Dumbarton Pier — Fremont

Leopard Shark — Thomas Orozco — 2006

Date: September 24, 2001; To: PFIC Message Board;From: gyozadude; Subject: Leopards at Dumbarton

Dumbarton pier seems to produce some consistent catches of leopards. Every time I’ve gone, I’ve seen someone hauling up a leopard or two or three, usually near the end of the pier. A legal keeper might be few and far between, but there are quite a few caught and quite a few keepers as well. Live grass shrimp, fresh grass shrimp, squid, cut mackerel or anchovy are all good baits if you can find them. Getting enough bait on a big 7/0 hook is one thing. Another is to cast it as far off the end as you can “into the channel” everyone talks about. Another thing is timing. The best times seem to be in the hour just before or after the top or bottom of a high or low tide.

Date: November 13, 2001; To: PFIC Message Board; From: aarondaar; Subject: Dumbarton: Sun 11/11 (late report)

Arrived at my usual time of high noon. Blustery day, threatening clouds, but stayed dry! There was a wide-open bite of 7-gill in the morning, according to some others. Saw 8 of them walk off the pier with their proud owners. Didn’t measure them myself, but they seemed to be up to 3 feet in length. Saw a just-undersized leopard shark caught. The outgoing tide was creating a very strong current, flood tide… Most people were using ghost shrimp, but a few were using mackerel chunks and squid. Not sure what caught the 7-gills…

Myself? I was totally prepared for “the skunk.” It seems that most of the decent fish are caught in the mornings at Dumbarton… I lost one of my wire sturgeon rigs to a snag. Used my last rig with some ghost shrimp. After about half-hour, I decided to check bait and noticed slack. As I reeled in, the line stopped and rod started to bend. I assumed that I snagged so just kept reeling. Then line started peeling out with my pole bent hard. Fish was about 40 feet out and started to circle…. Everyone around me started giving conflicting advice. “Sturgeon!” “Let it run.” “Bring it in!”.. I didn’t think it was a sturgie, because it was circling instead of just swimming straight out.

Anyway, after a 10 minute battle, it turned out to be a large bat ray. The current was so strong that even though I had him at the surface and unable to swim, the pole was bent hard! Whew!!!! Unfortunately, I left the crab net in the car assuming someone else had one…sigh… Another pier rat had a rope with a hook on it and managed to snag my wire leader… About a 33” wingspan. Weighed it at home and it came to about 25 lbs. Is this about right? I was using a postage meter and it was very difficult to get an accurate reading. Fried some up… Wonderful texture, but the taste was a bit ‘fishy’. I’ll read the archives for some tips on cooking… I did bleed it and ice it right away, though… For the record, that’s the last bat ray I intend to keep. They are just such a beautiful creature, I was feeling bad later…especially when I found out they don’t taste like halibut!!! 🙂 Cheers, Aaron

Posted by Songslinger

Nice Report Yes, the 33″ and 25# are on the mark. Bat rays are amazing. I’m constantly surprised when I reel in a monster after a good fight: it’s usually smaller than I’d fantasized. Currents really can step up the action and the challenge. I’ve experienced rays that rested while riding the current. I’m still fighting and they’re taking a break. At Fort Baker, three of those in a row will have you thinking about calling it a day. Seems like Dumbarton is the place to be for a good battle these days. Ah, that south bay mud!

White Sturgeon — 2004

Date: December 9, 2001; To: PFIC Message Board; From: jason chin; Subject: 2 tricks

Landing sturgeon from a pier/platform. The pier is by far the hardest place to land large sturgeon. Barnacle covered pilings, weaving in and out of lines, and a strong current on top of everything else. Couple of things I noticed: The braided lines in this situation I believe prevail over mono. Heavy braid 65 and up is great in this situation because at the last minute you can really put a stop to that fish from going under. I save the light tackle for the boat. You just can’t stop em’ sometimes from going under but this will help.

Snaring fish. The only way I’ll try to get any sturgeon 46” on up off a pier is with a snare on a rope. Like striperkiller is describing, mine consists of a lasso made from a bike lock-up cable. One end goes through a loop so if you pull it cinches down. A heavy-duty paper-clip attached keeps the loop open while I drop it down before I’m ready to set it. So know sturgy is laying down at the edge of the pier looking like he/she is ready to be hoisted up. Too many times have I seen the snare go down and the instant it hits the fishes nose disaster, the fish thrashes a little more and now you have a tangled line crossed around a snare that you have to fix while your chances look slimmer and slimmer. I drop it down first before I lace it around the pole and get that shock out of em’ let them do there thing and then it’s time. Slide it around the butt of your rod and just like Joe said once it’s pass the first fins set it. Loosen your drag so in case it slips out on the way up you still have a chance. Which has happened to me with my drag locked down and oops SNAP. One time we had one around 65” off Dumbarton and the first snare went down but the fish moved and it was too late it was snared around the tail. This is not a good way to hoist em’ up because the weight of the belly hanging down could make ‘em slip out. Not to worry we dropped another one down and got that one around the head and pulled ‘em up with two snares.

