper at first then all of a sudden it started peeling line and took off. Great fight and some mean headshakes! So here I am, fighting this thing and I couldn't quite figure out what it was but I knew it was big. During the fight I was even thinking that it might be sturgeon or a big shark because of the sporadic bursts of speed and line peeling runs. I looked in the water and I saw a seals head pop up about 40 or 50 yards out and in its mouth was a small striper. “Hey, look at that seal. It's got a striper in it's mouth,” I laughed. I thought maybe it was my fish so I tugged on my rod and saw my line come out of the water right to where the seal was. Hey! That's my fish! Then it became a tug of war. I was fighting the seal for my fish back. Funny thing was, I was winning! For some reason, the seal didn't go under and try to take off with my fish. It was a pretty fun tug of war and for a minute, I was actually reeling the seal in closer. Then I felt it let go when I was reeling but I still had my fish on and I could see the seal chasing it. I reeled like crazy and I was reeling so fast that my fish was hydroplaning on the water for about 20 yards. I managed to pull it out of the water and get it up on the pier and it was mangled pretty badly on one side. We measured the fish and it was only about 17 inches so I had to let it go. It swam off but not too well.
Eventually, Baitchucker and his wife showed up and so did Red and Sylvana. Red hooked up on his first cast with a mackerel carcass. Turned out to be a small ray. I cast out a big piece of a mackerel fillet and it was getting bit immediately. They were really small bites so I just let them peck away hoping something bigger would pick it up. Sure enough, something bigger did. My 505HS was singing and I set the hook. I had what felt like a decent sized ray on the line and it was moving to my right, which meant trouble. That’s where everyone else’s line's were. I picked up about 3 or 4 lines on the way in and the ray was getting heavier and heavier. After a pretty long and very, very tiring fight we finally got the beast in. It weighed only 42 pounds but felt heavier. Must’ve been because it was dragging in all those lines? I hope it's not because I'm getting weaker at my old age. Maybe I was tired out from fighting with that darn seal? Anyways, it turned out to be a great day and a lot of fun too. It was nice seeing old friends again and making new ones. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day! Oh yeah, the fish tacos. How can I forget?
Posted by mel
Both Fatzmalone and Baitchucker and his wife brought fish tacos. Both fish were lingcod. Both of their cooking was excellent! Thanks for the fish tacos folks!
Posted by guycognito
Yep, mackerel is a great bait for this area. It’s the only bait I use when I go sharaying in Sausalito, and those sharays love that oily, bloody stuff — and it’s inexpensive. It was pretty entertaining to watch Mel reel in that big ray with a pair of spider sinkers and an 8 oz pyramid in tow.
No kidding about the good food today. Both Fatzmalone and Baitchucker should post their recipes. Fatzmalone, how about your cabbage salad recipe too? Now I want to catch a lingcod. Hopefully this won't turn into another obsession. Today was my first visit to Paradise Pier and it was a great trip. Nice meeting everyone.
Date: January 1, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier 01-01-07.
Woke up this morning with my head in a fog. And I don’t even drink (anymore). My wife and her sister decided last night that today would be a good day to go fishing. I only coaxed them a little. We got to the pier about 8AM and could hardly see the pier. It was so foggy that I set up a rod on the other side of the pier and we could hardly see it. And this pic was taken at 10:30AM! Good thing I remembered to bring my bells.
All I had for bait was frozen herring and anchovies, which have been thawed and refrozen many times over. I also brought along some salmon roe, which have been sitting in the freezer for eons too. First cast yielded us a small shark and I was happy that my sister in law didn't come all the way from Indonesia to get skunked. I was kind of embarrassed that I didn’t know exactly what kind of shark it was. It was pretty slow in the morning but the tide swung around and began a pretty good outgoing cycle. In the afternoon we were getting bit left and right by those pesky critters, but she was having fun reeling them in so it was all good. The highlight of the afternoon was a 40 to 45-inch leopard shark, which she reeled in herself. Here's a pic of one of those pesky critters.
The lowlight of the day... why is it that with all these square miles of water in front us, that lousy skippers or so called captains just have to maneuver right over your line. Man, I swear... If I didn't have my wife and sister in law with me, this could've got nasty. But...cooler heads prevailed today. Didn't want to start off the New Year on the wrong foot. I did however fire off one warning shot about 10 feet from the boat and did the, “oops, bad cast” routine. My sister in law laughed but my wife gave me a stare. She knows me pretty well. Here's a pic of the boat and this is a shot when he was circling far from the pier. He actually got a LOT closer. And it wasn’t even foggy anymore!
All in all, it was a wonderful way to kick off the New Year. Got out on the water and caught some fish. WTG! Come to think of it, when I was about to start cursing the boat out when it came close, it veered right and I saw the name of it. The boat was named “Patience.” Might be a good resolution I guess.
BTW, The pier is looking good. Nice and clean with a newly paved road from the parking lot to the pier. Too bad nothing else biting but sharks right now.
Posted by DSRTEGL
Those pesky critters are spiny dogfish. The boaters have been a problem at that pier since I fished it as a kid. I had one tie off to the pier once so someone on board could use the bathroom for pity’s sake. About all you can do is take a picture of the boat, boat’s name and the Coast Guard registration number on the side, and make a little phone call to the Sheriff or Coast Guard. I did that once after a boat drifted by less than 30’ from the front of the pier and the idiots on board cussed at me because they got tangled in my lines.
Posted by stripesidechaser
What’s with all the spiny’s this year? I'd never seen nor heard of any caught up here in the bay, but this year they are everywhere. Red, HikingJay and I did a trip to Berzerkeley a couple weeks ago, and we caught at least 20 of those buggers throughout the day. Nobody else seemed to be familiar with these either... is it just me, or is this a new thing (problem, in my book)?
Posted by red fish
I caught plenty of spiny dogfish last year at Berkeley Pier Bob. Usually BP is abandoned for the most part this time of year, thus the lack of winter reports. Spiny dogfish breed during the winter months and prefer to always stay in a water temperature of around 49-52 degrees Farenheit. They will keep migrating until they find the proper climatic conditions. The S.F. Bay just happens to fit these conditions in the winter, thus their absence in spring and summer months. Not a very big shark as they are born 8-12 inches and mature around 24” with the female maturation size being closer to 3 feet almost the full-size they obtain. Male reaches maturation in 11 years whereas female reaches maturity at 18-21 years of age... Some conflicting scientific information depending on whose study you read is that some say spiny dogfish live to about 25 years where other studies say they can live as long as 100 years. There dispersion is world-wide being in the Pacific and Atlantic waters. And no I'm not just making this stuff up as I go along Bob.
Date: January 2, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: S_L
Subject: Rods
May I ask you: what is that casting rod you are using? (looks like Daiwa to me) What is the size/model? Thanks
Posted by mel
Daiwa Sealine Surf Series. 11 foot 3 to 7oz. I throw 8 and bait with all the time. It’s a launcher. Good back bone with a sensitive enough tip to detect sturgeon bites.
Date: January 15, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fatzmalone
Subject: Paradise Pier 1/14/07
Fished Paradise Pier with Alexj707 & Ryan.b from 8am till 1:30pm. We used Ghost shrimp, grass shrimp, & cut herring. For the fist half of the day we had the whole pier to ourselves. Surprising! But really not so much, being that it was really cold out there. Later three other anglers showed up & seemed really unprepared. When I asked what they were fishing for they said that they had no idea. I offered some bait & they accepted. That was about all of the conversation. We all got the big Skunk but Alex707 managed a small spiny dogfish. We all had a great time out there joking & laughing, telling story's & such. It had been a while since we had seen each other, so we had a lot of catching up to do. I left at 1:30pm. What a great day though. I’ll have to get ‘em next time, still working on getting that 1st dino. To bad it probably won’t happen for another 30 or so outings.
Date: January 19, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dkkim
Subject: Paradise
Almost Paradise... just like the song, I'll give you a cheesy song and dance. Headed up to Paradise w/ Red. Picked up some ghosties from Oyster Point (ripoff! Jailhouse is much cheaper) and headed to the pier for the outgoing. Met up w/ Red, BCooney, & Shane (Nice to finally meet you Brian and Shane). Nothing for a few hours until... I get the pump pump... then I set the hook and Game On!!! Line is coming off my reel like butter. I set the hook 4-5 times but I must've not done it good enough. Long story short, the fish comes to the surface, pops the hook and said bye bye. The huge spawn that was reported in the paper... was not huge. Probably smaller than the one at Oyster Point. A few birds just chillin, waiting for low tide so they could eat the egss. btw, no herring in the throw nets. Overall, it was an awesome day to be out.
Date: February 18, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Making noise on Paradise Pier.
Got to the pier at 8AM with my wife only to find FishinChris and a friend of his already there. What a surprise! The bite was pretty slow all morning, well actually none of us got a bite all morning. The incoming tide really sucks there. Was joined by James and Julie a little later and we all just stared at rod tips all day. Anyways, at about 2:30PM, a couple of hours into the outgoing I got a good hit. Set the hook and fish on! Nice sized sturgy and a nice little battle. Fish bit on ghost shrimp on my 10’ Lami Surf King and a souped up Tanified Penn 505HS. After a nice long tug of war and a nearly botched net job by me, up came a 67 and a half-inch FAT sturgy, helped onto the pier by none other than Redfish and a some other guy. Man, what a fight! This one must’ve weighed at least 75 pounds. Can't think of a better way to advertise the upcoming sturgeon get together, huh?
Date: February 25, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier. No sturgeon but I caught an Ulua!
That is what this is, isn't it? Caught on mud shrimp. Fought like crazy. Thought it was a small striper or a shark. fish was released. It's a long way back to Hawaii. That’s all I got today. A guy caught a 36-inch, 7-gill but that was about it. I left at 3:30PM. Red was still there, Tugboat hunting.
Date: May 6, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Raidersfan1
Subject: Paradise Pig Roast 5/5/07
Although this was Fatz’s event, he requested that I do the report for the board. SS23 and I arrived to Paradise Pier about 10am to find most on the pier already, which consisted of Fatz Malone and his entourage, Alexpj707, Redfish, BigRich, ICA and his son. We set up near ICA and after some talking got our rods in the water. Water was calm with a strong incoming. Baits used that I know of were sardines, macks, squid, anchovy, bullheads, shad, pile worms, ghost shrimp and grass shrimp.
Bite was slow for the amount of rods and various baits in the water. Alex hooked up with a ray soon after on the smallish side. MM and Robin showed up shortly with MM toting a 27 inch Halibut that later was fileted by ICA and cooked after the pig was done. That was good!
