Shelter Island Pier report

[Ray619]

Mackerel being caught using glow sticks. Most are small and the bite is slow. They bit the strips of squid.
Fished a bottom rig using market shrimp. Caught a small spotted bass and a black croaker. Also caught a small perch but not sure the species. It unhooked itself before I can bring it up to identify it. It was silver in color...might of been a walleye perch.
Great night being outside and fishing...

 

[Mahigeer]

The best bait for catching mackerel is small strips of fresh caught mackerel.

Light stick at night is a lot of fun.

 

[Ken Jones]

Sounds like a fun time.

 

[TheFrood]

That's one of my favorite piers. Decent fishing, clean, restrooms, friendly people, food from the restaurant, plenty of available water, fish cleaning stations. If it had a bait shop/tackle stand and was a little larger it would be darn near the perfect pier.

 

[Ken Jones]

That's one of my favorite piers. Decent fishing, clean, restrooms, friendly people, food from the restaurant, plenty of available water, fish cleaning stations. If it had a bait shop/tackle stand and was a little larger it would be darn near the perfect pier.

Ditto. It has a bait and tackle shop but it's rarely open.

 

[TheFrood]

I've never even seen the bait/tackle shop... Where is it? I only see the craft beer/sausage restaurant...

 

[Mahigeer]

It is the front part of the restaurant facing the ocean. It changes ownership frequently. Thus, not always open.

 

[TheFrood]

I thought that was just storage or part of the restaurant! I've never seen it open or even with signs on it to indicate it was a business...

 

[Mahigeer]

P.S.
The photo was from the kid's Derby.

Usually in August. They always need volunteers to help out. I did the bait distribution.

I may miss it this year due to trip to Turkiye.

 

[Ray619]

I have not seen the bait shop open for a while now...

Back in the day, the shop would sell live anchovies and live ghost shrimp. When I was a kid, the owner would post pics of recent catches from the pier. Also I would buy a cup of chili from the shop. It was 2 bucks for a cup of chili. So many fond memories when my dad would take me out to this pier.

I agree with TheFrood...even though its slow, its my favorite pier to fish in San Diego. The people here are nice and the restroom and facilities is cleaner than most public piers.

 

[jungfisher]

The bait shop is open everyday during the summer. Other seasons, only on the weekends fri-sun. If you're going there at night it definitely will not be open.

 

[jungfisher]

I really don't understand when people say piers or other locations are slow. It should be prefaced with "when I'm there it's usually slow." The bite varies depending on when the mackerel or bait fish are schooling by a particular location. Sometime I'm there 2-5 hours and no one on the whole pier is catching anything. Other times everyone is catching during mack blitzes. Other times they are going for fast moving lures, other times squid, sometimes shrimp. other times mackerel. Usually everyone does the same thing: squid under a bobber or sabikis and they catch nothing. I switch to jigging deeper with a castmaster, hookup bait, or other metal jig and get them closer to the bottom. One corner of the pier can be holding fish while the rest is dead.

 

[Ray619]

Next time I will rephrase my reports..."when I'm there it's usually slow."