Imperial Beach Pier
Students of history should remember that Friday, November 22, 1963 was the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. For those who were alive during those days, the weekend that followed was a haunting melodrama still vivid more than thirty-five years later. At Imperial Beach, people's emotions were torn. Saturday was the official opening day for the new pier and festivities were planned-but it is hard to be festive when the nation is in mourning.
Nevertheless, the pier did open and people quickly began to catch fish. Within two weeks, anglers had landed a 20 pound halibut, five pound bonito, 4 3/4 pound sculpin (scorpionfish) and a six-foot-long leopard shark. Build it and they will come; that saying could apply to this pier. When fishing is good, they (the anglers) will come. Unfortunately, depending on one's viewpoint, the success of a few fishermen resulted in unbelievable crowds during those first few weeks. As many as 3,000 anglers lined the rails, shoulder to shoulder. A tram operation scheduled for the pier even had to change its plans because of the crowding on the pier.
Stories about the pier appeared regularly in the local papers and a young angler named Ken Jones, recently transplanted from Newport Beach and the Newport Pier, began to visit and fish the pier. Action, although generally good, was rarely great. Better fishing seemed to exist north at Crystal Pier or in the bay at Shelter Island. Nevertheless, it became one of the piers I would visit during my high school and college days.
Environment
This is the southernmost pier in California (and the city proclaims that it is the "Most Southwesterly City in the U.S."). It is within walking distance of the Mexican border and displays on most days a beautiful view of the Los Coronados Islands just off to the southwest.
The pier is located on a long sandy beach, has short finger jetties to the north, and extends out 1,491 feet into water that is nearly 20 feet deep. Several fish attractants exist under and around the pier. Pilings have a heavy growth of mussels and an artificial, half-moon shaped, rock reef was constructed near the end of the pier in 1964. Later, after a barge accidentally spilled a large load of boulders, an additional, although unplanned, reef was added to the mix. Fish here are the normal southern California sandy-shore species but mixed in are species attracted by the reefs and the deeper and calmer water found at the far end of the pier.
Inshore, there are barred surfperch, California corbina, yellowfin croaker, spotfin croaker, thornbacks, stingrays, guitarfish and an occasional halibut. Midway out will find more white croaker, queenfish, walleye surfperch, jacksmelt, halibut, sand sharks (gray smoothhound sharks) and guitarfish. The far end may yield all of these but will also see a scattering of more pelagic species such as bonito, mackerel, small barracuda, and even an occasional yellowtail or white seabass. Deeper water also seems to be best for the larger sharks and bat rays. Fishing down around the pilings can often yield a fat pileperch or rubberlip seaperch.
At times, this can be a fairly good pier for halibut and, at the right time of the year, it sometimes yields good catches of sand bass which spawn in the sandy flats south of the town.
All this info can be seen @ pierfishing.com