MM hooked into a ray and the bites slowed. More of Fatz entourage showed up and at about 2pm, Fatz announced the pig was ready. Some of us brought our rods in to go eat and the layout that Fatz and his helpers put on was awesome, the pig was split on a flat grill and as SS23 and I walked up, he was already cutting huge portions and putting them into an aluminum tray for everyone to help themselves. There was homemade coleslaw that Fatz made as well as a green and red salsa for the tortilla chips.
SS23 brought a pot of sticky white rice Hawaiian style and I brought sourdough rolls for pork sandwiches. Each person ate very well with plenty of pig as leftovers. Fatz wrapped up a huge quarter of the front leg for me to take home and it barely fit into my cooler. I think most everyone went home with leftovers as there were alot left.
Fishing resumed afterwards, with ICA and his son leaving around 3pm to go home and get ready for a crab feast with the crabs his son caught. At about 3:45pm, as SS23 and I were slowly packing up to leave, SS23’s rod hits some deep bites. As he sets the hook, the fight was on. This ray took him up the pier to the left side, then back down again to the right, settling close to the middle pier. Some rods were pulled in to give him room to run. As the ray took to the right side, out of the water this fish leaps. It was a monster ray! He hit on frozen shad.
It took him under the pier to were it was a standoff, neither one gaining ground until the ray decided to move back out into the front of the pier to were we all got a good look at this beast. He was thick with a healthy wingspan. Alex was the net man as he lowered it but the ray avoided it. Shane, one of Fatz's buddies grabbed the 80 lb braid and maneuvered the ray. Just as he lifted the ray’s head out of the water the hook on SS23’s 125-lb steel leader snapped dropping the ray back into water. However, Alex had just gotten the net under him as he fell into the net.
It was hoisted up by Alex and Kevin as it came on deck. This ray was 43 inches and 58 lbs, but it was thick! Photos were taken and was soon released back into the water safely. It was a good fight for the day. Largest ray caught by the time we left at 5pm. We took a group photo on the right side of the pier.
Redfish and BigRich left near the time we did leaving Alex, Fatz and his entourage to continue fishing.
It was a great day at Paradise, a beautiful day with little or no wind, lots of sun. Meeting new friends, fishing with old friends and enjoying a feast that turned out to be excellently prepared. If you missed it, you missed a great day! Mike
Posted by SturgeonSlayer23
My Paradise Pig Roast Ray. Caught this bad boy around 3 or 4 p.m. I think. Hooked up on steel hi/low w/frozen shad w/5/0 Gama circles. One helluva fight, lasted around 10 minutes or so. Much credit to alexpj707, Shane and RF1 for the help on the net, hand lining and clearing the way for a successful landing. My lower back feels like Jeff Gordon getting beer cans thrown at him for passing Dale Earnhardt's record. If you know NASCAR you know what I'm talkin’ bout Topped out at 58lbs. and 43 in. wingspan. Thanks again you guys. -SS23.
Posted by mel
Actually, I fared a little better. Fished from 8AM until 1PM. Probably caught about 7 to 10 rays, (lost count) but nothing big. Also caught a leopard that was probably legal. All fish were caught on frozen ‘chovies and grass shrimp. Wish I could've made the thing the day before.
Date: June 11, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Paradise Pier
Brian Hoffman—The Fishing Report 6/7/07 — San Francisco Chronicle — The bays
S.F.-San Pablo: ... Don Drotman, out at the pier at Paradise Park (upper end of Tiburon peninsula), fishing sharks. He lands three seven-gill, somewhat to the delight of a Cub Scout troop having a picnic nearby. The last and largest of the shark catch was 4 1/2 feet, enormous and bizarre in its presence, and the boys walked over for a look. One kid had a question for Drotman: “You caught three sharks?” Drotman: “Yes.” Kid: “You should not throw them back. You should sell them on eBay” ... Big happenings at the Berkeley Pier last week, too, with the supremely skilled and/or patient plank regulars jigging up bait and dropping it down for halibut. According to one of the party-boat skippers, watching as he drifted nearby, an entirely unofficial one-day count from the pier last week had 70 halibut landed.
Date: May 28, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise Pier
Haven’t been able to make it back onto the water since the MMGT so loaded up the wife, stepsons, their cousin and fishing gear into the truck and headed to the pier. We stayed from 7a-4p. It started out with a great double hookup within the first 10 min. (wife w/ a ray and younger stepson with a smoothound. It was fun trying to run back and forth with the net between them. Then the inevitable slowdown (about 3 hrs worth). I was the next to strike with a nice 49” leppy (invited home for dinner). Then back to the waiting game. After another 3 hours the bite picks up again. Oldest stepson starts it off with a small skate and then a monster skate! Never seen one that large before. The wingspan topped out at 32” and well over 36” in length (pic below). Then I finished up the bite attack with another much smaller leppy, spiny dogfish and 2 rays. The big thrill of the day by my wife was the huge run by a mystery fish (probably a stan-size ray) that took off like a locomotive and then the worst sound (SNAP) goes her line before she can get the rod in hand. All in all a great day had by all except for almost getting blown off the pier by the insane winds.
Date: July 1, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: cheddah
Subject: Paradise Pier 7/1
Beautiful day to fish, but the fishing sucked. Armed with pile worms and frozen anchovies, my friends and I got to the pier at about 4:30pm and stayed till 8pm. We caught bullheads on about every cast so we switched it up with bigger hooks and started using the bullheads for bait. Didn’t get any action at all. Pier was pretty deserted. When we got there we saw a family catching perch and smelt so we told them that perch were out of season so they stopped keeping the perch, however they had already gutted and cleaned a few perch so I told them that if the rangers checked they would get in trouble. Oh well, even though we didn’t catch anything to bring home, it was a fun day of fishing.
Date: July 20, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mars33
Subject: Spouse friendly piers in the SF Bay Area?
I picked up fishing last year, but all in all have been on the piers less than a dozen times. I’m working pretty long hours and my wife doesn’t really appreciate if the little time that we can spend together is even more limited by me hanging out on a pier. So I was wondering which piers in the Bay Area are good to bring the missus and my daughter (2 years old) where they can hang around, have a little picnic, maybe with a playground around, while I can go fishing?
Posted by Red Fish
Paradise Pier. I encourage anyone who has not been to this pier to go as there is no finer pier I know of in No-Cal as far as accommodations (actually, the Oakland Army Base Pier (can be outrageous for keeper leopards on midshipman or shiners, and there are halibut and striper in close on the front right almost facing the Bay Bridge on frozen chovies on a slider) was in A-1 condition a couple years ago (free) and the new Middle Harbor Pier is very picturesque and currently unspoiled (decent fishing). As I was saying: if you have not been to Paradise, it is well worth going and family friendly. Check out the additional link to park info in the message section of Minnow's event. Note: Parking is $8 in the summer or $2 for walk-ins or bike-ins. Some parking is available up top as I went there on Father’s Day and there just happen to me an Arabic cultural event going on that day and the entire parking lot was full, so the only alternative was for people to park on the road above. I have never seen that park so full... and luckily, I arrived at almost the end of the day and most of the activity was over and people were going home. The park in opened until 8p during daylight savings time... and actually, I think I was able to fish until 8:30pm the last time I was there.
Posted by mel
I second Paradise Pier in Tiburon. Although at times it can get notoriously dead, pile worms under a bobber will keep the kids busy with smelt.
Date: September 22, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier Tournament
First fish, Mel, 8:05AM
Most fish, Mel, 10, 12 maybe 14? I lost count.
Biggest fish, Mel, 50 inch 21 pound leopard shark.
The judges were nice enough to reconfigure the prizes so more people had a chance. Believe it or not, the other two people in the adult category was Surffisher who got a prize for smallest ray, (although I’m sure I caught a smaller one than his but I ain’t complaining), and Red got the biggest ray at 15 pounds. Surf fisher was in second place in fish count with 4 too. He lost the potential biggest fish when it took him under the pier and busted off. So a clean sweep by PFIC'ers today in the adult category. Oh yeah, I won a parking pass and a 25 dollar GC for Western Sportshop. It was fun. I'm tired.
Date: September 29, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: catfished
Subject: Paradise Pier Sept. 29
The weather was great but the fishing was tough, especially for me. We were targeting rays and sharks, Mary caught her first ever shark, a very tiny smoothhound. She also caught her first bat ray, a scrappy 7 pounder and also managed another one weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces. I missed a few hits but never landed anything. Around 2:30 pm I hooked into a big fish that was most likely a big ray. I hooked it while fishing the left corner and after a sizzling run straight out, it took off to the right and I followed it through a couple of other fishing lines and then it went around the right side of the T and turned in towards the inside of the pier. It then tried heading back the way it came but headed towards the pilings, I tried to put on more pressure to stop it and snappo went the leader.
There weren't many fishermen there today, a couple of guys fishing the right corner hooked into a few small rays. I got to meet clutch633 when he caught a nice keeper halibut with a hair raiser on his second cast. Being a good C & R man, he released it to be caught again another day. Clutch was there to witness my battle with the big bat ray or whatever it was.
The rangers there really treated us like royalty, shuttling us down to the pier and taking me back up to the car because I forgot some of the gear and most important, gave us a ride back up at the end of the day. I told them I knew Mel and after further consideration they said they would still give us a ride back up anyway
Date: June 2, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: jettyjockey
Subject: Setup at Paradise Park Pier for Halibut
I'd like to know the setup for fishing halibut at Paradise Park Pier in Tiburon. Is it like the setup used at Bekeley Pier with a slip float or trolley float (Pacifica Pier style)? ...whole or cut anchovies on high/low rigs? I also assume that live bait is the ticket? Thanks in advance for any feedback provided.
Posted by piemel
Live bait is the ticket.... if you use dead bait on hi-lo’s you will get hammered by sharks and rays. Standard 3 way live bait set up will do just fine. Btw, the hali bite has slowed WAY down in the past few days... most of the halibut seemed to have moved on to deeper waters for example near Angel Island.
Date: June 8, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: ob_kook
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 6/8/08
Beautiful day out there, and not too crowded on the pier. Fishing wasn't too kind to me, but there was some action to be seen. The low tide saw 2 nice halibut taken (estimate 23-25”) on the left side of the T. Typical slider rigs and frozen bait. Off the right side a nice striper taken, around noon I think, and also on frozen chovies. He was using 8 oz of lead and a 12-ft surf rig and casting WAAAAAY the heck out there. Nothing much went on all afternoon (think I saw a smelt or 2 get hand lined up, and then about 4 pm, some guys came down and within 15 minutes getting their lines wet, hooked something big. It made several runs nearly spooled him. He squished down the drag some and was making some headway, getting it pretty close to the pier and what with the drag now (too) tight, it made another run, breaking off the line before anyone had a chance to see it. Just a lake fisherman from MN tryin’ ta get salty!
