San Francisco Municipal Pier aka “The Muni”

Posted by harukan

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but you might be better off going to the Delta. The fishing at both Muni Pier and Fort Mason is extremely poor because of all the sea-lions from the colony at Pier 39. In all the dozens of times I’ve been to Muni Pier over the past several months, I’ve NEVER seen anyone catch anything more impressive than the occasional croaker—and I do mean “occasional”; most of the time, most people catch nothing at all. On a “good” day, you might catch a few shiners and an anchovy or two.

For more details on Muni Pier, read my “rant” in last month’s pier reports. Everything I said then still applies: the pier is still filthy and poorly maintained (or rather, not maintained at all).

The Fort Mason piers are much cleaner, but only because hardly anybody goes there. There are no restrooms nearby, not even a Port-O-San, which could be why nobody goes there. The fishing is the same as at Muni Pier: rotten.

Posted by sroynelson

Fishings not so bad… I’m an SF local and I’ve had good days at the Muni Pier, especially in the winter, fishing around the pilings of the main pier, about a third of the way out on the inside, and from the cliffs just to the west before the hill up to the park. I’ve mainly caught perch — some pretty decent sized ones, and a few small rock cod. And if the sardines are running in the winter, it’s a blast. Large fresh grilled sardines are a real treat, but I don’t know if they are running now, or if they even run every year. The guys down at Kaplan’s sporting goods on Market always seem to know when and where the bite is happening on a day-to-day basis. Also, at the Muni Pier, at night, you can feed the raccoons any fish you don’t want to keep. I’ve also done some crabbing there and it can be good as well. And the view is “awesome.” And the bus takes you right there. -Good luck, and somebody email me if the sardines sweep in. I’ll post it if I hear of it. -Steve.

Posted by Ken Jones

Although I agree as to the deplorable conditions of Muni Pier, I continue to say that there are fish there to be caught. I just rechecked my records of the piers in the area and was a little surprised to see that I have averaged more fish there than at Pier 7 — although less than at the Ferry Building Pier (Pier 2). And the little piers just to the left of Pier 39, about as close to the sea lions as you can get, also yield fish, in fact a lot of kingfish and perch. So sea lions have not chased all the fish away. I’m not saying every trip is great but there is usually something around to catch—perch inshore, jacksmelt in deeper water on the top, sharks and rays on the bottom, small brown rockfish around the inner pilings, etc.

Posted by scooterfish

Try taking Muni, it can easily get you to any of the SF city piers, not just Fort Mason and Muni. I live in the Lower Haight and take the bus to Fort Point, Fort Mason, Muni Pier, Pier 7, Pier 2 and Pier 70 (I just discovered Pier 70 this weekend, report soon!)

Fishing Pier 2 tonight. If you are near Municipal/Ft. Mason piers or over that way, I would just take the F-line train (the old streetcar kind) from the Fisherman’s wharf area around to the ferry building or Pier 7. Piers 7 and 2 (ferry) are located within 1/2 mile of each other. The ferry building is at the base of Market Street, so any bus that goes down Market will work fine… I’ll be fishing Pier 2 tonight, probably from 7:00 till 10:30 or so as long as it’s not raining… Maybe meet up? Scooterfish

The next spring, when word began to circulate on the Pier Fishing in California Message Board about good catches of fish at the Muni Pier, the pier rats began to flock to the pier and its esteem rose once again—at least in regards to fishing. It still remained (and remains) a fairly dirty place to fish as well as a pier in which the fetor can offer a full, frontal attack on the olfactory nerve (it stinks).

Date: January 13, 2001; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Scooterfish; Subject: Actual Muni Pier Report (really!)

 Friend Richard and I started out at Pier 70 at 7:00am, fished till 11:15 there… nothing but nibbles from shiners, a pair of weird blennies and one striped perch that we released. Saw Readership there (how did you do at the Dumbarton?)

We ended up bailing to Muni Pier of all places… weather was nice, a little windy. I had picked up two-dozen pileworms from Oyster Point and scavenged a bunch of baby crabs from under rocks at Pier 70. We picked up some frozen grass shrimp at the bait shop near Muni Pier and got to work… Fishing was generally slow, but we noticed that this one elderly Chinese man was nailing cabezon, blue rockfish and kelp greenlings. We moved over to his spot (inside of the horseshoe, halfway out) and started catching fish… I caught an 8” cabezon first, released. A bit later I caught two kelp greenling, 9.5 inches 270grams and another 10.75 inches 380grams. You may be wondering why I know this; it just so happens that we were actually SURVEYED by a DFG guy… YES, an ACTUAL DFG officer was walking the pier and checking out peoples catches, and surveying those who were willing to answer the set of questions. He measured, weighed and recorded our fish, asked about our average catch and release rates, etc. We also caught a couple of striped perch which we released, although they were certainly eating size. I did keep the two kelp greenling (fish of the month after all!!) and fried them up as soon as I got home…YUM!!!

Also saw someone with a nice big rubberlip perch that was at least 15” long and FAT. Fished until 3:30 and called it a fishing day. All fish caught on the frozen grass shrimp, although I had several solid hits on the whole baby crabs…ripped em right off the hook! Pileworms proved useless today for some reason.

I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAD A NICE DAY OF FISHING AT MUNI PIER !!! About time…(and I actually got to see a REAL, LIVE DFG officer, a rare sight indeed….) Scooterfish —Sorry for the long post…some of us have actually been FISHING lately instead of “chatting” incessantly on the message board heheheh 😉

Posted by marv

A week and a half ago I saw a real DFG officer and his SUV at Fort Baker. He came out and checked our catches. He asked the fisherman what the differences were between the Rock, Red, and Dungeness crabs. WTF! He returned to his SUV to consult his book. Marv

Posted by harukan

Excuse me while I have a heart attack… I don’t know which to be more shocked at—the fact that somebody actually caught something besides baitfish and trash-fish off Muni Pier, or the fact that a DFG officer actually showed up on the pier. But both in the same day? My God, where’s the defibrillator?

