Pacific Mackerel Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Pier Fishing in California

L. M. “Pep” Pepper Park Pier — National City

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required One day I got a letter from John Lopez, an angler who had read the first edition of Pier Fishing In California. It began, “locals call it the 24th Street Pier—you may have omitted it deliberately.” The bad…

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…

Crystal Pier — San Diego

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Small though it may be, this pier has long held special affection for me for a number of reasons. Most prominent is the fact that it was the pier where my initial introduction to ocean fishing took place…

Hermosa Beach Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required The first time I visited this pier was in 1982; the pier was crowded, live bait was available, and anglers were catching yellowtail. That fact may seem trivial or insignificant to the uninformed, but it seemed pretty amazing…

Santa Monica Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required The angling piers of California are unique. At Redondo you find a little shop at the entrance with long rods and tackle to rent, and not far away the bait man, ready to provide clams, small fish, or…

Manhattan Beach Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required The visit which sticks out in my mind when I think of the Manhattan Beach Pier was neither my first, nor my most productive visit. It was simply a typical August morning about a year after the pier…

Shelter Island Pier — San Diego

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required In the summer of 1963 I moved from Costa Mesa to San Diego. The first place I fished was the Shelter Island Pier and I thought I had entered Nirvana, Utopia, or perhaps Canaan, but instead of milk…

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…