Date: June 11, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: b33zG0NEfish.N
Subject: Paradise Pier
When I first heard of the pier I was told that Sturgeon are caught out there. So my first hook I was like uhh-oHH here it isss.. By the time I got it close enough to see its head, I realized it was just a ray!... Then Ray after Ray after Ray... Fun as hell to catch but don’t know how to cook one... U guys ever see that video on Youtube about some guy
Posted by grammar police
Yep. The Youtube hero is a regular here and the man when it comes to pier caught sturgeon. Just don’t take him in your boat. Though I think his mojo from a boat may be turning! His wife makes killer food!
Posted by b33zG0NEfish.N
Do you know if he uses a sturgeon rig? and what bait does he use? And do you really have to cast way the heck out to have a chance at a Sturgeon off that pier?
Posted by mel
Sturgeon rigs and shrimp baits. BUT... The area is notoriously slow for sturgeon. Be prepared to put in time. I'm talking days sometimes without a bite. Crabs will steal your bait too. You should try to cast far to increase your range but it isn’t really necessary.
Posted by northern boy
Mel wrote: Sturgeon rigs and shrimp baits. BUT... The area is notoriously slow for sturgeon. Be prepared to put in time. I'm talking days sometimes without a bite. I think we can call that a Sturgeon Generals warning.
Posted by dkkim
I guess this is someone that is star struck??? Or maybe sturgeon struck??? sorry, it's late.
Date: June 21, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishnchris
Subject: Paradise Pier, June 21
Fished Paradise Pier from 7 am to 12 pm for a couple of rays. I fished with dead anchovies and live bullheads, which the guy at the bait shop called “striper candy” but no striper’s seemed to have a sweet tooth today. Other people on the pier were catching lots of smelt and shiners on the pier.
Date: July 20, 2008
To: surf_fisher
From: PFIC Message Board
Subject: Paradise Pier get-together
Started off the day picking up chovies at Berkeley and having it all dumped in the back of my truck at the Richmond toll booth. DOH! There goes 4 hours of extra sleep and 15 bucks I could of had. Started fishing at 7 with the dead stuff in a crappy mood. When other fishers were showing up setting up for halis and stripers. They were telling me, the day before the stripers visited the pier. How many times have I heard that before. I picked up a couple of rays and leopards before minnow showed up. Plenty of rays and a few sharks came up. A total of 2 legal halis came over the rail and one big one over 30” was lost in the attempt to net it. Very windy late in the morning and afternoon, but the sharays did not disappoint us unlike the MMD at Berkeley. Finished off the day feeling good after the bad start. I'll let minnowmag do the rest.
Date: August 11, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishnchris
Subject: Paradise Pier 8-10
Fished Paradise Pier Sunday from 7 till 1 with frozen anchovies for absolutely nothing, nada, zilch. I did see a couple of small rays caught and kept for dinner. The crabs were out in force and I couldn't keep bait on my hook more then a couple of minutes. Due to the lack of rain in the spring I’m sure the crab nuisance will only get worse in San Pablo Bay until winter comes. There was a lot of fishing boats and jet ski's buzzing around the pier, I was hoping they would scare the fish closer to the pier but I had no luck
Date: April 18, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise Pier ................. slow
Fished for 3 1/2 hours... was not even successful in feeding the crabs. tried anchovies and squid on the heavy rod and rattletraps and swim baits on the light rod. Not even a nibble the whole time. Saw a leopard shark caught and kept, not much meat on one that size even if it was legal (barely) , and a few jacksmelt.....THAT WAS ABOUT IT. Even those fishing the bottom on slider rigs did not have much trouble with crabs today. WAY too many boats passing to close to the pier and kayakers that insisted on shooting the pier and EVEN FISHING UNDER IT???? Sigh... Makes you wonder! DSRTEGL... That means Desert Eagle
Posted by northern boy
I was there from ~8am-3pm on my kayak. It was very slow for us as well. I didn’t shoot the pier! I know one of us was trying to make bait under pier, I guess he figured it was the best way to keep out of everyone’s way. I ended up giving him some shiners. I did see a couple of boats come way too close, including a sailboat that was just plain arrogant, ignoring everyone’s calls. I also saw a boat with three guys fishing six lines, whose CF number is safely with Caltip. The DFG showed up later and were surveying the scene with some very powerful optics. The action on the pier picked up a hair at the bottom of the tide, with one landed and one lost, but given the number of rods out there it was still a very, very slow day.
Date: April 25, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise Pier 4/25… Slow
Fished from 10am-3:30pm... There was one halibut and a small leopard shark caught before I arrived.. Several big somethings were hooked during the day... One by me... But most were lost when they shot the pier and broke off. There was one skate and two mud marlin caught and successfully landed while I was there. Used a 10’ Tica paired with my Penn 525 and my 12’ Ugly with my 20 year old Shimano Baitrunner 650. Bait was salted sardines, salted chovies, and squid. Crabs got pretty bad once the tide hit slack.
Date: May 10, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise 5/10… SLOW
Fished from 8:30-12:30. Saw one Bat ray caught and I landed a small schoolie striper that was undersized and THAT WAS ABOUT IT. Apparently they still have problems with IDIOTS crashing there at night and trashing the place... Beer cans, cigarette butts EVERYWHERE... Blood stains on the pier deck instead of in the cleaning station WHERE THEY BELONG... LOSERS!!! Show some class and pack your trash people! At least the pier does not smell of urine AND WORSE like Berkeley but this is MARIN we are talking about after all.
Date: May 17, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise 5/17 10am-2pm… SLOW
There was a halibut on deck when I arrived. Looked short to me but it was kept. One small leopard caught off the right corner that was quickly returned, I caught the smallest bat ray of my life off the left side. One small striper was caught and kept (again looked short) shortly before I left. LOTS more blood and gore stains from idiots not using the cleaning station that is RIGHT THERE!?!?!? Rumors of hallies caught YESTERDAY (typical)... Only a few boats getting too close to their pier. Only one kayak in area.
Date: June 7, 2009
To: PFIC Message Baord
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise… PRODUCES
Fished from Just before 10am till nearly 6pm. Arrived in the parking lot in time to run into Rockhopper who was unloading his yak from the truck. Nice seeing you again BTW... Fished to the right of center of the pier on the “T”. Bait was old salt-brined anchovies and sardines for a while but no love. Ended up running in to SpicyTuna and he was nice enough to remember me and offer to share his bait (live anchovies) with me. If you have not had a chance to check out his bait rig you might want to... Pretty slick. Reminded me of some of the rigs I used to use when transporting expensive aquarium fish back in the day. Fishing was slow for most of the day until the tide started back out. SpicyTuna a nice striper (about 30” and one of the cleanest looking larger bass I have seen). I farmed a classic halibut takedown...
There was a halibut caught near us on a Kroc (27")... I landed a mid-sized bat ray. Thanks to Spicytuna doing a better job of watching my rod that I was... I was tossing a swim bait at the time... All Hell started to break loose as I was thinking about leaving... A short sturgeon… Several rays... A decent sized big skate... a couple of halibut... LOTS of lost fish... and then as I was reeling in to leave... FISH ON... Fighting kinda different.... Get it to the surface and... Ummmmmmmm.... Hey Eddy... It’s a halibut... GET THE NET!!!!!!!!! Great guidance and net job by Eddy and it is on the deck 28” and my first EVER halibut... That is right folks… over 25 years of fishing the Bay and it was my first... A solid 28”... and 7 1/4 pounds if I can trust my cheap scale. Winning combo... Ugly Stik Spinner w/Pfleuger reel, 12# Stren HiVis line, 3-way swivel rig, double hook leader and one of my nasty old salted ‘chovies.
Date: June 14, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: DSRTEGL
Subject: Paradise Pier 6/14… Skunk
On the pier in general... several large dogfish caught 40+”. All female and all Kept. Was not expecting them to be gravid this time of year but I was WRONG... Bummer!!!! Two or three small leopard sharks... No rays... No skates... No stripers... two Halibut... Both 27”.
Not a single bite for me in eight hours of fishing. I helped land one of the Halibut using my net. Gave a lesson on how to bleed, clean, skin, and portion out a shark. That is when I found out the hard way that they were gravid... Barely developed embryos attached to large yolk sacks. The embryos were transparent and you could see them wriggling around and their internal structures.
Took a brief video for educational purposes for a friend’s science class. Won’t keep female sharks any more and neither will the guys I was fishing with I don't think. Nice group from Martinez and Hayward. Polite... Respectful... Even borrowed my bucked to rinse the blood off the deck... THOSE kinda fishing young people WE CAN USE. After eight hours in the sun I am somewhere between the regular and extra crispy menu even WITH sunscreen but I had to get out of the house.
To: PFIC Message Board
From: DSRTEGL
Subject: Paradise Pier 1/15- Slow
And very, VERY, cold! BRRRR!! I was wearing thermals as well. Fished for only a couple of hours before numb hands made me give up in disgust. Only two sanddabs caught off the pier that whole time for about 15 rods. That's right... I said sanddabs off Paradise!!!?????.... Funny, there were quite a few invisible fishermen out there today it seems. The Park Ranger was giving a nod to keep an eye out. Not one bite other than a couple of crab wiggles for me.
Date: March 26, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier
Got to Paradise about 8AM. First fish on ghost shrimp was a 13-inch calico perch! I was so happy with it I kept it. I don't usually keep perch but this one was worth keeping. About 15 minutes later I get a big take down. Mr. sturgy visits me again. A 54-incher, walked to shore. A guy who was there for his AM walk helped me out. I had to climb down the cement blocks on the side of the pier to scoop the fish up. What a nice surprise. JTF69 and Redfish joined me in the PM. I also caught a 20-inch striper and a couple of medium sized rays. Pretty darn good day. I ended up bringing all the fish home as I thought JTF wanted the striper but he had to go on a date. Hope he got as lucky as I did. Now I have lots of fish in the fridge. Next week, I think I'll hang out in SF, maybe it’s time to hit the beach!
Date: May 17, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise pier today 5/17
Figured we would try out the pier for some halipers or a stray sturgeon. Got there at about 8a and stayed till about 4p.m. Fished using anchovie pops and squid. Only fish landed was a 21” flounder. Funny thing is that it was caught using an artifical grass shrimp from the Berkeley Big Gulp sample pack that I got. Just tossed it out like reg. bait and let it sit until fish on. The highlight of the day was when my bud caught a shiner and was using it for bait using the Berkeley float rig and got slammed hard and eventually broke off by a huge halibut. It ran straight for the pylon.We never did see it but could hear it slapping it’s big tail under the pier just as it broke off. Then not 5 min later I had thrown out a peeler crab (same big gulp pack) on a sliding rig and a huge striper slammed it. We actually saw it jump and break the surface as it spit out my hook (all in all a great day).
