Best Prawn Fishing Oakland Near Me

4worldlovers: What’cha see? That grammatically incorrect greeting was directed at three gentlemen who were intently staring into the water from a small bridge that almost adjoins the Arrowhead Marsh Pier, one of the two piers located in the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline area, this pier and the Doolittle Pier (see separate article).

What had grabbed their attention were three small bat rays that were swimming slowly around the shallow, probably less than two-foot-deep water.

I joined in the ray watching! They were small bat rays, less than (I guess) ten pounds each and they were in no big hurry; sometimes they were gliding along, sometimes just resting on the bottom. I suppose they were searching out food but maybe they were in a group swim fest? Eventually the humans moved on while the ray remained in their watery wonderland.

The sight reminded me of two things: water in this area is often fairly shallow and bat ray are one of the most commonly encountered fish.

Environment. The Arrowhead March Pier, called by some the San Leandro Creek Pier, is located in the northeastern section of the area, adjacent to both Arrowhead Marsh itself and to most of the park facilities.


To the right of the pier, San Leandro Creek and Elmhurst Creek meet and flow into San Leandro Bay. The small creek containing the bat ray sits almost behind and to the left of the pier and that’s where its waters flow into the marsh. Straight out and to the right sits a channel of the bay and to the left is the marshy area.

The pier was constructed in 1983 and is supposedly 175 feet long but I think that is actually the width, not the length. In fact, the pier hardly sticks out over the water. Because of its size and location, anglers are presented an environment that has a mud bottom and somewhat shallow water.

Many piers see their pilings covered with barnacles, mussels and a mélange of small critters living amongst those mussels. Here, given that the pier’s pilings are mainly submerged only during high tides, there’s little growth on the pilings except barnacles. Thus the pier does not really attract inshore fish like perch and striped bass and it’s hit or miss fishery.

Most anglers simply cast out into the deepest water they can reach and hope for the best.

The most commonly caught bottom fish are staghorn sculpin (bullheads), kingfish (white croaker), and a variety of perch. Year round can see hoards of small shinerperch that are too small to eat but are good bait for stripers and halibut. Winter to spring months can see the larger pileperch, white seaperch and a mix of whichever perch have entered the bay. The most common perch year round is blackperch (sometimes called buttermouth) while occasionally the larger rubberlip seaperch will make a showing.

Sharays, sharks and rays, are numerically among the most common bottom fish. Bat rays, small babies under 10 pounds in weight up to the big mama bat rays approaching or even exceeding 100 pounds in weight, make these waters home. Personally I release all bat rays, they are neat creatures that are commonly seen in “petting pools” at zoos and aquariums. Both leopard sharks, to nearly five-feet in length, and the smaller brown smoothhound sharks, are also common. Once in a great while another shark species might be encountered but they are more common to piers fronting deeper water.

Two flatfish show up at times. Starry flounder occasionally make an appearance in winter months while California halibut may show up during the May to September months (but don’t hold your breath).

Local anglers tell me they have seen a few white sturgeon landed but I personally haven’t seen any of the diamondbacks at the pier. Nevertheless, you just never know.

Jacksmelt and topsmelt are also common and they are usually caught mid-depth by anglers using a float.

The 50-acre Arrowhead Marsh section of the shoreline park is not only home to this pier but is also a great place to have a picnic, a place to do some bird watching, and a place to explore a marsh, the nursery areas for many of our fish. It is also a great place to simply rest and relax. It’s somewhat of an outdoor oasis in this heavily industrialized section of the East Bay.

4worldlovers:
Kindest and nicest bait shop owner you will ever come across in the entire Bay Area! Always have a smile on his face and is never selfish! If the bait is bad, he always compromise and let you know if it’s small or close to dieing. I’ve had terrible experiences in several bait shops in the bay, this by far is my number one go to spot.

4worldlovers:
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