Bait at Scripps Pier
 

Getting mixed messages regarding making bait at scripps pier. Is it off limits?

Permitted/Prohibited Uses: Take of all living marine resources is prohibited except the recreational take of coastal pelagic species, except market squid, by hook-and-line only.

Coastal pelagic species (Title 14 Section 1.39), as defined for purposes of MPA regulations, include the following: northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), Pacific mackerel (Scomber japonicus), jack mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus) and market squid (Loligo opalescens).

So making macs is ok at the pier, right?

Scripps pier is Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) So yes, fin bait is ok to take.
Except You may not take invertebrates (animals without backbones for bait.
No clams, no shrimp, no mussels, no squid, no worms.

That marine protected area is an SMCA only because we battled for and won the ability to fish bait at the pier, after packing the hearings and making it politically impossible to close northern LJ. It was one of a very few instances in which we vastly altered the process. Credit goes to hundreds of kayak anglers and free divers. Go get those macs!

You just have to deal with the occasional guy over the PA screaming at you to leave.. Happens way to often


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I'd go near a pier on a kayak... It would be to look up skirts f the macs 😃

Pier
 

Last time I tried making bait at the pier was with Bert. We were there for maybe 10 minutes before a lifeguard (i'm assuming) on a jet ski came over and told us to leave. We didn't feel like arguing with the guy so we did. I might start bringing a hard copy of the regs with me for situations like that (so kayak fisherman's hard work in settling the politics behind the battle weren't in vain). The bait moves so much, sometimes the pier is the ticket to finding it.

Besides the MLPA regs at that location, you may be dealing with federal and local regs also. Cities and counties can add regs (like proximity to structures) that also infringe on our right to fish. The fed gov can also add regs (like they have since 9/11) keeping us away from areas they consider to be of national interest. Most docks, jetties, piers, etc. have proximity regs that (while seldom enforced) are still enforceable. The worst part about all these controls is that most of these agencies dont know more than just their version. I have been told anywhere from 50' to 100 yds from the rocks at San Pedro/Long Beach and 300 yds from the beach in Redondo.

If you get it under the lights like a lot of us used to, you won't have that problem. :) Still rankles, although it isn't the least surprising. We want to fish, not play lawyer on the water. Could it hut to call to the DFG? I doubt it.

Same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago. Life guard on jetski, asked me what I was fishing for, I told him mackerel because it's an SMCA, and allowed. He said ok, and had to check because someone called it in that I was fishing in the "reserve." He was polite, agreed and left. Just need to inform them you are allowed to fish bait, and it's an SMCA, they may or may not know, also, they may be checking to see that we are only fishing for bait.

scripts piew
 

here is a little info I gathered todayhttp://i610.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps202e15c8.jpg
http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps45c77164.jpg
three people you can contact for further info: Christian Mc Donald, he deals with the pier. Also, you can contact the lifeguards directly @ 619 221 8800, or DFG Lt. Scott...He is in charge of the S. CA region.
Hope this helps someone...