Date: June 22, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Fun day in (at) Paradise. 8AM to 4PM.
Took about 20, less fortunate people who don't normally fish, (to me that's less fortunate), out to spend a day at Paradise Pier and barbeque and fish. The spot didn’t let us down. We caught heckafish. It was bat ray after bat ray, with a few nice stripers thrown in the mix and just about every other kind of ray and shark that hang out in that area. The biggest ray which broke off at the pier was about an 80 to 100 pounder. HUGE sucker! The rest of them were mostly medium sized, 24 to 36 inchers with a bunch of dinks in the mix. It just so happened that KTVU channel 2 news showed up, doing some kind of story on the dwindling fish population, particularly fingerlings. Didn’t quite get the whole story from the guy. Anyways, they did a little interview with me about fishing and the showed me on the news fighting a ray, (which just happened to bite during the interview), but then they cut to me holding up a couple of stripers like that’s what I was fighting. Pretty clever guys, huh? I missed the clip but my wife saw it on TV on the 6 o'clock news. Don’t know if it'll make the 10 o'clock news. It was a beautiful day and the ones who went fishing instead of napping were very content with catching rays and the stripers just added to the excitement. Bait used was fresh dead anchovies. Crabs weren’t much of a problem at all today. I also got to test out some tackle that I had modified, starting with a 505HS Jigmaster that Alan Tani tricked out for me. The reel casts very well, even though I did backlash a couple of times but the spool spins so cleanly that I have to get it dialed in right. I also brought along my Penn 555 that I just had magged and it casts great too. Now I'm all set when I start to target sturgeon
Total fish today: (about 4 to 10 people fishing)
3 stripers at 28, 25 and 23, about 5 or 6 dink stripers.
3 leopard sharks at 48, and 2 about 24 -maybe about 5 small assorted sharks, sand, soupfins or smoothounds?
1 thornback ray about 24 inches
2 skates
Batrays all day long. Too many to keep track of. Once we had a triple hook up going, and another time we had a quadruple hook up.
Also smelt kingfish bullheads, etc.
Don’t know if the full moon last night had anything to do with the great fishing today. Tide was low when we got there and we got a good part of the incoming. All in all, a great day.
Date: July 2, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Caught some nice fish today at Paradise.
It was fun until the wind picked up and blew us off the pier. Fished from 7:00AM till about 2PM. The rays were out but not a whole lot. Just enough to keep us busy. Fished with DSRTEGL, Angrybeav, Kyle and Rita joined us later and 1014 and some of his friends were there. Garammar Police and MountainViewFisher were there too. I must’ve gotten about 5 or 6 brays, the biggest was about 35 or 40 pounds. I also got a 27” striper and a nice leopard, probably about 36”. Rita’s husband barbequed and after we were done fishing we had some great food waiting for us. G-dude had his rod wrapping gizmo at the picnic area and he brought some pot stickers too. Yumyum! The pier was a little crowded today, lot's of other people there too. I didn't participate in any of the rod wrapping, but I really admired some of the rods I saw today. I don’t think I could ever fish with anything like them, at least not the way I beat my stuff up. All in all, a fun day until the wind picked up. Oh yeah, Red showed up fashionably late but it’s all good.
Date: July 24, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: angrybeav
Subject: Pre- Paradise MMGT or hoop net hi-jinx
I got to the pier after 7 a.m. and before I could get set up Mel hooks into this huge ray that takes him from his spot (if you fished at paradise with Mel you know the spot its his) all the way to the other side, the ray then ran for the shore and then back to the pier the ray is huge. So I grab my hoop net and lower it down drop it the last foot right on its head and it gets away. Completely my fault, felt bad all day about it. Mel did catch a nice limit of stipers and I'm sure that made his day a little better. After that hi-jinx I caught a 28# pound ray before the event started. I had a great time congrats Peter.
Date: July 27, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: tacofish
Subject: Paradise Pier
We fished the pier from 11:00 - 3:00pm. Lotza action thoughout the incoming tide. Couldn’t keep up with the bait checks due the number of take downs on six rods and my meager attempt to learn the throw net (again). My wife and son weren’t going to come near the bait box with the swarming of yellow jackets – they’re starting to get really aggressive. So, it was up to me for baiting and casting... it felt good to be their deck dog.
Used calamari for:
6 leppies - none over 30"
4 Rays - none over 10#
1 J-Smelt - On a 7/0 hook!
At least a half a dozen other runs, pharms, or short strikes to throw in the mix. All in all, a busy day!
Date: August 12, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise pier thurs 8/11
Hadn’t been to my favorite pier in about 3 weeks so I thought I'd spend it there with my daughter and a friend who hadn’t fished in over 15 years. Well just as I had suspected, it was a fantastic fishing day. My friend hooked into his first shark, but lost it to the piling gods, lol. I caught about 8 sharks in all. The 2 largest were a 30” smoothhound, and the 46” leppy in the above pic. It was perfect fishing conditions. Nice warm sun, no wind, clear water, and good company.
Date: September 24, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 9-24/Scooby Dooby Derby
(In reply to: Re: Paradise Beach Pier 9-24/Scooby Dooby Derby posted by alantani on Sep-24-05 7:38pm)
I love that Jigmaster! Ihave the 505HS dialed in just right and can launch it pretty good. I caught the 50” leopard shark pictured above with the reel, coupled with a Daiwa 11’ Sealine Surf casting rod. No major backlashes today. It was cool fishing with everyone and it was a great day weather wise, until about 1:30PM when the wind started howling. As far as the derby went, Angrybeav's daughter won it with the striper pictured above. We knew we couldn't compete and didn’t even take our kiddie poles out of the packages. Terrible, ain’t we? A major milestone for me today was my first ever encounter with a bat ray stinger. It sliced me on my finger and hand. The rays stinger was tangled in the net while I was trying to set it free and I stupidly grabbed the back of the tail section to free it. That's what I get. Took a while for the bleeding to stop, and the pain and numbness to subside, and the swelling is almost gone. (Notice the band aid in the pic of me reeling in the leopard). As Red mentioned to me afterwards, Pescare’s idea of a well stocked first aid kit made perfect sense. The swap meet never really developed, as everyone seemed to be more into fishing. At least not until Bcooney showed up with a handful of rods and reels. I got some excellent deals from him on stuff. Thanks Brian! Also a first for me, I never saw a seal actually take a fish off a hook from someone until today. Some guy had a maybe legal striper on the line waiting for a net and the next thing you know, a huge shadow appeared underneath the fish and it started turning white and I thought it might be a huge shark, (I’ve been watching too much shark stuff on TV), but it turned out to be a harbor seal looking for a handout. Took the guys fish and snapped his line the process. The real heroes of the day was Tacofish and his wife. They ended up giving a nice spinning set up to a older handicapped gentleman who fishing on the pier. The guy was so happy he couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear! To Tacofish and wife, a great big WTG! It was cool fishing with everyone today and hope to do it again soon!
Posted by angrybeav
Fished from 7 am to 3 pm. Good fishing most of the day, my daughter was the only one to catch a fish on a Looney Tunes pole (small striper livelining). I caught 3 rays, correct me if I get this wrong Mel caught 1 ray and 1 50” leopord, Mel’s friend caught 1 ray, Redfish caught 1 large smelt which he probably had more fun with because a seal was jumping out of the water for it as it was coming up and I didn’t see if Tacofish caught anything but I’m sure he had a good time I know I did.
Date: October 1, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Fishinchris
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 10-1/ sharaybutt
Fished Paradise from 7 am to 2 pm. I brought a friend, his son, and mother and had a great time. J.P. Bait would only sell live bait to boat customers but sold tray anchovies 5 for 15.00 to poor shore anglers. Total for the day was 4 bat rays for myself 2 for my friend and he caught a 51” leopard shark his son caught 3 smelt. All fish caught on tray anchovies on hi-lo rig. Summer hours for the pier until after DST hope that helps Mel. There was a guy fishing a couple of benches away who caught a sub 15-lb halibut on frozen bag anchovies on a hi-lo. I gave him a net assist since I was the only one with a hoop net. Its really a shame that most people fishing on piers don't bring a net to land their own fish it should be a requirement, And the guy had no stringer or cooler with ice to put it in he just pushed it in the shade for the next 4 hours while he kept fishing, it looked pretty bad when he left.
Date: October 23, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise is pretty slow.
At least it was yesterday. Fished from 7AM to 5PM. Caught a bunch of rays but not a lot, with a lull period in between each one. Towards the end of the day, I was broken off 3 times in a row, the first 2 ran like freight trains, probably big rays. My line I was using hasn’t been changed for a long time, mostly due to my laziness. I’m changing it out this weekend. The last one was a huge leopard, which I managed to get up to the pier but broke off during the netting process. The tide was weird yesterday, and it was a very slow moving afternoon tide. My friend also caught a few rays, and some other people caught smelt and small sharks. We also managed to get a few bigger sized dogfish or sand sharks in the 2 to 3 foot range. Fish were only reachable with long casts. Bait used was anchovie pops.
Question for conventional users: On one of my breakoffs, I had my clicker on and my reel in free spool when it started singing. I picked up my rod and set it in gear and when I did that the fish almost yanked my rod out of my hands and my line snapped. I guess my drag was set too tight? Should I have done it differently?
Date: October 29, 2005
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishinchris
Subject: Paradise 10-29 7am to 2pm
Fished with tray anchovies and ghost shrimp for whatever was biting, the pier was deserted only one other guy out there fishing near the rocks. Slow start but my friend and I ended up catching 6 rays (5 to 20lbs) 3 sharks (1 leopard, 2 smooth hounds all around 2') and 1 25' boat (2500 to 3000lbs) all released.
Date: June 4, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier and BP. 7AM to 7PM.
Least I didn’t catch any smelt. Actually, I didn’t catch much of anything. On my first cast at Paradise I got slammed by a big shark type bite that busted my hook line. (50 lb test). Once again, laziness prevails. I didn’t check my line before rigging up. It was probably old. I did manage to catch a small ray and a couple of bullheads to keep it interesting though. DSTEGL also showed up but we both split about 1PM.
Date: July 29, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: gyozadude
Subject: Paradise Mud Marlin and Shark GT 2006
I had a good time today at the 3rd Annual Paradise event. I saw a lot of fish caught, and even ate some freshly caught striper. I also didn’t get skunked like at most GTs. I actually hooked AND landed a small ray, which probably placed like 13th on the list.
We had some good rays. A 62-lb one by Mel won the derby. A 56-lb’er by Redfish's partner placed 2nd, and a last minute ray by Rockin' Robin measured 29 inches across and over 10 lbs I think.
