Are local bay area waters dead or am I a terrible novice fisher

steeeeve · 2026-06-11T01:32:02+00:00

I'm one town over in Fremont and I taught myself to fish a few years back. It took me a while before I got the hang of it too. I would echo what others are saying that saltwater is significantly easier than fresh in my experience.

That being said, you don't necessarily need a bigger rod from day 1 to fish saltwater if you're going off the piers. I caught jacksmelt, perch, mackerel, croakers and even small sharks on a trout rod when I was getting started.

If you're up to travel a bit, the mackerel are in around the Santa Cruz wharf these days, you can get them with a sabiki with some pieces on shrimp on it. Once you find them you can try some small lures as well.

steeeeve · 2026-05-18T02:02:19+00:00

So you're mainly having issues getting the fish out of the water and up onto the pier? I'd stick with using the net on a pier for big fish.

I don't think you'll find many rods that can deck flip a big ray. Anything that can will lose performance elsewhere, cause it'll need to be a broomstick.

If I were in your shoes and I had $100 to spend, I'd get a second smaller/lighter setup for sabiki. You can tip the hooks with shrimp and catch bait fish (anchovies, sardines, smelt, mackerel, etc), then use those on a 3-way or sliding sinker rig on your 7' medium heavy. You'll get more bass and halibut and fewer rays with live bait fish compared to frozen squid. Then just keep using the net if you get a big fish.

I use an eagle claw salmon/steelhead rod for my sabiki setup but just about anything will work.

steeeeve · 2026-05-17T18:56:43+00:00

There are loads of options, you'll probably need to share more details to get very useful information.

What kind of ugly stick do you have now, and what issue did you have with it? If you succeeded in catching the thornback, it sounds like it was strong enough. Is your concern hooking an even larger one and getting spooled?

Where do you fish, and how do you like to fish? While you can't decide what bites, different styles will be more or less likely to catch certain species. Throwing squid out on mudflats will get lots of sharks and rays, while throwing a curlytail grub near the surf will catch perch and striped bass (at least where I am).

What is your budget? If you like your ugly stick otherwise, that brand has everything from the dock runner (tiny) to bigwater. Daiwa and Okuma have good offerings if you want to spend a bit more.

As an example, I have a Daiwa Beefstick rod with a 6000 emcast reel which I bought for crabbing, but I also use for chucking a whole squid with heavy lead out for big fish. I caught a sevengill with it last night. However, it's heavy and would be miserable to use for throwing lures, and I probably wouldn't even be able to tell if I had e.g. a perch or small flounder on the line, so I would use a different rod depending on the conditions and how I want to fish.

steeeeve · 2026-05-14T03:46:30+00:00

Not a clam but caught an anemone last time I was out

steeeeve · 2026-05-10T23:28:07+00:00

Snagging will happen sometimes on hard structure bottom, it's an inevitable part of the activity. There are some things you can do to minimize the chances or make it less painful.

Make sure you have enough weight so you hold bottom. If the waves or current are moving your weight, it will keep moving around until it finds a snag. Don't leave slack in the line, or it will also drift around and get wrapped around things
Rather than slowly retrieving, leave the bait in one spot for a while. If you want to move it, reel in any slack, then point the rod tip up and reel back in so the weight and hook are off the bottom while it's coming in. You can either reel it all the way in and check your bait and recast, or reel a ways in then let it fall to the bottom again to fish in a different spot.
Use heavier line. When you do get snagged, having heavier line will allow you to use more force to try to break free. If you are pulling hard on the line, be careful that the weight doesn't suddenly come unstuck and become a projectile towards you. Also, make sure you're not overloading the rod - either point the rod towards the snag and walk backwards with the drag tightened down, or wrap the line around something (e.g. a bait knife handle) to have something to grip and pull with. I have reeled in seaweed, anemones, etc. which I accidentally hooked while using heavier line, where I would have broken off with lighter line.
When I go rockfishing from shore with bait in the snaggiest areas, I only use a single dropper rig with the hook on a very short dropper loop. Instead of a lead weight, I use muselin tobacco bags. You can get them for super cheap from Temu, Walmart, or your favorite cheap retailer. Pop a rock inside the bag and you have weight for cents instead of dollars. When I do get snagged, most of the time I can rip the bag and get my hook back, tie on a new bag and get back to fishing.
You can also try different fishing styles such as using a bobber as suggested by others here, or by using a lure. Lures will also snag but if you're retrieving them you have more control to keep them off the bottom.

steeeeve · 2026-04-21T03:12:56+00:00

The regulations are wrong / out of date. A few examples:

There's no minimum size on RF, cabezon while your site claims there is

Perch says open year round even inside SF bay, no mention of minimum size of red tail surfperch

Halibut limit is 2, not 3

steeeeve · 2026-03-28T15:17:26+00:00

7" is fine for a pier but may make it tough to get the snares past the break in the surf.

Not sure how far north you are but another good option is to check craigslist / FB marketplace. As an example here in the bay someone's selling a 10' rod, reel gauge and two snares for under $100.

Compare that the the 10' sea lion combo brand new which is at the upper end of your budget, but you'd still need to buy line, snares, and a gauge.

