Pacifica Pier
Pacifica (San Mateo Coast) · near Pacifica / San Francisco · SF Bay Area
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Best season
- Salmon summer (when open) · crab winter · perch year-round
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- No
- Licence detail
- NO LICENSE needed for pier fishing — one of the very few piers where you can legally catch salmon without a license (pier exemption). Crab snaring for Dungeness is hugely popular in winter. Salmon subject to season/quota — check CDFW.
What is here
- Features
- No license required — even for salmon! · One of few piers to catch salmon from shore · Winter Dungeness crab snaring · Striped bass & surfperch
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Fishing detail
- Water type
- pier-jetty
- Water
- salt
- Methods
- Bait · Surf casting · Sabiki
- Boat
- shore
- Target species
- King salmon (from the pier!) · Dungeness crab (snares) · Striped bass · Surfperch & jacksmelt
- Intl tip
- No license needed — remarkably, even for salmon (pier exemption), though salmon are subject to season/quota (check CDFW). Winter crab snaring for Dungeness is a local ritual. Also stripers and perch. It's foggy and exposed — dress warm. A unique, beloved Bay Area spot.
The guide
Pacifica Pier is a Bay Area legend — one of the very few places in California where you can catch a king salmon from a pier wit…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Pacifica Pier — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.636, -122.5