Date: January 4, 2002; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Nufo; Subject: Dumbarton Pier 1/04/02

Fished Dumbarton from 1pm till 5:40pm. Catch: 1 skate on Pile Shrimp. Other anglers catch: two skates, one 54” Sturgeon on squid which I landed with my new sturgeon snare (home made at OSH). Heard of two other sturgeon caught the day before on squid as well (both shakers) along with the sturgeon caught on squid next to me on Christmas Eve. Must be a big school of squid in for some reason it seems to be the hot bait out there. Slider rig with sturgeon leader. Not sure if it was whole are partial squid. I have been making my own sturgeon/shark leaders for some time now and it’s much cheaper and stronger than any other store bought rig. Not to mention it’s very easy. Nufo

Date: January 15, 2002; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Nufo; Subject: Dumbarton 

An average of one stugeon a day for the entire pier. Best bait has been squid but don’t count out herring or shrimp. Sharking has been slow with a few skates still being caught. I believe Dumbarton is a good bet right now and fishing off the end and casting towards the channel seems to be the best. Make sure you bring a sturgeon snare. Nufo

Date: May 18, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Nufo; Subject: Dumbarton Pier 5/17/03

Caught the shuttle at 12:30pm. Me and my Nephew got to the end of the pier to find we had the pier all to ourselves. Baited up my two big rods with whole herring and 12/0 circle hooks and cast them out to the middle of the channel. Let my nephew fish my steelhead rod with a hi/low and squid strips. With in minutes my nephew nails a nice 30” leopard shark. 20 minutes later my nephew’s rod doubles over again. Another leopard this time about 26”s. Then he goes on to nail two bat rays around 10-15 lbs and two seven gills around 14”. I ended up catching a 35” seven gill and then another one around 12”. Both on squid and 12/0 circle hooks. I also lost a nice leopard at the pier after which I sharpened my circle hooks and caught the two seven gills. It was a great day in the sun despite the wind. We had the pier to ourselves and the only person we came across out there was Barry the ranger who was very friendly, as he made sure my nephew was handling his own rod. Nothings better than seeing the eyes of a 7 year old light up as his rod doubles over. I don’t even mind the fact that he out fished me 3 to 1. It just goes to show my teaching skills. Nufo

Date: September 12, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Rock Hopper; Subject: Dumbarton Pier 9-11

Fished the pier yesterday afternoon from about 3:00PM ’til 5:00PM. Weather was beautiful, with very little wind. I wished I wore shorts! Fished about 20 yards from the platform on the south side of the pier. Squid on sliding sinkers yielded two nice bites, but no hook ups. Saw 5 or 6 little leopards landed from the platform, and one little one landed by a gentleman fishing the very beginning of the pier on the north side. The cats down on the platform said they had caught a 3’ 7-gill and 3 or 4 little ones… the most 7-gills they had seen in one day, and you could tell these dudes were regulars. They released the 7-gill in hopes that the fish gods would reward them with a sturgee this year…. which by the way we all saw a HUGE one jump out in the middle of the channel. Fished the platform for about twenty minutes, but the tide was rippin’ out of there and I had to use two 4-oz banana sinkers to barely hold bottom. Next time I’ll bring some 6-oz pyramids.          RöćK HòppéR – Thë Jẽ††Ỹ Jùnký

 Fighting a sturgeon

Date: January 27, 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: jason chin; Subject: More sturgeon fun!

 Hey guys…Checking in. Here’s some more stuff that might help.

1) Keep it simple. I use a slider/bead/swivel and attach a 14” leader of 50-lb. mono w/two stationary hooks. Simple. No egg weights, no colored bead art project, no extra crap. Nothing. Keep it simple.

2) Good bait you change often. Get your bait and spend the money for the good stuff. If you don’t have the money don’t fish and expect to be successful. CHANGE OFTEN. Check your line, don’t get lazy. If there are crabs, around every 5 minutes I change it. 3 or 4 oz. shrimp or 1 lb. just for myself is not unheard of when crabs or junkfish are thick.

3) Put your time in. Yup I’m sure you heard it before. You know how much I’ve sacrificed to do what I do. Lost quite a few girlfriends, quite a few dollars, but that’s what I do, and what I choose to do. You won’t catch me putting them back at the bar (like most of my other buddies) till 2AM, most likely I’ll be leaving w/rod and reel at 2AM. Sacrifice… this isn’t an easy thing. And yes I did this employed, but fishing before and after work with no sleep was a normal thing. Fishing is WORK if you want to be successful. If you don’t have time sturgeon fishing is not recommended. Trout fishing can be exciting;)

4) The big hint. You guys want a sturgeon? Go to Dumbarton Pier. It’s loaded w/sturgeon right now. I’m catching fish this past week out of that same side of the channel that runs right by the pier. THE SAME TRAVELLING LANE. and have been for the past 4 weeks now and know that region well enough to know they’re coming by the pier. If you’re not seeing any caught you guys are not fishing it correctly. Don’t want to use Crew and crew (U know I love all you guys, constructive criticism) as an example but check it. “Fished Dumbarton too many people in the corner of lower platform so had to fish 20 feet back” Not OK there’s two spots to catch sturgeon there and you need to get up EARLY and go get em if you want a fish. Even if the tide isn’t good until noon you need to claim the spots so you’re in position for the right time. Can’t emphasize how crucial this really is. You guys only fished 3 hours, not long enough in my book. Right after you left someone could’ve grabbed one. That outgo has been very productive. I’ve posted about the “EXACT” spot you should be casting. GDude even drew a detailed map that’s in the archives for both spots the top (which I actually prefer) and the bottom corner. Those are the two spots that give up sturgeon and if you see a sturgeon caught anywhere but those two spots. Blind luck, trust me but I’ve seen it happen. BTW fillet of herring/grass shrimp combo has been doing it for me. Don’t waste a rod using anchovies if you’re “targeting” sturgeon. There are fish at this pier year round and am surprised you guys are so turned off by it. I believe one of the most consistent producers in all the bay area. I learned the whole game at this pier, I suggest some of you struggling if you really want to learn do the same.