© 2026 Morning Update
Pier Fishing: San Francisco — Monday, October 5, 2026
Tue, 06 Oct 2026 01:17:12 GMT · 3:47
https://morningupdate.org/pier-fishing-san-francisco/episodes/pier-fishing-san-francisco-monday-october-5-2026-2026-10-05/

Maya: Good evening, and welcome to the very first edition of Pier Fishing: San Francisco, for Monday, October fifth, twenty twenty-six. I'm Maya.
Devon: And I'm Devon. This is our new daily show for the city's pier anglers, and we're starting with the most important thing you need to know before you grab your rod.
Maya: That's right, because San Francisco's pier map changed. The Aquatic Park Municipal Pier, the Muni, is permanently closed. The National Park Service lists it as permanently closed after structural damage back in twenty twenty-two, and they say there's no viable repair short of replacing the whole fourteen-hundred-foot structure. So do not plan a trip there.
Devon: Which makes Fort Point Pier, also known as Torpedo Wharf, the city's working pier, and honestly it's the better fishing spot anyway. One message board report from this summer called it a great season for halibut at Torpedo Wharf, and the pier's track record backs that up. Stripers and halibut run there most years from June through August, and October keeps the door open.
Maya: Here's how to fish it. Live shiners or smelt fished near the bottom are the top producers for stripers and halibut. Backups are frozen anchovies, sardines, and pile worms. For artificials, half to three-quarter ounce Hair Raisers in white or chartreuse, and Storm swimbaits, get recommended by the tackle shops over and over.
Devon: Day to day right now, expect the bread and butter: perch, jacksmelt, kingfish, that's white croaker, sand sole, and small rockfish. It's not glamorous, but it's action, and a live smelt on the bottom can turn into a striper at any moment.
Maya: We'll also be tracking the rest of the city's fishable shoreline as reports come in, and we'll tell you plainly when we don't have a fresh report. We don't invent bites on this show.
Devon: Now the tides for tomorrow, Tuesday. From Noah's San Francisco station: low tide at two thirty-eight A M, just below zero, then high tide at nine forty-four A M at five point two five feet, low again at three oh two P M at two point one one feet, and high tide at eight fifty-eight P M at five point five eight feet.
Maya: Nothing above normal in the next two days, so tides are sitting right in the normal range. Wednesday looks like more of the same, with the morning high around ten nineteen A M at about five and a half feet.
Devon: The bay's tides are mixed semidiurnal, two unequal highs and two unequal lows a day, so there's almost always moving water somewhere. Fish the last two hours of the incoming tide into the slack, that's the prime window off a pier.
Maya: Marine weather, and it's a green light. Noah's marine forecast shows no small craft advisory, no gale warning. Tomorrow inside the bay, southwest winds around five knots north of the Bay Bridge, northwest around five knots south of it, both building to five to ten in the afternoon. Calm and easy.
Devon: The one wrinkle is patchy dense fog possible Tuesday morning, and looking ahead, the weekend deteriorates with winds building to twenty to twenty-five knots or more across the outer waters by Saturday. Early week is your window, so use it.
Maya: Now the rule that makes all of this possible. You do not need a fishing license on California's public piers. Fort Point, Torpedo Wharf, walk out with a rod and fish. No license, no fee, one of the best deals in the state.
Devon: And if you're fishing into the evening, look up. The moon is a waning crescent at about twenty-seven percent, and it sets in the afternoon, so the whole evening is moonless. The Draconid meteor shower peaks Thursday night into Friday, with a new moon on the tenth keeping those nights dark. Figure five to ten meteors an hour under dark skies, best in the evening looking northwest.
Maya: Fair warning from Noah's forecasters: a shallow marine layer is pinned on the immediate coast tonight, so exposed shoreline spots could be fogged in. The bay itself should have the better sky.
Devon: That's show number one. We'll be back tomorrow with fresh reports from the city's piers.
Maya: Tight lines, San Francisco. We'll see you on the rail.