Morning started out gloomy and slow I'm told. But by the time I got there around 11:30pm, Mel already landed a ray, and a 31-inch striper. That’s my foot in the picture with a size 11EEE sneeker. The sun finally broke through around 2:45pm. The wind was occasionally gusty but otherwise, mild.
I think I witnessed more than a dozen rays caught, and that wasn’t all. There were also stripers, bullheads, keeper leopards, and even a dogfish. Someone brought a grill and we had dogs, burgers and even roasted striped bass.
Posted by gyozadude
(In reply to: Paradise Mud Marlin and Shark GT 2006 posted by gyozadude on Jul-29-06 7:30pm)
Above are pics of some faces of folks new and old. Neil (1014) brought a crew with him. He also invited fellow Southbay’er Lauren (sp? Loren) who arrived late like I did.
Dsrtegl kept me company and we talked about rod building somewhat. I had brought portable power and my rod winding machine, but it was just too windy on the pier to set that up and it didn’t look like anyone was too interested although 1014 did leave a Lamiglas blank for me to take home.
This was one of the few events where I kicked back, ate other people‘s food, and didn’t do much of anything except relax, breathe fresh air and fish a little.
And my little bat ray meant I didn’t go home skunked. Caught on squid, on sliding rig, 5/0 Mutu light circle, 30 lb leader, 30 lb braid main line.
Posted by mel
I arrived there at 7AM to these conditions. It was drizzly and overcast. Quite cold actually. The crabs were out in force stealing my bait. Around 8AM I extended my leader about 30 to 36 inches to keep it off the bottom. Then I get a nice hit and reel in this striper. I had to net the thing myself as I was still the only one there but crzyr8r and his buddies were just arriving. Other than a small ray that I foul hooked on its wing, that would be pretty much it for me until about 3PM. I must say that my net got a pretty good work out all day. When I got the derby winner up to the surface though, no one really volunteered to net the beast except for Unclesteve. Well, kind of. As we were looking at the ray in the water, we were kind of in agreement that it might not fit. (It’s a 36-inch lobster hoop too). I volunteered to net it myself so if it broke off, I couldn't blame anyone but me. I didn’t need help getting it into the net but I needed help lifting it to the pier. In all the excitement I forgot to take pics of the beast for myself but I did get a victory pose shot.
Date: August 20, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier 08-20, and upcoming derby info.
After the Miss Farallones thing was cancelled, (BTW, I drove by Fisherman's Wharf and saw the boat with no one on it when I went to pick up my fresh ‘chovies at about 5:30AM), I headed out to Paradise Pier. I also picked up some grass shrimp and pile worms hoping to catch whatever. The water was somewhat calm but it was overcast and cold, with a bit of a breeze. Brrrr!
I was the only one there and on my first cast I got a nice hit and run, set the hook, and it wasn't there. Don’t know what happened but it was peeling out line like mad. Oh well. Nothing to worry about though because on the next two casts I was rewarded with 2 medium sized rays. Must’ve been some kind of conciliation prize. Then it got dead. I mean real dead. I kept switching up baits and using different combos and waited for the bite to pick up. Didn't pick up until about 1PM or so but from then on, it was pretty hot and non-stop action. I found that I was getting hit pretty good on the grass shrimp so I stuck to that. Grass shrimp from hell. That’s a size 4/0 Gamakatsu! I actually caught about a 2-foot-long sand shark on that thing. I was switching my rigs and baits around, going from a slider to hi lo's, using grass shrimp until I didn't get bites on it, then switching to anchovies, etc, etc. It was non-stop shark and ray action and the other fishermen there weren’t all that experienced, (sorry guys), so I benched all of my fish myself. (Benching fish means you have to net your fish yourself and you have to stick the butt of your rod into the bench while you get the net ready). None of the rays were real big, maybe 24 to 30 inches across. One of the other guys fishing there caught about a 40-pounder and I had to help him net it. I had to because I was the only one on the block with a net. How can guys go fishing with no net?! At about 3PM, I got this big mama.
After releasing the leppie the ranger came driving up and handed me a piece of paper. It was info about an upcoming derby. Here's the info:
September 10th, 2006
8:00AM-1:00PM
Registration begins @7:30AM.
Registration fee is $2.00 — Parking is $8.00 — Excellent Prizes! (I'm copying this from the flier).
Daiwa Rod and Reel and Gift Certificates, $50, $25, $25. —(Western Sport Shop)
Okuma Rod and Reel —(Western Boat and Tackle
$25 Gift Certificate — (Loch Lomond Live Bait Shop)
Annual County Park Passes — (Marin County Parks) — *if it's for 2007 those things are worth about 75 bucks!*
Derby categories include: Biggest Fish (by weight)
Most Fish, 1st Fish, Youngest Fisherman. (Got that Justin?)
I might not be able to make this one. I have a salmon derby on the same day but if the salmon fishing is still dead... Hey, since this is not a PFIC or UPSAC event that means we can cheat! (just kidding!). Anyways, I cut out of there at about 4PM, happy that the action picked up. The weather remained horrible and although it did clear up, the wind picked up fiercely. Still glad I stuck it out. I can tell I caught a lot of rays by the way my back hurts.
Date: September 10, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier Derby, quick report for now.
About 36 anglers, about 40 fish caught. I won the first fish category, (batray), and I won the most fish category, about 8 or 9 fish. 4 or 5 batrays and 4 stripers, 16, 18, 20 and 26 inches. PFICer's present were Red, Minnow and his Dad. I wanted to win the big fish category too, because the big fish was a ray only about 25 or 30 pounds. Oh well. Can’t be too greedy, huh? I won 2 gift certificates for Loch Lomond Bait and Western Sport Shop totalling 50 bucks, a 2006 parking pass, (which I already have), an Okuma spinning outfit, (Elite 40, retail $34.99). After the derby I was talking with one of the rangers and he said when he gets the 2007 parking passes he would mail me one. That's worth 75 bucks so it wasn't a bad day after all. There were also some halibut caught and some decent sized skates in about the 12-pound range. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Good day to be out on the water!
Posted by cheddah
Congrats! I didn't know there was a derby scheduled there today. Yesterday was super slow. I was asking all the people that left the pier if they caught anything and most said no. I asked one of the rangers there how the fishing was recently and he said it was slow too. Haha I got to check out your picture at the base of the pier when I was there too! What did you use for the stripers? Frozen chovies? I didn't venture out to the end of the pier when I was there yesterday. Just stayed at the base and caught a bunch of perches.
Posted by mel
Everyone caught fish, but I had an advantage. Red caught a shaker halibut, Robin caught a nice sized skate and a couple of rays, (Robin had a good hit once and he wasn't by his rod as he was returning from the restroom and one of the judges picked up his rod and set the hook and his line snapped!). As for Minnow, he was on the board with a 4 or 7 pound ray, (I forgot), and he was in the lead for a long time. There was a kid who was fishing near us for a long time and he was very quiet and stuck to himself. I struck up a conversation with him and found out that he was from a group of people fishing on the other side but he saw that we were catching fish on our side so he moved to the other side of us but staying out of our way. He was a very well mannered and polite young man and he sat watching his rod for hours without catching anything. Right at the very tail end of the derby the kid’s line started peeling out on his light set up. We cleared the way for him and Red and I coached the kid as while fighting his ray. He was doing a lot of things wrong but made adjustments well and listened to us. The ray eventually wrapped around a piling right below us and he was at a standstill. I could see the direction of the line below and where the ray was wrapped. I quickly grabbed my net and dropped it far into the water to make the ray swim in the other direction. It worked and the ray swam out but I almost got the net tangled in the line. Red grabbed the net from me, the line went free and Red netted the ray for him. Afterwards, I felt kind of bad for Minnow but we would’ve done the same for him too. Sorry Justin, I know you were hoping the kid’s line snapped, but in my book, you are still the KING FISHERKID!
How did I have an advantage? I didn’t post a report yet but I prefished the pier on Friday. Before I even did that I hit the local bait shops and got fishing reports as I haven’t been in the area for a while. No one knew anything about rays and sharks but I knew that there was a huge school of stripers in the area. Not just at Paradise but also north of the Richmond Bridge. There's a bigger school with bigger fish up north. One of my friends caught 7 keepers, the biggest going 27 inches and also caught numerous shakers and lost a bunch on a hair-raiser. All within a 2 hour window. If you look around and scout the areas there, you’ll be able to see the fish busting the surface. Not easy to do when it's windy though but look for diving birds and cormorants. And seals. Anyways, I hit the spot Friday armed with a variety of baits but found a good steady bite on fresh dead anchovies. I had steady shark and ray action all morning. In the afternoon I was getting little striper pecks and I managed to catch a 20 incher. The biggest ray went about 30 to 40 pounds and would've easily have been the winner. I caught a lot more fish on Friday and I had the place all to myself all day. I knew Sunday was going to be a good day so Red and I showed up early before anyone else did to claim our spot. Because the pier was so empty Friday, I was able to move around and see which area produced more. So... yes. I did have an advantage and I do make it hard to challenge me on my home pier but what the heck. I love that spot! And to all you guys striper hunting, here’s a hint. I caught more stripers there than rays yesterday. (I think. I lost count on the rays but it was close). Just take care of the place and don’t litter. The rangers there are very nice people and very fisher friendly. Another hint: Fresh dead ‘chovies on a hi lo, wait for striper bites, throw hair raisers. You’ll catch sharks and rays on the bait but at least you won't get bored.
Date: September 17, 2006
To: mel
From: PFIC Message Board
Subject: Paradise Pier.
Dead, dead and dead. Except for... Arrived at the pier about 7:30AM with my wife. Armed with fresh dead anchovies and some big time gear, I wanted to fight some rays to tune up for sturgy season. All I caught was a smallish ray in the AM. Was joined later by Grapeape, Grammer Police and his GF and 2 girls, age 7. Thank God they found plenty of other things to keep them occupied. It was dead! DEAD! Around 2PM though, Joey had something on the line and he let one of the girls reel it in because it was her birthday. She kept reeling and reeling... we looked into the water and saw a huge shark. At first I thought it was a big leopard and I heard Joey yell 7-gill! I grabbed the net, Joey grabbed the rod and I got the beast into the net only to have the net tilt because the thing was just not cooperating. Got it on the second try and lo and behold, it was a 54 inch 7-gill! What a birthday present for a 7 year old. I can see it now when her friends ask her what she got for her birthday and she says, “a 54 inch 7-gill shark!” The shark was released and if it wasn’t for that, well it really would have been a bummer of a day, fishing wise. At least it made the long drive for GP and his crew worth it. We cut out about 4PM. The weather was absolutely beautiful today. Sunburn for everybody today!
Posted by grammar police
Mel summed it up nicely... Sunburn weather and no wind made for a great day of fishing. I just wish someone would have informed the fish that Paradise Pier was in fact, just that!
