Pier Fishing in California - Page 5 of 29 - The Complete Coast and Bay Guide to Shore-Based Fishing

Green Pleasure Pier — Avalon, Catalina Island

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required If anyone could be called the “father” of an island, it might be Frederick Holder who wrote numerous books and articles about California and the fishing to be found in its waters. The offshore islands, specifically Catalina Island,…

Capitola Wharf

Due to damage from the winter storms in 2023, the wharf is currently closed. No date has been set for reopening. Public Pier — No Fishing License Required While some piers along the coast (such as Seacliff) have characteristics that help define and give identity…

San Clemente Pier

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Sit back and imagine, if you will, the following scenes: Scene One — The hooking of a giant (black) sea bass was not that unusual given that the San Clemente Pier is one of the main piers that…

Johnson Pier — Pillar Point Harbor — Half Moon Bay

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required There are two public piers in the Half Moon Bay/Princeton area and both are located in Pillar Point Harbor. For many years the larger pier, the Johnson Pier, was open to fisherman and heavily used. Then, with the…

Shoreline Aquatic Park Piers — Long Beach

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required The term Long Beach is not a misnomer, for here is a beach of hard white sand as level as a floor extending many miles each way. This beach is a perfect natural race course, and during the…

Noyo Harbor Fishing Pier — Fort Bragg

Private Pier — Fishing License Required Gone But Not Forgotten? Recent reports indicate this pier may now be closed to anglers. Although coastal northern California waters, and especially Mendocino County, have become a favorite destination for California anglers, one type of fishing is under-represented.…

Fort Baker Pier — Sausalito

Public Pier — No Fishing License Required Like its counterpart across the bay, the Fort Point Pier, this pier offers not only decent fishing but one of the world’s most interesting and beautiful views. Look up to your right and you are looking into the…

Redondo Sportfishing Pier — King Harbor — Redondo Beach — Gone But Not Forgotten

Currently closed but the city says it plans to construct a new pier (although no plans have been finalized or dates given). The small (250-foot-long) Redondo Sportfishing Pier that served as the center for Redondo’s Sportfishing fleet since being built in 1969, was declared unsafe and…

Morro Bay Finger Piers

Public Accesss piers — some of which require a license Streets that end at the bay along Morro Bay’s Embarcadero, those between Beach and Anchor Streets, provide public access, several in the form of small viewing/fishing platforms. None are very big, facilities are limited, and…

Isthmus Pier — Two Harbors, Catalina Island — Gone But Not Forgotten

After writing and posting this article I received a note (below) informing me that they have put “no fishing” signs up on the pier. So, another pier bites the dust. The article thus is a recap of how things were… Always carry a net with…