Cayucos Pier

Fish count: 25+ Jacksmelt (some very large ones included) — 7 barred surfperch — 1 walleye surfperch — 1 Steelhead — All released unharmed.

Date: June 17, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: cayucosjack; Subject: Cayucos Pier 6/14

Fished 6pm-11:30pm. Low-incoming tide. Clear but windy weather. Again tons of baitfish all around the pier. There were only a few of us out and we had it pretty good. The sea lions were pushing schools to the surface everywhere, all night long. I put in some hours looking for the big one (halibut, shark, ray, etc.) to no avail. I still had a blast and am extremely excited about what could be to come as we all caught a good variety of fish. I caught my first bocaccio of the year, some HUGE sardines, and perhaps most exciting to me was the run of Pacific Mackerel. In the 3 years I have been fishing Cayucos pier I have only seen a few caught and usually in the fall. El Nino must be at work. Gets me excited about the possibilities for the summer. Most would of you would think I was crazy to get excited over mackerel but around these parts its a big deal. There were 3 kids at the end of the pier that were just nailing them. One of the kids was pretty smart about fish and he said he had been there since 10am and he caught 5 short halibuts in the morning hours. He may have exaggerated but I do believe he caught some and he knew his species like a Peterson’s Field Guide. He had what has to be the largest sardine I have ever seen (had to be over 20”). There were a few people out sharkin’ late. All I saw landed was what appeared to be a small swell shark. I saw a guy get bent big time but he never landed it, must have broke off. My big rod only bent once and I missed it. Promising night though.

My catch: 6 shiners (Sabiki w/sardine strips, after dark); 3 bullhead; 1 small bocaccio (Sabiki w/ sardine strips, after dark); 2 white croaker (Sabiki w/ sardine strips, after dark); 1 Spanish mackerel (Sabiki bare jigged, daylight hours); 3 Pacific mackerel 10”-14” (Sabiki bare jigged, daylight hours); 25+ sardines (bare Sabiki, daylight hours, most were 12”-15”); 40+ jacksmelt (on anything, anytime, some in the 18-20” range). Most were released. I kept what is in the pic for my freezer and used about a half dozen sardines/macks for bait while I was there. Its not very often I come home with more bait than I leave with. Still looking for my first hali of the year and first shark of the year. (CayucosJack)

Date: August 12, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: EddieE; Subject: Cayucos Pier..my first LEGAL HALIBUT!!!

 I had an EXCELLENT day!! I got my first legal halibut! OK, here come the details. I got to the pier around 10:45 this morning and grabbed the bench on the beach side of the wash station. Since my dad didn’t come with me I decided to try and kill two birds with one stone. I put one of my lead heads with a fish trap on the bottom of my Sabiki instead of a weight. I hadn’t jigged for very long when I saw a group of small jacksmelt chasing my Sabiki to the top of the water. When I noticed them, I started jigging slowly right next to the pier….then….WHAM! I got hit! I yelled at a guy I’d met on the pier a few times and he came down and helped me with the crab net. I got worried once, while he was trying to net it he bumped it with the net and it ran under the pier… I had it on my lightest pole and I was worried that it was going to get in the pilings, but I pulled it back out. I fished for a few more hours without any luck other than baitfish. Time to cook…*grin* Eddie

Date: August 25, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Slash; Subject: Cayucos Pier 8/23

August 23, 10am to 2pm, Cayucos Pier; Custom rod of unknown origin and unknown components, 7 ft long; Pfluger Oceanic reel; 20-lb line, unknown brand (borrowed rig); Trolley Rig, 3 oz flat sinker, 3” Silver Perch for bait

I finally made it back to the Central Coast this past weekend. After much time had been spent planning my short stay to include as much fishing as possible while still accommodating my wife’s desires and our friends who were invited along, I only got to go out once on Saturday. However, the quality of the trip made up for the lack of quantity…

While our wives went shopping, my friend and I spent some time on the Cayucos Pier. We started out about mid-pier with a couple of Sabiki rigs to try and make some bait. We used bare rigs at first and soon progressed to baiting the hooks with squid, chicken livers, and some cooked bacon that my friend snagged from the breakfast dishes as we left the house. We weren’t catching anything, just like most of the other people on the pier. One lady was catching some shiners, though, but not very many.

After awhile, we decided to try the end of the pier. My friend’s Bacon-Sabiki started getting hits right away. He pulled in some little fish (less than 3” long) that looked like some kind of bass, but it was difficult to tell. He also brought up a small silver perch that he wasn’t interested in keeping. He gave it to me and I had visions of pulling in a halibut—just like Eddie did the other day. So I made up a trolly rig like I saw in Ken’s book and let that little fish go to do his thing. While I was waiting, I used my light rod to jig around the pilings. My friend kept pulling up little fish with his Sabiki and wouldn’t switch to a bigger rig because he said he was having too much fun with the little guys.   After a while, I noticed that my rod tip quickly dipped just a little, twice. I figured it was the perch swimming around and went back to jigging. About 20 minutes later, I decided to check on the little guy and picked up my rod. Wow! It felt heavier than a 3-inch perch! I thought I was hooked in some kelp, or maybe on a piling. I cranked a little and hauled back on the rod, and then I felt something alive on the end of my line—and it was kind of heavy! It didn’t run and didn’t fight much, so I just hauled and reeled. I looked over the railing and there was this ugly face looking back at me with lobate fins spread out on either side and two eyes sitting on top of the head. A big rockfish! My first though was that I had hooked a Cabezon.

