Fishing

The Seal Beach Pier has a geographical situation that allows rare fish to swim in its' confines. The San Gabriel River mouth is about 1/2 mile west of the pier. Up river from the mouth , five Power Plants of the Edison Company and the Los Angeles City, dump tremendous amounts of water into the river. These waters are used to cool the generators that produce electricity for the Southern California area. The water exits the plant at about 85 degrees and promotes the gathering of many strange animals not indigenous to Southern California. I saw one angler catch a 3 foot hammerhead shark and there are reports of bonefish, thresher sharks and giant sea turtles swimming in the warm waters. Some years small 2 pound bonita show up by the thousands and of course are a blast to catch. When a down hill ocean current is underway the pier gets the full onslaught of warm water swirling though the pilings. By the time it gets to the pier the water temp is in the 70¹s. Many stories exist about unknown monsters wiping out all the fishing lines along the pier.

But it does house all the traditional fishes that the other piers possess. Spotfin croaker schools appear each spring and spend the summer and early fall jumping on the anglers hooks. Yellowfin croaker, sargo, corbina and all the surf perches flourish around the pilings. Herring are easily caught under the walkway, along with smelt and mackerel.

The pier has a slight protection against the western ocean influence from the end of the Long Beach breakwater, although not much. The 1982 storm swell had 30 foot high waves rolling very near the end of the pier. These swells leveled the rock jetty of Huntington Harbor and the rock structure of the oil drilling rig just 1/2 mile south of the pier. The pier was barely protected but didn¹t escape major damage. Of course its¹ southern exposure has no protection from the summer Mexican storms blowing up from the south.

The eastern side of the pier has a bottom area that slopes quickly from the beach. It is 10 to 20 feet deep to the end of the pier. The waves break almost onto bare sand indicative of the deep bottom. The eastern side has an area of shale like bottom about halfway out the pier. For some reason very little sand covers the shale and the large halibut are sometimes very abundant in the area. I fish it from my boat and have personally caught many big butts from it. Pier anglers could reach it with a massive cast but large baits would not carry that far. Perhaps the "smelt strip trick" would work. I have caught many fish with the trick, especially in the spring when all the surf perches are popping out their live young. Halibut gorge on the perch young.

Perch fishermen fish with the plastics almost on the beach as the shorebreak piles up very close to dry sand. Many of these anglers swear that the Seal Beach Pier is the best fishing spot for the surf perch. And this is done all on the eastern side of the pier.

The western side is much different. It has a long shallow depth and breaks like most beaches. One of the main hazards of the west side is the board surfers. If a good swell is running the surfers come out in droves making it virtually impossible to fish the surf area. Directly under the walkway on the west side is a concrete diversion wall that is just higher than the high tide mark. It runs from the beach to about halfway out the pier. It diverts the tidal water straight out to sea which saves the beach sand from washing away down the coast. It is also a fantastic fishing spot as the water literally roars out the end of the wall carrying all kinds of food tid-bits to waiting fish. Many anglers like to fish the spot so you have to get there early if you want to test it. Out the pier behind the surf the halibut anglers catch herring under the pilings, stick them on their hooks and cast them out as far as they can. Also on the end of the pier a group of specialty anglers can be found on occasion fishing for their targets, bat rays or rat tailed sting rays. Heavy equipment is really necessary for these freight trains so the guys use 40 to 50 pound test mono, 7/0 hooks loaded with a fish slab or squid. This group swears that the Seal Beach Pier is the best spot in Southern California waters to catch the 100 pounders.

My favorite is the piler perch. The darn things really intrigue me. They are very particular in what bait they will take and you can watch them swimming around the pilings in slow motion looking for a mussel worm, or a small crab. When they swim across a gap from one piling to another, they simply flow in the current with no apparent fin movement. The Seal Beach Pier has many, many of these fish swimming endlessly around the pilings. My terminal tackle is a bait holder Eagle Claw number #10 on 4 pound mono weighted with a 1/4 th ounce shot. I use a small live crab or a 1/4 th inch whole mussel. The bait has to be moving slowly downward to get them to pick it up. It¹s funny that even if you see them take the bait there is no feeling of a strike at all. If you don¹t see them take the bait you have to watch for sideways line movement or a slight pressure. Setting the hook is easy but getting them out of the pilings is another story. You better have a bunch of spare hooks on hand.

On the very end of the pier there is a restaurant called Rubys. They serve some very fine food. It¹s worth it to wind up the rods and order a burger or forget the fishing and take someone to lunch.

The Seal Beach Pier is the figure head of the City of Seal Beach. They are very proud of the pier and go to great pains to keep it looking nice and clean. The fishing is very unique and suprisingly different than the other Southern California Piers. You should try it.

THIS IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE LA HARBOR SERIES. IT HAS BEEN MY PLEASURE BRINGING IT TO YOU!