Fishing the Santa Monica Pier, and where to eat after

Sixteen miles west of downtown, the Santa Monica Pier runs nearly 2,000 feet from the end of Colorado Avenue, about half of it over water, and the last stretch past the amusement park is a fishing pier. It is open 24 hours, it rents poles at $2 an hour Tuesday through Sunday, and it costs nothing to fish because California law says “a sport fishing license is not required to take fish for any purpose other than profit by means of angling from a public pier in the ocean waters of the state.” Pier Fishing in California, the veterans’ record of every pier in the state, puts the spring sargo at the pilings and the fall corbina and yellowfin croaker on the north side near the arcade, where “sand crabs and mussels are key.” This is the fishing half of a day at the beach. The eating half is at the end, in Santa Monica, and one of the three tables is on the pier itself.

I write the guides on Smells Like Fish, a bait and tackle site, and I am a guest here. Top of Los Angeles asked for the water. They supplied the tables.

The day, in order

Be on the west end at first light, before the tourists and the parking meters fill, with a high-low rig and fresh mussels or the sand crabs you dug at the tide line on the way out. Fish the pilings on the north side for perch, sargo, and croaker, and put a second rod out with a strip of mackerel or a Sabiki rig for the mackerel and bonito that come through the end of the pier when the water is warm. Fish the morning, then walk up to Ocean Avenue for lunch. If you want an afternoon, Redondo Beach Pier, 21 miles south, sits on the edge of a submarine canyon, has a real bait and tackle shop, and fishes mackerel better than any pier on the bay; Cabrillo in San Pedro is the halibut pier from May to October. Dinner is back on the pier at The Albright, or across the street at Meat On Ocean.

What is in the water

Pier Fishing in California’s list for Santa Monica: white and black seaperch, sargo, kelp bass, mackerel, halibut, bonito, barracuda, corbina, yellowfin croaker, and sharks, over a sand and mud bottom with mussel-covered pilings and old rock on the right side. The limits are the state’s for the Southern Management Area: California halibut “five fish” at a 22-inch minimum; kelp bass, barred sand bass, and spotted sand bass “five fish in any combination of species, except no more than 4 barred sand bass” at 14 inches; white seabass three at 28 inches; yellowtail ten at 24 inches fork length; barred surfperch at 10.5 inches. Mackerel and croaker carry no size limit and are the fish most people go home with.

Where to fish from shore

• Santa Monica Pier, 16 miles: 24 hours, pole rental, no licence; the north side pilings for perch and croaker, the end for mackerel.
• Venice Fishing Pier, 16 miles: the public pier at the end of Washington Boulevard, no licence.
• Redondo Beach Pier, 21 miles: the 1,550-foot horseshoe and the Monstad Pier, 24 hours, bait shop, cleaning stations, parking 50 cents an hour, the canyon mackerel and halibut, no licence.
• Cabrillo Beach Pier, San Pedro, 25 miles: 1,200 feet into the harbor, 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., halibut May to October, no bait shop, no licence, and a health advisory against eating harbor fish.
• Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, Long Beach, 29 miles: 5 a.m. to sundown, croakers, sand bass, halibut; structural repairs under way in 2026.
• Echo Park Lake, 2 miles from downtown, on the way home: free, stocked with hatchery trout in winter and catfish in summer, licence at 16.

Licences and the limits

None on a public pier. Everywhere else, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife sells a resident licence for $64.54 a year, a nonresident for $174.14 or $64.54 for ten days, and one- and two-day licences at $21.09 and $32.40, plus the $7.30 Ocean Enhancement validation south of Point Arguello and $20.26 for a second rod. Under 16 fishes free. The county lakes charge to park, $10 at Whittier Narrows and Kenneth Hahn and $15 at Santa Fe Dam, Bonelli, and Castaic, and the regional parks are closed Mondays and Tuesdays; the city park lakes downtown are free. Fresh water is five trout, no limit on catfish, 25 sunfish and crappie combined, and five bass at 12 inches, or 15 at Castaic.

The gear side

How to tie a high-low rig for the pilings, which hook holds a mussel, where to dig sand crabs on the beach before the sun is up, and which of the county’s lakes has the trout truck this week: that is my beat, and it does not belong on a restaurant site. The full Los Angeles fishing guide on Smells Like Fish has the map of all 14 spots with drive times from downtown, the live Santa Monica Bay water temperature, the free city park lakes and the county lakes with their fees and days, the pier-by-pier hours and bait, Castaic’s rules, the licence link, the state limits, and the tackle list.

Where to eat after

The pier ramp lands on Ocean Avenue, and the restaurants are a block in either direction. These three are on the Top of Los Angeles Santa Monica list. The scores are theirs, not mine.