Other than Mel's recap I have a few pictures to share. It was nice to meet your wife finally and to see Kevin again. Thanks for the moosubi (sp?) it was all S. talked about on the way home. Even Shannon enjoyed it knowing it was spam. I must say, most 7-gills I catch seem to disappoint in the fighting category. This monster bit like a sub 2-foot leopard and took no line off the bait feeder Okuma. I made sure the shark was hooked and brought over a cooler for R. (The b-day girl) to stand on. Those Paradise Pier rails are pretty high for a 7 y/o to fish over. The cooler did the trick and while R. was reeling in, she said “it is heavy, but I don't think there is a fish on!” I quickly told her to pause and flipped the bait feeder and only then, did the shark take maybe 5’ of line. Slapped it back down and told her to crank. Shannon assisted with stabilizing the rod while R. continued to reel. Thinking a small leopard was about to surface as the lead broke through the murky water, I was shocked by what I saw. A nice sized 7-gill made a few tail slaps as his jaws were out of the water. No runs from the surface, just a bit of splashing. I yelled “SEVEN” and the word “NET.” As soon as I turned around, both Kevin and Mel were there ready to deploy. To ease in landing I took the rod and did the backup dance to position it within net range. Mel got the shark in on the second swing. Shannon took pictures of the action and prize.
Date: October 7, 2006
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier. What fun!
At least for me it was. What a beautiful sunrise. Got there about 7AM and hooked up immediately on grass shrimp. Turned out to be a smallish ray, and I got about 3 in a row during the bottom of the outgoing. As soon as the tide turned around the bite died out. Danthefisherman was there early too and he also got some rays before it died out. Fatsmalone and his friend showed up as well as Guycognito. Nice meeting you guys! It was pretty dead with a ray here and there during the entire incoming tide. At about noon I got what looked like a striper bite and I set the hook. Felt like a small striper at first then all of a sudden it started peeling line and took off. Great fight and some mean headshakes! So here I am, fighting this thing and I couldn't quite figure out what it was but I knew it was big. During the fight I was even thinking that it might be sturgeon or a big shark because of the sporadic bursts of speed and line peeling runs. I looked in the water and I saw a seals head pop up about 40 or 50 yards out and in its mouth was a small striper. “Hey, look at that seal. It's got a striper in it's mouth,” I laughed. I thought maybe it was my fish so I tugged on my rod and saw my line come out of the water right to where the seal was. Hey! That's my fish! Then it became a tug of war. I was fighting the seal for my fish back. Funny thing was, I was winning! For some reason, the seal didn't go under and try to take off with my fish. It was a pretty fun tug of war and for a minute, I was actually reeling the seal in closer. Then I felt it let go when I was reeling but I still had my fish on and I could see the seal chasing it. I reeled like crazy and I was reeling so fast that my fish was hydroplaning on the water for about 20 yards. I managed to pull it out of the water and get it up on the pier and it was mangled pretty badly on one side. We measured the fish and it was only about 17 inches so I had to let it go. It swam off but not too well.
Eventually, Baitchucker and his wife showed up and so did Red and Sylvana. Red hooked up on his first cast with a mackerel carcass. Turned out to be a small ray. I cast out a big piece of a mackerel fillet and it was getting bit immediately. They were really small bites so I just let them peck away hoping something bigger would pick it up. Sure enough, something bigger did. My 505HS was singing and I set the hook. I had what felt like a decent sized ray on the line and it was moving to my right, which meant trouble. That’s where everyone else’s line's were. I picked up about 3 or 4 lines on the way in and the ray was getting heavier and heavier. After a pretty long and very, very tiring fight we finally got the beast in. It weighed only 42 pounds but felt heavier. Must’ve been because it was dragging in all those lines? I hope it's not because I'm getting weaker at my old age. Maybe I was tired out from fighting with that darn seal? Anyways, it turned out to be a great day and a lot of fun too. It was nice seeing old friends again and making new ones. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day! Oh yeah, the fish tacos. How can I forget?
Posted by mel
Both Fatzmalone and Baitchucker and his wife brought fish tacos. Both fish were lingcod. Both of their cooking was excellent! Thanks for the fish tacos folks!
Posted by guycognito
Yep, mackerel is a great bait for this area. It’s the only bait I use when I go sharaying in Sausalito, and those sharays love that oily, bloody stuff — and it’s inexpensive. It was pretty entertaining to watch Mel reel in that big ray with a pair of spider sinkers and an 8 oz pyramid in tow.
No kidding about the good food today. Both Fatzmalone and Baitchucker should post their recipes. Fatzmalone, how about your cabbage salad recipe too? Now I want to catch a lingcod. Hopefully this won't turn into another obsession. Today was my first visit to Paradise Pier and it was a great trip. Nice meeting everyone.
Date: January 1, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier 01-01-07.
Woke up this morning with my head in a fog. And I don’t even drink (anymore). My wife and her sister decided last night that today would be a good day to go fishing. I only coaxed them a little. We got to the pier about 8AM and could hardly see the pier. It was so foggy that I set up a rod on the other side of the pier and we could hardly see it. And this pic was taken at 10:30AM! Good thing I remembered to bring my bells.
All I had for bait was frozen herring and anchovies, which have been thawed and refrozen many times over. I also brought along some salmon roe, which have been sitting in the freezer for eons too. First cast yielded us a small shark and I was happy that my sister in law didn't come all the way from Indonesia to get skunked. I was kind of embarrassed that I didn’t know exactly what kind of shark it was. It was pretty slow in the morning but the tide swung around and began a pretty good outgoing cycle. In the afternoon we were getting bit left and right by those pesky critters, but she was having fun reeling them in so it was all good. The highlight of the afternoon was a 40 to 45-inch leopard shark, which she reeled in herself. Here's a pic of one of those pesky critters.
The lowlight of the day... why is it that with all these square miles of water in front us, that lousy skippers or so called captains just have to maneuver right over your line. Man, I swear... If I didn't have my wife and sister in law with me, this could've got nasty. But...cooler heads prevailed today. Didn't want to start off the New Year on the wrong foot. I did however fire off one warning shot about 10 feet from the boat and did the, “oops, bad cast” routine. My sister in law laughed but my wife gave me a stare. She knows me pretty well. Here's a pic of the boat and this is a shot when he was circling far from the pier. He actually got a LOT closer. And it wasn’t even foggy anymore!
All in all, it was a wonderful way to kick off the New Year. Got out on the water and caught some fish. WTG! Come to think of it, when I was about to start cursing the boat out when it came close, it veered right and I saw the name of it. The boat was named “Patience.” Might be a good resolution I guess.
BTW, The pier is looking good. Nice and clean with a newly paved road from the parking lot to the pier. Too bad nothing else biting but sharks right now.
Posted by DSRTEGL
Those pesky critters are spiny dogfish. The boaters have been a problem at that pier since I fished it as a kid. I had one tie off to the pier once so someone on board could use the bathroom for pity’s sake. About all you can do is take a picture of the boat, boat’s name and the Coast Guard registration number on the side, and make a little phone call to the Sheriff or Coast Guard. I did that once after a boat drifted by less than 30’ from the front of the pier and the idiots on board cussed at me because they got tangled in my lines.
Posted by stripesidechaser
What’s with all the spiny’s this year? I'd never seen nor heard of any caught up here in the bay, but this year they are everywhere. Red, HikingJay and I did a trip to Berzerkeley a couple weeks ago, and we caught at least 20 of those buggers throughout the day. Nobody else seemed to be familiar with these either... is it just me, or is this a new thing (problem, in my book)?
Posted by red fish
I caught plenty of spiny dogfish last year at Berkeley Pier Bob. Usually BP is abandoned for the most part this time of year, thus the lack of winter reports. Spiny dogfish breed during the winter months and prefer to always stay in a water temperature of around 49-52 degrees Farenheit. They will keep migrating until they find the proper climatic conditions. The S.F. Bay just happens to fit these conditions in the winter, thus their absence in spring and summer months. Not a very big shark as they are born 8-12 inches and mature around 24” with the female maturation size being closer to 3 feet almost the full-size they obtain. Male reaches maturation in 11 years whereas female reaches maturity at 18-21 years of age... Some conflicting scientific information depending on whose study you read is that some say spiny dogfish live to about 25 years where other studies say they can live as long as 100 years. There dispersion is world-wide being in the Pacific and Atlantic waters. And no I'm not just making this stuff up as I go along Bob.
Date: January 2, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: S_L
Subject: Rods
May I ask you: what is that casting rod you are using? (looks like Daiwa to me) What is the size/model? Thanks
Posted by mel
Daiwa Sealine Surf Series. 11 foot 3 to 7oz. I throw 8 and bait with all the time. It’s a launcher. Good back bone with a sensitive enough tip to detect sturgeon bites.
Date: January 15, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fatzmalone
Subject: Paradise Pier 1/14/07
Fished Paradise Pier with Alexj707 & Ryan.b from 8am till 1:30pm. We used Ghost shrimp, grass shrimp, & cut herring. For the fist half of the day we had the whole pier to ourselves. Surprising! But really not so much, being that it was really cold out there. Later three other anglers showed up & seemed really unprepared. When I asked what they were fishing for they said that they had no idea. I offered some bait & they accepted. That was about all of the conversation. We all got the big Skunk but Alex707 managed a small spiny dogfish. We all had a great time out there joking & laughing, telling story's & such. It had been a while since we had seen each other, so we had a lot of catching up to do. I left at 1:30pm. What a great day though. I’ll have to get ‘em next time, still working on getting that 1st dino. To bad it probably won’t happen for another 30 or so outings.
Date: January 19, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dkkim
Subject: Paradise
Almost Paradise... just like the song, I'll give you a cheesy song and dance. Headed up to Paradise w/ Red. Picked up some ghosties from Oyster Point (ripoff! Jailhouse is much cheaper) and headed to the pier for the outgoing. Met up w/ Red, BCooney, & Shane (Nice to finally meet you Brian and Shane). Nothing for a few hours until... I get the pump pump... then I set the hook and Game On!!! Line is coming off my reel like butter. I set the hook 4-5 times but I must've not done it good enough. Long story short, the fish comes to the surface, pops the hook and said bye bye. The huge spawn that was reported in the paper... was not huge. Probably smaller than the one at Oyster Point. A few birds just chillin, waiting for low tide so they could eat the egss. btw, no herring in the throw nets. Overall, it was an awesome day to be out.
Date: February 18, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Making noise on Paradise Pier.
