Bocaccio Archives - Pier Fishing in California

Seacliff State Beach Pier — Aptos

Due to damage from the winter storms in 2023, the pier is currently closed. It is unknown when or if it will reopen. Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Only a few piers have truly unique features and this pier is/was one of them.…

Capitola Wharf

Due to damage from the winter storms in 2023, the wharf is currently closed. No date has been set for reopening. Public Pier — No Fishing License Required While some piers along the coast (such as Seacliff) have characteristics that help define and give identity…

Moss Landing Pier aka Sandholdt Pier — Gone But Not Forgotten

Most of the earth’s continents are girded by shallow shelves that slope gently away from the land for many miles, their depths seldom greater than a few hundred feet. On the East Coast of the United States, the shelf stretches for more than one hundred…

Monterey Municipal Wharf #2

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required The floating docks of Monterey Harbor and the pilings beneath Municipal Wharf II provide a rich and diverse community created largely by human activity. Such communities have imaginatively been called “accidental zoos.”… At low tide the pilings, shaded…

Balboa Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Piers are one of the most romantic spots on earth! If you don’t believe me, tag along on a visit to Balboa Pier on almost any summer night. By 10 P.M., darkness has enveloped the pier. But while…

Santa Cruz Wharf

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required When I first sat down to write about this pier, I almost didn’t know where to start. Should I talk about the pier itself, the municipal wharf built in 1913, the wharf which is the longest of the…

Morro Bay North T-Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Named for their shape, two mid-sized piers sit at the north end of the Embarcadero in Morro Bay. They are only a short distance apart and the environments and fishing are nearly identical. Regardless of size, they are…

Morro Bay South T-Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Sitting just a few hundred yards south of the North T-Pier, the South T-Pier is slightly larger and seems to be seeing an increasing proportion of the local pier anglers choose it as home. Perhaps this is due…

Cayucos Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Don’t believe everything you read. On a visit to Hearst Castle I had read that the fishing at Cayucos was generally poor—and so, I avoided it for years. I would drive right by the town as I headed…

Bocaccio

Scorpionfishes and Rockfishes: Family Scorpaenidae Species: Sebastes Paucispinis (Ayres, 1854); from the Greek word sebastos (magnificent), and the Latin words pauci (few) and spinus (spines). Alternate Names: Commonly called salmon grouper or simply grouper. Less common names include rock salmon, lockjaw, salmon rockfish, brown bomber,…