Cayucos Pier

Fished Cayucos Pier from about 3-5:30pm Thursday. Midway through a small incoming. Went looking to get some grubbing in without getting wet. I set up just outside the surf zone and worked a Carolina’d grub from the sand back out to me on the North Side (South had a bunch of surfers out). I stuck with small Kalin’s Perch Power’s scented with shrimp oil and on the other outfit a Sabiki tipped with cut mackerel. The grub caught fish immediately but the mackerel at the edge of the surf ended up producing much better fish (numbers and size). I also tried cut shrimp which caught a couple of fish too but they definitely liked the blood bait better. Most fish were small, a few were pushing 1-lb.

After the perch bite tapered I moved out to deeper water. The bottom from just outside the breakers to as far as I could cast off the end must have been covered in little sanddabs. Unfortunately most are the speckled variety and few were over 5”. They would hit any small hook baited with anything near the bottom (they’d hit it before it even got down). I quickly got bored releasing these little things and went home. Don’t the bullheads know that Cayucos Pier is their territory? Do they realize that a bunch of little dabs are stealing their (annoying) thunder? A regular at the pier said he caught a few sharks the night before. There must be a regular sanddab buffet for any predators lurking. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl tonight to see for myself.

Stats: 4 BSP on grubs — 13 BSP on cut mack — 2 big walleyes (shrimp and mack) — 32 sanddabs — ALL fish released.

Date: February 8, 2005; To: PFIC Message Board; From: cayucosjack; Subject: Cayucos Pier 2-7-05

Headed to Cayucos pier after it got too dark at the jetty. The tide was incoming, weather cold and clear. After about an hour of fishing I was joined by EddieE, the shark master himself, and he brought some luck out with him. We had a banner night by February standards. We fished until about 11pm from the end. I got a fat 16″ flounder on squid. The little sharks were congregating off the pier in great numbers. At one time we had a shark on 3 different rods at the same time. As usual the shark master out-sharked me. I got still got him in total numbers and ‘sides I got an edible fish too! The flounder was the first I’ve caught in a long time and probably my biggest. Since I never catch them I wanted to eat him but I also figured that was the best reason I could have to return it. I played it forward and released him hoping I’m doing my part to bring back the populations. Either that or I just missed out on a tasty meal. I did get one Pacific sanddab that was big enough to keep too.

My stats: 1 jacksmelt (squid); 5 white croaker (squid & mack); 4 bullhead (squid & mack); 2 walleye perch (squid & shrimp); 1 speckled sanddab (squid); 1 Pacific sanddab (squid); 1 starry flounder (squid); 5 smoothound sharks (squid & mack, all were lil 14-19″ers). Eddie’s stats (I think): 10 smoothound sharks (all lil guys); 1 thornback ray.

We released everything. After dark some people were catching BSP in the surf on bait. They reported the bite was awesome just before sunset. Even though tide was really low (that whole high tide perch theory is just not holding water lately).

Date: June 20, 2005; To: PFIC Message Board; From: cayucosjack; Subject: Cayucos Pier

 In hopes of finding some shark action I took the stroll out onto the pier about 5pm. There was one other family group that was spread out over the last half of the left side. Most of their rods were out for the big boys but they reported some perch and croakers on the bait catching outfits. I threw a Sabiki tipped with mackerel pieces and couldn’t keep it in the water. No smelt or mackerel, just a white hot croaker bite. Just before dark I gave up on the small stuff and went with two bigger rods. One was set up for anything that might come along, the other a bit smaller (17-lb test) to keep those lil guys fun. The little rod (Slydo, 24” 30-lb wire, 2/0 lightwire circle baited with a squid head) got bent first. I was surprised by the little skate in the pic. My second of the year at Cayucos (fairly rare around here). The angler next to me reported catching some bigger ones recently at Avila Pier.

Went on to have steady, even if not stellar, action. Most came on my bigger rod using Offshore Angler 5/0 wide gap circles and golfball sized chunks of mackerel. The swell sharks were out in force along with the thornbacks. No dogs or leopards like I saw on the weekend. As usual the swell sharks provided the tourists and other fisherman something to gawk at. Luckily I didn’t have to burp any!

The family next to me was getting frustrated. Every time I got one on they’d chime in “Not again!” I suggested they lose the squid and go with fishy baits and before I left they had started to catch thornbacks at least. I decided to let them have my hot corner and left about 10:30.

Stats: ~20 white croaker (mackerel tipped Sabiki, even some 12”ers!!) — 1 bullhead — 1 sanddab — 4 swell sharks (up to 30” on mackerel) — 2 thornbacks (mackerel) — 1 (small) Big? skate (squid head) — All fish released.

Most fish came between 8pm and 9:30pm. Fishy baits work best. Weather was cold and windy upon arrival but calmed at dark like it’s supposed to and was a nice evening after that. Moon was full, sky was clear. High tide was about 9:30pm and was almost a +7!!! Great Cayucos tides and a classic Cayucos Summer evening (well would have been with a dog shark or two).

Shovelnose shark (guitarfish)

Date: April 22, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: calpolypierrat; Subject: Cayucos is actually pretty hot right now….