Got to the pier at 8AM with my wife only to find FishinChris and a friend of his already there. What a surprise! The bite was pretty slow all morning, well actually none of us got a bite all morning. The incoming tide really sucks there. Was joined by James and Julie a little later and we all just stared at rod tips all day. Anyways, at about 2:30PM, a couple of hours into the outgoing I got a good hit. Set the hook and fish on! Nice sized sturgy and a nice little battle. Fish bit on ghost shrimp on my 10’ Lami Surf King and a souped up Tanified Penn 505HS. After a nice long tug of war and a nearly botched net job by me, up came a 67 and a half-inch FAT sturgy, helped onto the pier by none other than Redfish and a some other guy. Man, what a fight! This one must’ve weighed at least 75 pounds. Can't think of a better way to advertise the upcoming sturgeon get together, huh?
Date: February 25, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier. No sturgeon but I caught an Ulua!
That is what this is, isn't it? Caught on mud shrimp. Fought like crazy. Thought it was a small striper or a shark. fish was released. It's a long way back to Hawaii. That’s all I got today. A guy caught a 36-inch, 7-gill but that was about it. I left at 3:30PM. Red was still there, Tugboat hunting.
Date: May 6, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Raidersfan1
Subject: Paradise Pig Roast 5/5/07
Although this was Fatz’s event, he requested that I do the report for the board. SS23 and I arrived to Paradise Pier about 10am to find most on the pier already, which consisted of Fatz Malone and his entourage, Alexpj707, Redfish, BigRich, ICA and his son. We set up near ICA and after some talking got our rods in the water. Water was calm with a strong incoming. Baits used that I know of were sardines, macks, squid, anchovy, bullheads, shad, pile worms, ghost shrimp and grass shrimp.
Bite was slow for the amount of rods and various baits in the water. Alex hooked up with a ray soon after on the smallish side. MM and Robin showed up shortly with MM toting a 27 inch Halibut that later was fileted by ICA and cooked after the pig was done. That was good!
MM hooked into a ray and the bites slowed. More of Fatz entourage showed up and at about 2pm, Fatz announced the pig was ready. Some of us brought our rods in to go eat and the layout that Fatz and his helpers put on was awesome, the pig was split on a flat grill and as SS23 and I walked up, he was already cutting huge portions and putting them into an aluminum tray for everyone to help themselves. There was homemade coleslaw that Fatz made as well as a green and red salsa for the tortilla chips.
SS23 brought a pot of sticky white rice Hawaiian style and I brought sourdough rolls for pork sandwiches. Each person ate very well with plenty of pig as leftovers. Fatz wrapped up a huge quarter of the front leg for me to take home and it barely fit into my cooler. I think most everyone went home with leftovers as there were alot left.
Fishing resumed afterwards, with ICA and his son leaving around 3pm to go home and get ready for a crab feast with the crabs his son caught. At about 3:45pm, as SS23 and I were slowly packing up to leave, SS23’s rod hits some deep bites. As he sets the hook, the fight was on. This ray took him up the pier to the left side, then back down again to the right, settling close to the middle pier. Some rods were pulled in to give him room to run. As the ray took to the right side, out of the water this fish leaps. It was a monster ray! He hit on frozen shad.
It took him under the pier to were it was a standoff, neither one gaining ground until the ray decided to move back out into the front of the pier to were we all got a good look at this beast. He was thick with a healthy wingspan. Alex was the net man as he lowered it but the ray avoided it. Shane, one of Fatz's buddies grabbed the 80 lb braid and maneuvered the ray. Just as he lifted the ray’s head out of the water the hook on SS23’s 125-lb steel leader snapped dropping the ray back into water. However, Alex had just gotten the net under him as he fell into the net.
It was hoisted up by Alex and Kevin as it came on deck. This ray was 43 inches and 58 lbs, but it was thick! Photos were taken and was soon released back into the water safely. It was a good fight for the day. Largest ray caught by the time we left at 5pm. We took a group photo on the right side of the pier.
Redfish and BigRich left near the time we did leaving Alex, Fatz and his entourage to continue fishing.
It was a great day at Paradise, a beautiful day with little or no wind, lots of sun. Meeting new friends, fishing with old friends and enjoying a feast that turned out to be excellently prepared. If you missed it, you missed a great day! Mike
Posted by SturgeonSlayer23
My Paradise Pig Roast Ray. Caught this bad boy around 3 or 4 p.m. I think. Hooked up on steel hi/low w/frozen shad w/5/0 Gama circles. One helluva fight, lasted around 10 minutes or so. Much credit to alexpj707, Shane and RF1 for the help on the net, hand lining and clearing the way for a successful landing. My lower back feels like Jeff Gordon getting beer cans thrown at him for passing Dale Earnhardt's record. If you know NASCAR you know what I'm talkin’ bout Topped out at 58lbs. and 43 in. wingspan. Thanks again you guys. -SS23.
Posted by mel
Actually, I fared a little better. Fished from 8AM until 1PM. Probably caught about 7 to 10 rays, (lost count) but nothing big. Also caught a leopard that was probably legal. All fish were caught on frozen ‘chovies and grass shrimp. Wish I could've made the thing the day before.
Date: June 11, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Paradise Pier
Brian Hoffman—The Fishing Report 6/7/07 — San Francisco Chronicle — The bays
S.F.-San Pablo: ... Don Drotman, out at the pier at Paradise Park (upper end of Tiburon peninsula), fishing sharks. He lands three seven-gill, somewhat to the delight of a Cub Scout troop having a picnic nearby. The last and largest of the shark catch was 4 1/2 feet, enormous and bizarre in its presence, and the boys walked over for a look. One kid had a question for Drotman: “You caught three sharks?” Drotman: “Yes.” Kid: “You should not throw them back. You should sell them on eBay” ... Big happenings at the Berkeley Pier last week, too, with the supremely skilled and/or patient plank regulars jigging up bait and dropping it down for halibut. According to one of the party-boat skippers, watching as he drifted nearby, an entirely unofficial one-day count from the pier last week had 70 halibut landed.
Date: May 28, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: thnderr
Subject: Paradise Pier
Haven’t been able to make it back onto the water since the MMGT so loaded up the wife, stepsons, their cousin and fishing gear into the truck and headed to the pier. We stayed from 7a-4p. It started out with a great double hookup within the first 10 min. (wife w/ a ray and younger stepson with a smoothound. It was fun trying to run back and forth with the net between them. Then the inevitable slowdown (about 3 hrs worth). I was the next to strike with a nice 49” leppy (invited home for dinner). Then back to the waiting game. After another 3 hours the bite picks up again. Oldest stepson starts it off with a small skate and then a monster skate! Never seen one that large before. The wingspan topped out at 32” and well over 36” in length (pic below). Then I finished up the bite attack with another much smaller leppy, spiny dogfish and 2 rays. The big thrill of the day by my wife was the huge run by a mystery fish (probably a stan-size ray) that took off like a locomotive and then the worst sound (SNAP) goes her line before she can get the rod in hand. All in all a great day had by all except for almost getting blown off the pier by the insane winds.
Date: July 1, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: cheddah
Subject: Paradise Pier 7/1
Beautiful day to fish, but the fishing sucked. Armed with pile worms and frozen anchovies, my friends and I got to the pier at about 4:30pm and stayed till 8pm. We caught bullheads on about every cast so we switched it up with bigger hooks and started using the bullheads for bait. Didn’t get any action at all. Pier was pretty deserted. When we got there we saw a family catching perch and smelt so we told them that perch were out of season so they stopped keeping the perch, however they had already gutted and cleaned a few perch so I told them that if the rangers checked they would get in trouble. Oh well, even though we didn’t catch anything to bring home, it was a fun day of fishing.
Date: July 20, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mars33
Subject: Spouse friendly piers in the SF Bay Area?
I picked up fishing last year, but all in all have been on the piers less than a dozen times. I’m working pretty long hours and my wife doesn’t really appreciate if the little time that we can spend together is even more limited by me hanging out on a pier. So I was wondering which piers in the Bay Area are good to bring the missus and my daughter (2 years old) where they can hang around, have a little picnic, maybe with a playground around, while I can go fishing?
Posted by Red Fish
Paradise Pier. I encourage anyone who has not been to this pier to go as there is no finer pier I know of in No-Cal as far as accommodations (actually, the Oakland Army Base Pier (can be outrageous for keeper leopards on midshipman or shiners, and there are halibut and striper in close on the front right almost facing the Bay Bridge on frozen chovies on a slider) was in A-1 condition a couple years ago (free) and the new Middle Harbor Pier is very picturesque and currently unspoiled (decent fishing). As I was saying: if you have not been to Paradise, it is well worth going and family friendly. Check out the additional link to park info in the message section of Minnow's event. Note: Parking is $8 in the summer or $2 for walk-ins or bike-ins. Some parking is available up top as I went there on Father’s Day and there just happen to me an Arabic cultural event going on that day and the entire parking lot was full, so the only alternative was for people to park on the road above. I have never seen that park so full... and luckily, I arrived at almost the end of the day and most of the activity was over and people were going home. The park in opened until 8p during daylight savings time... and actually, I think I was able to fish until 8:30pm the last time I was there.
Posted by mel
I second Paradise Pier in Tiburon. Although at times it can get notoriously dead, pile worms under a bobber will keep the kids busy with smelt.
Date: September 22, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: mel
Subject: Paradise Pier Tournament
First fish, Mel, 8:05AM
Most fish, Mel, 10, 12 maybe 14? I lost count.
Biggest fish, Mel, 50 inch 21 pound leopard shark.
The judges were nice enough to reconfigure the prizes so more people had a chance. Believe it or not, the other two people in the adult category was Surffisher who got a prize for smallest ray, (although I’m sure I caught a smaller one than his but I ain’t complaining), and Red got the biggest ray at 15 pounds. Surf fisher was in second place in fish count with 4 too. He lost the potential biggest fish when it took him under the pier and busted off. So a clean sweep by PFIC'ers today in the adult category. Oh yeah, I won a parking pass and a 25 dollar GC for Western Sportshop. It was fun. I'm tired.
Date: September 29, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: catfished
Subject: Paradise Pier Sept. 29
The weather was great but the fishing was tough, especially for me. We were targeting rays and sharks, Mary caught her first ever shark, a very tiny smoothhound. She also caught her first bat ray, a scrappy 7 pounder and also managed another one weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces. I missed a few hits but never landed anything. Around 2:30 pm I hooked into a big fish that was most likely a big ray. I hooked it while fishing the left corner and after a sizzling run straight out, it took off to the right and I followed it through a couple of other fishing lines and then it went around the right side of the T and turned in towards the inside of the pier. It then tried heading back the way it came but headed towards the pilings, I tried to put on more pressure to stop it and snappo went the leader.
There weren't many fishermen there today, a couple of guys fishing the right corner hooked into a few small rays. I got to meet clutch633 when he caught a nice keeper halibut with a hair raiser on his second cast. Being a good C & R man, he released it to be caught again another day. Clutch was there to witness my battle with the big bat ray or whatever it was.