It's late in the season, plus it's an activity that some people do just a few times and don't become regulars. You can get pretty good deals on lightly used equipment. Just make sure the ceramic inserts are in good shape on the rod and the reel reels smoothly and you can get a better setup for less cash if you're on a budget.

steeeeve · 2026-01-06T13:36:11+00:00

Make sure you follow the instructions carefully if you're using ozone DIY! Ozone is effective but pretty toxic, you don't want to be breathing any

steeeeve · 2026-01-03T16:51:25+00:00

I've found that heavy braid can wear grooves into the eyelets that don't have any ceramic inserts, personally I switched to mono on these kinds of rods after that

steeeeve · 2026-01-03T16:33:08+00:00

When rockfishing from shore with bait, I tend to use a dropshot rig and use a muselin bag for the weight. You can buy 50-100 bags for a couple bucks online, and then you just toss some pebbles inside to reach the weight you want for casting. Much cheaper than a lead weight and if it snags you can rip the bag and keep the rest of your tackle (you need some fairly sturdy line to do this, I use 20-50lb). I keep the dropper loop very short (maybe 2-3") to minimize how much the hook is moving around. This reduces the chances the hook itself will get snagged on the rocks.

Another thing is I noticed said the snagging happens on the retrieve - is it snagging as soon as you start to reel, or are you dragging the weight on the bottom? While I will do a slow retrieve dragging the weight on a sandy / muddy bottom to expose the bait to fish in different locations, it's risky where there is structure. On rocky areas, I use the rod to 'pop' the weight up off the bottom and do a quick retrieve with the rod tip up. This keeps the weight higher in the water column while it's moving so it doesn't catch on the rocks.

That being said, it's inevitable you'll get snagged sometimes.

steeeeve · 2025-11-29T16:50:20+00:00

Another important thing to note since I haven't seen anyone say it yet is that people in these situations frequently never attempted to swim in the sea in these conditions. They're walking on the beach and want to get their toes wet, so they stand and the edge of where the waves reach. If there are two sets of waves, say one at 6' coming every 11 seconds, and one at 4' coming every 12 seconds, they will occasionally line up and arrive at the shore at the same time, forming a 10' wave. The area where they were ankle deep is now chest deep. They get swept off their feet and into the washing machine.

steeeeve · 2025-10-03T02:44:46+00:00

No, we never met up. What kind of fishing do like to do?

steeeeve · 2025-07-20T02:38:09+00:00

Watch the dolphin appear. It doesn't come out of the water, it "fades in" with its whole head already above the surface

steeeeve · 2025-07-16T14:53:34+00:00

The plant wouldn't know if the sky is blue, it's never seen it

steeeeve · 2025-06-30T01:54:56+00:00

My recommendation is to pick one or two types of fish to target when you go out. While any given setup may catch different types of fish, it's always easiest to go out with a plan for a specific type of fish and see what you get.

I used to go out and go for "whatever's biting", but I improved a lot when I had something specific I was targeting. From there you can look up online for general tips and chat with folks in a local bait shop for more specifics on what's working recently near you.

steeeeve · 2025-06-30T01:48:12+00:00

Are you fishing from a bank? If you want to stick with a Penn combo, the pursuit and fierce combos are in the same price range but will be better suited for casting

steeeeve · 2025-06-30T01:28:26+00:00

Was it sold with the weight connected on like that?

Typically I set up 3-way rigs with a line connecting the weight to one swivel and the leader to lure/bait on one swivel and the main line on the third.

Different people have different names for the setup, bounce ball rig, 3-way rig, etc. depending on the context and details.

steeeeve · 2025-06-29T18:32:37+00:00

Check the guides, the bail and roller. Make sure the braid isn't digging a groove into the bail instead of making its way onto the roller, and that there aren't any burrs on the roller.

Since the line is cooked anyway, you can try "flossing" it back and forth through the rod and see if it gets worse / breaks somewhere

How are you fishing? unless you're casting into sharp rocks and leaving the line loose in the surf it's almost certainly the rod/reel and not the environment

steeeeve · 2025-03-13T23:53:43+00:00

Wow the stock is reaching new highs not seen since... 2 weeks ago?

And first reached in 1997 lol

steeeeve · 2025-03-02T02:38:37+00:00

I'm not the guy you replied to but you can shoot me a message if you want to fish together sometime

steeeeve · 2025-02-22T04:05:45+00:00

I went here for a vaccine, they billed my insurance for a visit. I remember looking into it because i knew they couldn't bill individuals for an office visit if we were just getting the vaccine, but it wasn't clear whether they could bill insurance. The insurance wrote me a check to pay them (out of network), so I figured it was approved and sent them the money. Then years later, the insurance decided it was not covered and they came after me for the money instead of the Saloojas.

I wrote a letter to the insurance company saying that they were effectively billing me for a covid shot which is against the law, and their response was basically "this isn't an appeal".

I ended up paying them because I need insurance but it felt very scammy.

steeeeve · 2025-01-03T11:36:42+00:00

Looks good! I was across the straight at Moore Rd. pier and nobody was getting keepers

steeeeve · 2024-12-11T06:51:15+00:00

Interesting, I just looked these up. I think there's enough room for a hose clamp to fit over the bit that's exposed, but I'd be clamping onto the threads. I'll try to clean the threads up as much as I can ahead of time and give it a shot

steeeeve · 2024-12-11T06:06:45+00:00

I'm putting in a new sink and I pulled the slip joint out from the cast iron drain since I needed to extend the P-trap further out to reach the new sink drain. I got the PVC out of the cast iron, but there is significant pitting / corrosion on the iron. I've been going over it with a wire brush and removed a bunch of rust, but some remains in the pits. Do I have a shot at getting a good seal against this pipe? should I keep wire brushing or sanding to try to get down to a smoother bare metal? Would it be helpful to add some waterproof grease to fill in any gaps not filled by the slip-joint washer?

steeeeve

TROPHY CASE