Need a little recreation? Got some time to spare? Want a tasty dinner? A great way to take advantage of a couple of spare hours is to wet a line at the local pier. California's piers are precious recreational resources built solely for enjoyment. Most folks who enjoy the coast find themselves out on a pier from time to time, grinning from ear to ear and enjoying an opportunity to quickly revert to carefree childhood ways. Some things should never change!

The gorgeous coast of California features recreational piers where everyone can frolic, fish, and fritter some time away. Some of the more popular and readily accessible ones include the piers at Imperial Beach, Shelter Island, Ocean Beach, Oceanside, Dana Harbor, San Clemente, Newport, Balboa, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Cabrillo, Redondo, Venice, Port Hueneme, Channel Islands Harbor, Ventura Harbor, Ventura, Stearns Wharf, Goleta, Gaviota, Port San Luis, Morro Bay, San Simeon, Monterey, and several other places up north. They are all great places to play throughout the year. Another advantage to pier fishing is that fishing licenses are not required on public piers in the ocean or adjacent bays - but remember, size limits and bag limits still apply.

There are some basic methods for pier fishing, plus some advanced techniques. The more common rigs are simple bait rigs such as the dropper loop or double dropper loop, with hooks in loops and a weight at the bottom. Reverse dropper loops are also used to allow a light bait to flutter around right on the bottom. A reverse dropper loop consists of a hook tied to the end of the line and a weight suspended from a dropper loop about 18 inches up the line.

There are several species of fish found around the pilings of a pier, however surfperch seem to be the most commonly caught species. Barred surfperch make for some pretty good eating, where the smaller shiner perch make for good live baits. Surfperches have new regulations this year, so be sure to read up on your regulations. Other fish which may be feeding near the surface include jacksmelt and mackerel. These are good eating when cleaned quickly, kept cold, and cooked that evening. They also make good live baits for even bigger fish.

Perch always seem to forage along the pilings of piers. Working up and down a store-bought bait catching gangion or home tied multi-hook rig, from the surface to the bottom, right next to the pilings, will usually earn an angler some perch. Favorite baits seem to vary from one angler to the next, but mussels, worms, and small pieces of fish or squid are common. Little pieces of meat left over from a previous dinner, as well as vegetable offerings such as frozen peas, are also good baits.

Some savvy and experienced pier anglers will fish for larger predatory species while out on the pier by parlaying small fish into larger ones. This is a quick course in advanced pier fishing. Here's the trick: Save a few of the smaller shiner surfperch, in a bucket of water, to use as live bait. No kidding, this technique is incredibly successful. Pre-tie some 18-inch leaders with a live bait hook at one end and a snap swivel at the other end. Tie a 4-ounce weight to the end of a 20-pound class outfit, make a medium cast, and take up the slack. Then pin a small lively shiner surfperch, mackerel, or jacksmelt on one of the leaders, close the snap swivel over the main line of the rig just cast out, and send the live bait down the line. As it swims downward it will work the entire water column. Send another live bait leader down that same line periodically until it pays off with a halibut, bass, shark or other glory fish. Some folks let that rig soak while they fish for bait with a light outfit. But, don't forget, no more than two lines per person are legal on a pier.

Large barred surfperch tend to stay out away from pier structures, more so than other species of perch, preferring instead to forage throughout the sandy flats of the surf zone. Surf fishing for them with small sand crabs is a time-honored technique, but they can also be caught from piers. One effective technique is to tie up a rig with a 2-ounce weight at the bottom and two short leaders off of the main line spaced just far enough apart so the short leaders can't tangle. Make a long cast into the surf zone where it's maybe three to six feet deep, and then very slowly drag the rig back along the bottom. This allows the bait to cover some ground, hopefully passing right in front of a foraging surfperch. They often forage in packs, so it is even possible to hook two fish at once. That's fun - doubled!

California Department of Fish and Game (News Release)

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State of California
Dept. of Fish & Game
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Sacramento, California 95814