The rangers there really treated us like royalty, shuttling us down to the pier and taking me back up to the car because I forgot some of the gear and most important, gave us a ride back up at the end of the day. I told them I knew Mel and after further consideration they said they would still give us a ride back up anyway
Date: June 2, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: jettyjockey
Subject: Setup at Paradise Park Pier for Halibut
I'd like to know the setup for fishing halibut at Paradise Park Pier in Tiburon. Is it like the setup used at Bekeley Pier with a slip float or trolley float (Pacifica Pier style)? ...whole or cut anchovies on high/low rigs? I also assume that live bait is the ticket? Thanks in advance for any feedback provided.
Posted by piemel
Live bait is the ticket.... if you use dead bait on hi-lo’s you will get hammered by sharks and rays. Standard 3 way live bait set up will do just fine. Btw, the hali bite has slowed WAY down in the past few days... most of the halibut seemed to have moved on to deeper waters for example near Angel Island.
Date: June 8, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: ob_kook
Subject: Paradise Beach Pier 6/8/08
Beautiful day out there, and not too crowded on the pier. Fishing wasn't too kind to me, but there was some action to be seen. The low tide saw 2 nice halibut taken (estimate 23-25”) on the left side of the T. Typical slider rigs and frozen bait. Off the right side a nice striper taken, around noon I think, and also on frozen chovies. He was using 8 oz of lead and a 12-ft surf rig and casting WAAAAAY the heck out there. Nothing much went on all afternoon (think I saw a smelt or 2 get hand lined up, and then about 4 pm, some guys came down and within 15 minutes getting their lines wet, hooked something big. It made several runs nearly spooled him. He squished down the drag some and was making some headway, getting it pretty close to the pier and what with the drag now (too) tight, it made another run, breaking off the line before anyone had a chance to see it. Just a lake fisherman from MN tryin’ ta get salty!
Date: June 11, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: b33zG0NEfish.N
Subject: Paradise Pier
When I first heard of the pier I was told that Sturgeon are caught out there. So my first hook I was like uhh-oHH here it isss.. By the time I got it close enough to see its head, I realized it was just a ray!... Then Ray after Ray after Ray... Fun as hell to catch but don’t know how to cook one... U guys ever see that video on Youtube about some guy
Posted by grammar police
Yep. The Youtube hero is a regular here and the man when it comes to pier caught sturgeon. Just don’t take him in your boat. Though I think his mojo from a boat may be turning! His wife makes killer food!
Posted by b33zG0NEfish.N
Do you know if he uses a sturgeon rig? and what bait does he use? And do you really have to cast way the heck out to have a chance at a Sturgeon off that pier?
Posted by mel
Sturgeon rigs and shrimp baits. BUT... The area is notoriously slow for sturgeon. Be prepared to put in time. I'm talking days sometimes without a bite. Crabs will steal your bait too. You should try to cast far to increase your range but it isn’t really necessary.
Posted by northern boy
Mel wrote: Sturgeon rigs and shrimp baits. BUT... The area is notoriously slow for sturgeon. Be prepared to put in time. I'm talking days sometimes without a bite. I think we can call that a Sturgeon Generals warning.
Posted by dkkim
I guess this is someone that is star struck??? Or maybe sturgeon struck??? sorry, it's late.
Date: June 21, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishnchris
Subject: Paradise Pier, June 21
Fished Paradise Pier from 7 am to 12 pm for a couple of rays. I fished with dead anchovies and live bullheads, which the guy at the bait shop called “striper candy” but no striper’s seemed to have a sweet tooth today. Other people on the pier were catching lots of smelt and shiners on the pier.
Date: July 20, 2008
To: surf_fisher
From: PFIC Message Board
Subject: Paradise Pier get-together
Started off the day picking up chovies at Berkeley and having it all dumped in the back of my truck at the Richmond toll booth. DOH! There goes 4 hours of extra sleep and 15 bucks I could of had. Started fishing at 7 with the dead stuff in a crappy mood. When other fishers were showing up setting up for halis and stripers. They were telling me, the day before the stripers visited the pier. How many times have I heard that before. I picked up a couple of rays and leopards before minnow showed up. Plenty of rays and a few sharks came up. A total of 2 legal halis came over the rail and one big one over 30” was lost in the attempt to net it. Very windy late in the morning and afternoon, but the sharays did not disappoint us unlike the MMD at Berkeley. Finished off the day feeling good after the bad start. I'll let minnowmag do the rest.
Date: August 11, 2008
To: PFIC Message Board
From: fishnchris
Subject: Paradise Pier 8-10
Fished Paradise Pier Sunday from 7 till 1 with frozen anchovies for absolutely nothing, nada, zilch. I did see a couple of small rays caught and kept for dinner. The crabs were out in force and I couldn't keep bait on my hook more then a couple of minutes. Due to the lack of rain in the spring I’m sure the crab nuisance will only get worse in San Pablo Bay until winter comes. There was a lot of fishing boats and jet ski's buzzing around the pier, I was hoping they would scare the fish closer to the pier but I had no luck
Date: April 18, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise Pier ................. slow
Fished for 3 1/2 hours... was not even successful in feeding the crabs. tried anchovies and squid on the heavy rod and rattletraps and swim baits on the light rod. Not even a nibble the whole time. Saw a leopard shark caught and kept, not much meat on one that size even if it was legal (barely) , and a few jacksmelt.....THAT WAS ABOUT IT. Even those fishing the bottom on slider rigs did not have much trouble with crabs today. WAY too many boats passing to close to the pier and kayakers that insisted on shooting the pier and EVEN FISHING UNDER IT???? Sigh... Makes you wonder! DSRTEGL... That means Desert Eagle
Posted by northern boy
I was there from ~8am-3pm on my kayak. It was very slow for us as well. I didn’t shoot the pier! I know one of us was trying to make bait under pier, I guess he figured it was the best way to keep out of everyone’s way. I ended up giving him some shiners. I did see a couple of boats come way too close, including a sailboat that was just plain arrogant, ignoring everyone’s calls. I also saw a boat with three guys fishing six lines, whose CF number is safely with Caltip. The DFG showed up later and were surveying the scene with some very powerful optics. The action on the pier picked up a hair at the bottom of the tide, with one landed and one lost, but given the number of rods out there it was still a very, very slow day.
Date: April 25, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise Pier 4/25… Slow
Fished from 10am-3:30pm... There was one halibut and a small leopard shark caught before I arrived.. Several big somethings were hooked during the day... One by me... But most were lost when they shot the pier and broke off. There was one skate and two mud marlin caught and successfully landed while I was there. Used a 10’ Tica paired with my Penn 525 and my 12’ Ugly with my 20 year old Shimano Baitrunner 650. Bait was salted sardines, salted chovies, and squid. Crabs got pretty bad once the tide hit slack.
Date: May 10, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise 5/10… SLOW
Fished from 8:30-12:30. Saw one Bat ray caught and I landed a small schoolie striper that was undersized and THAT WAS ABOUT IT. Apparently they still have problems with IDIOTS crashing there at night and trashing the place... Beer cans, cigarette butts EVERYWHERE... Blood stains on the pier deck instead of in the cleaning station WHERE THEY BELONG... LOSERS!!! Show some class and pack your trash people! At least the pier does not smell of urine AND WORSE like Berkeley but this is MARIN we are talking about after all.
Date: May 17, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise 5/17 10am-2pm… SLOW
There was a halibut on deck when I arrived. Looked short to me but it was kept. One small leopard caught off the right corner that was quickly returned, I caught the smallest bat ray of my life off the left side. One small striper was caught and kept (again looked short) shortly before I left. LOTS more blood and gore stains from idiots not using the cleaning station that is RIGHT THERE!?!?!? Rumors of hallies caught YESTERDAY (typical)... Only a few boats getting too close to their pier. Only one kayak in area.
Date: June 7, 2009
To: PFIC Message Baord
From: dsrtegl
Subject: Paradise… PRODUCES
Fished from Just before 10am till nearly 6pm. Arrived in the parking lot in time to run into Rockhopper who was unloading his yak from the truck. Nice seeing you again BTW... Fished to the right of center of the pier on the “T”. Bait was old salt-brined anchovies and sardines for a while but no love. Ended up running in to SpicyTuna and he was nice enough to remember me and offer to share his bait (live anchovies) with me. If you have not had a chance to check out his bait rig you might want to... Pretty slick. Reminded me of some of the rigs I used to use when transporting expensive aquarium fish back in the day. Fishing was slow for most of the day until the tide started back out. SpicyTuna a nice striper (about 30” and one of the cleanest looking larger bass I have seen). I farmed a classic halibut takedown...
There was a halibut caught near us on a Kroc (27")... I landed a mid-sized bat ray. Thanks to Spicytuna doing a better job of watching my rod that I was... I was tossing a swim bait at the time... All Hell started to break loose as I was thinking about leaving... A short sturgeon… Several rays... A decent sized big skate... a couple of halibut... LOTS of lost fish... and then as I was reeling in to leave... FISH ON... Fighting kinda different.... Get it to the surface and... Ummmmmmmm.... Hey Eddy... It’s a halibut... GET THE NET!!!!!!!!! Great guidance and net job by Eddy and it is on the deck 28” and my first EVER halibut... That is right folks… over 25 years of fishing the Bay and it was my first... A solid 28”... and 7 1/4 pounds if I can trust my cheap scale. Winning combo... Ugly Stik Spinner w/Pfleuger reel, 12# Stren HiVis line, 3-way swivel rig, double hook leader and one of my nasty old salted ‘chovies.
Date: June 14, 2009
To: PFIC Message Board
From: DSRTEGL
Subject: Paradise Pier 6/14… Skunk
On the pier in general... several large dogfish caught 40+”. All female and all Kept. Was not expecting them to be gravid this time of year but I was WRONG... Bummer!!!! Two or three small leopard sharks... No rays... No skates... No stripers... two Halibut... Both 27”.
Not a single bite for me in eight hours of fishing. I helped land one of the Halibut using my net. Gave a lesson on how to bleed, clean, skin, and portion out a shark. That is when I found out the hard way that they were gravid... Barely developed embryos attached to large yolk sacks. The embryos were transparent and you could see them wriggling around and their internal structures.
Took a brief video for educational purposes for a friend’s science class. Won’t keep female sharks any more and neither will the guys I was fishing with I don't think. Nice group from Martinez and Hayward. Polite... Respectful... Even borrowed my bucked to rinse the blood off the deck... THOSE kinda fishing young people WE CAN USE. After eight hours in the sun I am somewhere between the regular and extra crispy menu even WITH sunscreen but I had to get out of the house.