To start this story, let me give you some background. On Tues. night of this last week, my friends and I went out to Cayucos to do some fishing since we hadn’t been there in a while. There were a bunch of people fishing there and within 5 minutes of us fishing, we caught two small spiny dogfish. The rest of the night was fun and we caught about 15 small dogfish between us. A gentleman at the end actually caught about a 4-foot shark that we helped land. It was fun so we decided to go back last night… and wow. We got there around 8pm and the night started of with my roommate catching the biggest thornback I have ever seen. That’s not that impressive, but it was an indication of the night to come. An hour later or so, my pole almost goes flying off the end of the pier. A 15 minute battle later, and with the help of those on the pier, I landed a 50-60-lb bat ray! That is my first successful landing of one. I was using 65-lb spectra that I had just bought that day. Boy was I glad I did. An hour or so after that, my roommates pole literally flies off the end of the pier, and we see in make its way into the ocean blue with something on the end of it. I made 3 desperate attempts to snag his line or pole with my rig, and on the third time, I got it. I fought his fish for about 5 minutes with my rig on his pole. Eventually we got a pier gaff and snagged his rod in the water once it was close enough, and then he finished off the battle for 15 minutes longer. With the help of some fellow Cal Poly students (thanks guys if you read this) we landed a 56-inch guitarfish! Now this is the first one I have seen alive and it was a monster. I didn’t think that they got any further north than Pismo either. Anyway, it weighed almost just as much as the bat ray. Not wanting to end the night yet, we stayed till 3am and about an hour or two before we actually left, I caught what I came to catch, my first shark of any significant size. The dogfish tipped the tape at just over 37 inches and was a decent fight. So, for all of you wondering what is going on at Cayucos, here is just a taste. All I can say is get out there and chance it…we did and boy did it pay off!!

Stats: two ten foot poles: one with 65-lb spectra and the other with store spooled 20-lb test. — squid and whole sardines for bait — wire leader and 6/0 circles — 50-60lb bat ray with 3-ft. wingspan  — 56-inch shovelnose — 37.5-inch spiny dogfish — 5 thornbacks

Date: June 23, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: pierkahiki; Subject: Re: Morro Bay/Cayucos Action??

My girlfriend and I fished at Cayucos pier last Saturday night from sunset to about 11:00 pm. Using hi-lo leaders with 1/0 circle hooks baited with chunks of mackerel or squid we caught 1 bullhead, 2 thornback rays, and 1 swell shark. Mackerel was the hot bait and we left the sharks and rays biting when we ran out of mackerel.

The swell shark was a very interesting creature–I’ve never seen one of them before. One of the other fishers on the pier offered to impale it on a pier gaff but I declined. He seemed offended and said “well you’re not releasing that alive!”. I told him I was and he protested saying that the shark will emit a poison in the water preventing anyone from catching fish the rest of the night. I told him that wasn’t true and he seemed shocked. I honestly couldn’t tell whether he believed his story or whether he was just really disappointed that I didn’t plan to kill the shark. Everything was carefully released.

Date: January 6, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: eventhorizon; Subject: Heck of a night at Cayucos Pier

 I caught off the end of the pier between 8 and 10 pm with mackerel on a steel hi/low rig—1 legal sized halibut (barely); 1 40 inch leopard shark; 1 (I believe) 58 inch, 82 pound pacific sharpnose shark; the last was a great fight (where is my aspirin) that began with a 150 yard run and ended with two twists around the pile at the end. All were released to be caught again; 1 month ago my son brought in his first shark. it was a broad nosed seven gill at 58 inches long ( my son is 53 inches tall); this one was eaten.

Date: July 3, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: jmobfishen; Subject: Re: Fish of the Day—Swell Shark

Funny you mentioned our little puffy friends. I fished Cayucos Sunday night while in town for my wife’s high school reunion. We fished from 6pm to midnight. Lots of macs and smelt around…even a few lizardfish…1st time I have ever seen lizzies that far north. However the water is very warm. Some of the warmest water I have ever felt on the central coast. Anyway back to our puffy friends. I caught one about 9pm it was about 3 feet long. I have caught lots of these little guys at Cayucos Pier while fishing for larger sharks over the years. As for the rest of the night we landed 2 Spiny dog sharks and a small skate along with countless smelt mackerel bullheads and the occasional lizardfish. The dogfish were both a little over 4 feet…both were brought up in the crab net and then released via the same method unharmed and back to happy spawning. One was male and was kind enough to let me know he was ready to spawn….LOL

Date: July 15, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Gip of Paso; Subject: Cayucos is slammin’

Went to Cayucos after work yesterday, macs were rippin’ most were around 14” range, but some were absolutely huge, we weighed the largest that my friend caught and it was three and a half lbs. Then at about nine o’clock the dogfish swarmed the bait. Largest spiny we brought to the deck was four feet nine inches. The sharks kept everyone busy, not one angler at a time but three to four people were hooking up. Last night was great, and it wasn’t stopping, when we left at midnight people were still hookin’ up.

Posted by Danthefisherman

57” huh? Looks like them sharks are getting bigger. Biggest I’ve seen so far was 45”. Its been going off with the macks and dogsharks for about a month. I’ve pulled a couple of all nighters and the bite usually starts once the sun sets, and ends at about 12-1am, but sometimes the school will come through again at 2 for a few more hookups. After that it’s dead. I haven’t been on a weekend so I cant speak for the crowds, but weekdays have been PACKED. Get there after dark and you wont get a spot anywhere near the end (not that it matter b/c you will catch sharks off the side too). It sure is nice to have the pier going off though huh? Hopefully these dogs will finish up their business and some new species will move in.