BETTER FISHING OFF BERKELEY PIER

No question but that Berkeley Pier has been the most popular pier in the East Bay since it was resurfaced and restored back in 1959. There's no better place to catch jack and top smelt, perch and an assortment of flounders, kingfish and other bottom dwellers. Even the odd striper or halibut is found here, and I once, in an El Nino year long ago, caught 17 pompano!

Wind and tides key results. Incoming tides sweep in from Richmond so that's the side of the pier to fish even though most fish the opposite down current side. If there's no early incoming, fish the last two hours of the outgoing on the up current - Bay Bridge - side of the pier instead. Come early and you avoid afternoon winds that muddy up the shallows. Tip: on most summer days there will be mist in the Golden Gate. When it clears you've got 30 minutes before the winds arrive. It's also productive to fish at night under the lights on calm nights.

Catching jack and top smelt is the action effort here. Rig light rod with a long, not round, float and use three #10 long shank snelled hooks three, five and seven feet below. Add enough shot to cock (stand up) the float. Thread on pile worms cut into segments a bit longer than the hook shank. Smelt and, at low tide, perch on the bottom hook, will bite and slide the worms up the snell so you can catch multiple fish on one bait. My brother Bruce holds the family record with 13 smelt on one worm. He's now a purist so catches his smelt today with small streamers, and quarter ounce and smaller spoons.

Cast at a 45 degree angle about 50 feet off one of the slanting pier supports, reel in slack so you can feel the float as it swings in towards the pier. Just before the float hits the piling reel in smartly. Most hits will be felt, rather than seen. Don't be anxious about reeling a fish in. Take your time and you can expect double- or triple-headers.

While waiting for the short periods of action when smelt schools run you can either fish pile worms or mussels on #8 hooks as close to the pilings as possible, or cast heavier rigs with cut bait or live shiners away from the piers for stripers, sharks, skates or rays. Live shiners fished five feet under floats and drifted away from the pier can produce stripers too.

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