THEEDITOR’SNOTE
The editor hadn’t returned to famed saltwater fishing hot spot Pacifica Pier in a long time, but it stoked some memories. (CHRIS COCOLES)
W
henever I visit the Bay Area, it never seems like I have enough time to return to some of the places that trigger memories from my childhood. Sure, a lot of those have been revisited with great nostalgia. I walked my dog through the city park and I ate a sandwich on benches overlooking the baseball diamond, where as a pudgy 10-year-old right fielder/first baseman/catcher I hit a grand slam and was mobbed by teammates at home plate. There’s the deli near my dad’s house where a Sunday trip for a big sandwich to eat while watching football was considered a great weekend treat. Still, there’s so much else out there that I can’t go back to because they’re long gone: a hot dog shop those same friends and I would stop in for a kosher dog
and a Polish sausage; the grocery store I had a job at just before going away to college and a place where coworkers and I worked and played hard together; the Denny’s 24-hour coffee shop friends and I would stop at for a late-night snack after hanging out. I’ll never get to experience those venues again. And that’s what made a recent trip to Northern California so special. I had some time to kill before my flight back home, so my sister and I took a drive from her San Mateo house to the coast. Specifically, we were bound for one of the Bay Area’s – if not the state’s – most prized fishing spots. Pacifica Municipal Pier – its official name is The Rev. Herschell Harkins Memorial Pier – was constructed in 1973 and has been a go-to spot for anglers and crabbers ever since. And while I’ve driven
by Pacifica Pier countless times over the years, it’s been decades since I walked across it and got a glimpse of the action. If it swims in the waters off the San Mateo County coast, chances are one of the pier’s grizzled veterans has pulled it from the ocean. In the summer, when fall-run salmon are preparing to enter the rivers for spawning, savvy anglers can pull up a Chinook. It’s a crabber’s paradise, and stripers, surfperch, thresher sharks and more will bite your bait here. Plus you don’t even need a fishing license to wet a line (daily limit, size, season and other rules still apply). I’ve always been more of a freshwater fishing fan, but I do remember trips to the pier. Back then, you’d often have to squeeze in between fishing rods. It was combat fishing with at times heavy winds and surf slamming into the shore (storm
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