Posted by Dan V.

Careful: UNDERSIZED FISH! Sort of surprised Fish & Game did not cite you for your under-sized greenlings as there is a size limit of 12 inches on them. Oh yeah, also a size limit on cabezon, 14 inches! Good luck with your fishing but be careful of the laws, most F&G wardens won’t let you slide.

Posted by Songslinger

Yeah, surprised me too. Guess the DFG official wasn’t too bright to let you get away with keeping undersized greenling. For shame!

Posted by Red Fish

They wear a DFG patch… on their shirts in this area. The guy in this area (S. F Bay) of No. Cal (big guy named Robert ). I have been interviewed by him numerous times last summer at various piers. Yeah, his research might have been for NMFS, but he was employed by DFG. No, he does not give citations or carry a gun, but he will tell you if you’re breaking the law. I always ask him where they are biting and he gives me good tips. A really nice guy.

Date: January 22, 2001; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Scooterfish; Subject: Muni Pier (Late Report 1/20)

Had my best day at Muni Pier ever…. Fished with my friend Richard actually started early (6:30 a.m.), purchased 3/4 lb. of live grass shrimp at Oyster Point, then fished Agua Vista Pier near Pier 70 for an hour and a half. Nothing there, so we moved over to Muni Pier.

First tried our “secret” spot on the pier for rockfish and sea trout and cabezon, caught one tiny cabezon with a HUGE belly, almost baseball sized, very strange, but no other bites, tide was outgoing strong and not easy to fish the pier.

We moved to the other side of the small abandoned pier that is just west of Muni — 30 feet or so. There is a nice ledge on the other side of the concrete wall that is fishable if you have a license in possession. We got to this spot around 11:00. Richard tosses out his line and gets a 1.75 lb. pile perch first cast, it fights like a little banshee… we got it up to the pier and tried hand lining it up to the ledge, but the line broke and it landed on the ledge that is 10 ft. below us, so I had to run down and grab it and throw it up to Rich… pretty funny, we were NOT going to lose that fish! No way. Met Joe (aka Fishsniffer) out there, and his buddy Ali also… Perch bite was pretty good… I got one of the biggest pile perch I’ve ever caught, just a hair under 2-lbs. on my scale, 15” long and 2.5” thick… gave me a great fight on my ultralight bass rod, actually pulled some line out… had to work him hard away from the pilings… tres’ cool…. Caught five striped perch 9”-12” and one rubberlip 9”… Fishsniffer caught a fat cabezon that was a few inches short, released (sorry you guys farmed that big perch!)… Rich and I went home at 4:30, cleaned all the fish, ended up with over 5 lbs. of meat and immediately fried up the biggest pile perch… damned tasty! When cleaning the big pile perch, I noticed the stomachs were PACKED primarily with crushed mussel shells, with some crushed baby crabs and barnacle bits mixed in… This gave me the idea that I might be better off using a slightly crushed WHOLE mussels for bait for these larger perch… anyone have any experience using them whole in the shell? Hit ‘em hard n fast…. and tight lines to all… Scooterfish

Posted by aafrench

We use a rig we make up and use a mussel cut in half. It is killer for perch. I have caught 20-30 perch off the pier when nobody else is catching anything.

The rig uses a metal “clamp” that is generally used to hold a stack of paper. Can be bought at the major Office Supply stores. I drill a hole in a flat 1-2-ounce sinker and use a nut and bolt to secure it through the bottom hole in the clamps handle. I secure the line on my rod to the eye of the sinker. I then attach two leaders to the top hole of the clamp. I use the clamp to hold a mussel that has been cut in half, be sure to get all the meat is in this half. Use the leaders to put the hooks in the meat.

This seems like a long process to catch perch, but I have had many days when I was the only one catching the fish, and others were trying to see what the heck I was using. Good Luck and tight lines, Andrew

Posted by harukan

Clever idea. Do you mean those black binder clips with the silvery handles, or is there another type of paper clamp you’re talking about? Thanks

Posted by aafrench

Imagine that you get one without the magnet, and you attach a weight just like the magnet is attached. You attach your leaders to the top hole, and clamp the mussel shell and attach the hooks to the meat in the mussel.

Posted by harukan

Ahh, Acco bulldog clips! That’s neat. However in the world did you happen to come up with that idea?

Posted by Songslinger

That Big-Bellied Cabezon. Could have been a Buffalo Sculpin. They are caught at Muni Pier and other spots on the SF or Marin side.

Posted by harukan

Wonder if you could use a tea ball? Your paper-clamp device got me to thinking. I wonder if you could use a mesh tea ball as a chum device? Fill it full of mussel flesh, and attach it to your line, maybe with a Slider, to attract the fish? The wire mesh is fine enough to hold the soft mussel flesh, yet would let the juice and scent disperse in the water. Has anyone tried anything like that?

Posted by ron

harukan… I would think that the contraption would probably work. However, I can imagine, since the tea ball is made out of metal, that the mussel chum plus the weight of the tea ball and a hooked fighting fish all together can put a strain on your line and/or rod. Perhaps using a small cloth or tightly woven nylon bag with a draw-string may be a “lighter” solution. Also, you may increase your chances of getting snagged in rougher terrain than that of a sandy open bottom. Otherwise, it’s a clever idea to attract fish to your baited hooks.