Well, here I was with no net, no gaff; and my rod was bent double. So I handed my rod to my partner and pulled this fish up hand over hand until he was safe on the deck. Man, he was ugly! And look, he’s blue—I had a Lingcod! My, what big teeth he had! I had to step on his lower jaw with the toe of my shoe in his mouth to keep him still enough to measure. While being measured, he started chewing on my foot—that was a weird sensation. 24-1/2 inches—long enough to keep. I considered throwing him back, but decided that he would taste great on the grill. So, now two nice-sized fillets are waiting in the frig for dinner tonight!

Date: May 27, 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Scotty; Subject: Dazzlin’ Dan

On a vacation couple years ago, I was fishing off the end of Cayucos Pier. About 9 AM, this white bearded guy in his 60s drives out to the end of the pier in a golf cart, takes out a rod, sticks a big fish head on a huge treble hook and casts it way out. I generally like to pick up fishing tips from local regulars, so I asked him if he was fishing for sharks and if he fished this pier often. He told me that he was disabled and semi-retired, and fished the pier the same four days each week.

I asked him what was the biggest shark he had seen caught at the pier. He told me that he had caught a 7 1⁄2-footer, but that he had seen an 8 1/2 footer caught, and launched into a series of Cayucos “big shark” stories. Now I have seen my share of threshers caught at Pacifica and leopards in the Bay, but I was skeptical about all these monster shark stories. However, I kept listening politely because who can begrudge an old fisherman his stories? I noticed that he didn’t have a net, and I asked him how he got such large sharks up on the pier. He showed me his pier gaff. Then he told another story about how he was having trouble gaffing this 7-foot shark, so his buddy jumped off the pier, grabbed the pier gaff with one hand and the shark with the other, and manually gaffed the shark. This was too much for me—I started to feel insulted that he expected me to believe this, and I backed out of the conversation.

Then he said he was featured in Sunset Magazine, and pulled a scrapbook out of his golf cart. The scrapbook indeed contained an article about Cayucos Pier and referenced a pier rat named “Dazzlin’ Dan.” Then he turned a page in the scrapbook and showed me a photo of him on Cayucos Pier with a 7 1⁄2-foot shark. There was another photo of an 8-foot shark on the pier. Then he showed me a photo with another big shark and his (wet) buddy who had jumped in after it. Picture after picture of very impressive sharks on the pier – enough to back up his tales. Ya never know.

Date: August 31, 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: EddieE; Subject: Short Report—Cayucos

I’m dead tired so I’m going to make it short. Went to Cayucos and fished from 6:30PM till about 12:30 AM. Bait was EVERYWHERE… Caught ‘chovies, jacksmelt, Spanish mackerel, croakers, bullhead. The dog sharks were also there. I ended up with a total of 11 dog shark, smallest was 12″ largest about 3′. Eddie

Date: November 2, 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: by cayucosjack; Subject: Cayucos Pier 11-1-04 Report

When I got to Cayucos pier I could see that there was a lot of bait just past the end. I decided to throw a grub (1.5″ perch powers) in the surfline for perch while waiting for the bait to come in. Hooked into a couple of small walleyes and some big jacksmelt right away. The perch were right under the pier so I was working next to the pilings when I pulled up a 11″ steelhead on the grub. Thought it was a croaker till I looked closer. Took a pic and released the little guy. They are in a bit early as the creek isn’t even breaking the beach yet. I caught another small perch and decided to move down to mid-pier and use it for live bait on a halibut rig.

Set up shop at the sink and changed from a grub to a Sabiki with a Kroc at the bottom on the small setup. I tipped the Sabiki with squid and soaked it in Bang. Right away the big smelt were hitting the mackerel Kroc as well as the fishskins. I eventually found some anchovies, shiners and small topsmelt as well. I was able to keep an assortment of small live baits out the whole time but they went untouched.

I started jigging the Kroc/Sabiki next to the pilings to find the shiners (for leopard bait later that eve) when I found another school of steelhead. I caught and released another four (one on the Kroc, the others on the squid/Sabiki hooks). They were all 8-10 inches long and just beautiful fish. The pictures don’t do them justice. Please release these sweet little fish if you go… Stats: 5 steelhead; 30+ jack/topsmelt; 12 anchovies; 4 walleye perch; 3 shiner perch; 4 bullhead

All fish released except about 6 smelt, 1 walleye and the shiners (save what I used as live bait). The sun went down and I decided to follow through with my plans to target leopards in Morro, despite the urging of regulars who claim the dogsharks and swell sharks have been on a hot bite at Cayucos.

Date: November 28 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: mobynick1; Subject: Big Skate

I decided 5 years ago that I wanted to try fishing on Cayucos pier. One evening last June, my son and I went fishing and this is what I caught. The next morning, I went to the harbor patrol office and checked their records to identify the fish. According to their records, she was a big skate, about 100-120 lbs., and about 100 yrs old! I’d guess she was at least 6 ft. long and 5 ft. wide. I only had her out of the water a few minutes and then I let her go. I always wanted to catch Moby Dick…it looks like I got his mom. Now, I want to catch his daddy! Anyone else catch anything like this?

A BIG big skate  (Photo courtesy of “The Tidepool”)

Date: February 5, 2005; To: PFIC Message Board; From: cayucosjack; Subject: Perchin’ the Yuke