So, was Mission Bay Fishing better back in the day??

My family owned 1959 the first corner across from the pier an Italian restaurant called Paisanos the road in front of the pier was open to traffic and cars cruising by, we also own owned our first restaurant right where the parking lot in front of OB pier, I watch them build that every day wondering how they pored the concrete in the forms they build without water seeping in it was pretty cool I still don’t understand how they do it. I wasn’t into fishing back then I’m a rock n roller but my broth would fish the pier and several times caught some big sharks, not sure what kind but I was amazed a couple of good size one.
Those were the days my friends

 

My grandpa used to tell stories about fishing the harbor/marsh back in the day. Based on his stories I believe the fishing was worse pre-harbor than peaked after the harbor was completed, but sill better than the marsh lands pre-harbor. Not sure how much attention was really paid to the harbor fish. Outside is another story. Lots of stories around rowing boats outside harbor and catching yellows and WSB. All day. “Piggies” would not stay off the Dacron lines, marlin lures outside of PL and were treated like trash fish.

 

I heard the roosters used to school up back in the day

 

What would it be like fishing the surf 1,000 years ago. If you had all of todays equipment. Would you absolutely hammer them? I imagine so. Thoughts?

 

Bobber loves this stuff. The stringers of WSB hauled off that bridge once upon a time were pretty hefty in the old pix I saw somewhere. My grandfather always told me that steelhead fishing is "easy"... just use a strip of gum wrapper on a hook and catch a smelt, hook the smelt on live and toss it out in the river channel... Yeah, saw one local steelhead caught in my life, sure as hell wasn't out of the SDR...

 

Did you old timers wait 6 months to submit your WSB reports to the town paper or was it in a more timely manner?

 

Hmmm... marshy flats? Sounds like bonefish bonanza to me.

I love this stuff too and have been doing my own reading. Here are some publications I found digging around.

Mission Bay Historical Ecology Reconnaissance Study: Data Collection Summary





Mission Bay Historical Ecology Reconnaissance Study: Data Collection Summary and Initial Findings (Presentation).

 

I did the plumbing on the OB pier when they first built it. They drove pilings, not forms, and prefab slabs between and poured concrete over the slabs. A huge storm came through and destroyed the plumbing hanging of the side and the railings on top. I heard that engineered the height for a 50 year storm average instead of a100 yr.My grand father owned the cleaners on the main drag about a block up from the sea wall. I used to go with him to work, he would let me off at the bait shop by the jetty and pick me up on the way home from work, I could fish all day and just hang out. Good old days, oh to be a kid today, also I have a pic of me in 1958 with a limit of ducks shot at lake Murray. I remember hunting dove around the lake after work with my dad

 

Wild. My dad was part of the construction mission bay.

 

that doesn’t look like OB pier to me

 

Long time PB family . 1948 . Aunt and uncle 859 Wilbur street , Grandfather 1958 , 1404 law street . Grand Parents lived in La Jolla before Law street . I was always told Crystal pier had a dance hall out on the end prior to a big storm . As a child when fishing there the broken pilings from a wide end on the pier were visible . I do remember when I was in High school all the area to the east of mission blvd . Except along Mission was un developed , just sand no parks . We used to ride dirt bikes out where Sea worlds parking lot is now . The bridges on Ingram were narrow wood pile bridges a good friend , Jerry Bales and his girlfriend were killed graduation night 1971 in a head on just out of Crown point , Peace be to your ashes Jerry and Trish . Thanks for the memories . Cool post .

 

Sheesh

 

. I remember my aunt and uncle had a hard time paying off the $ 4500 purchase price they paid after WW2 both were Convair employees . Sold for about 260,000 after they passed in the mid 1980s .

 

I used to hear stories of riding on the beaches. My bro used to ride his Elsinore from El Cajon to the beach - all off road. He did it a few times from alpine but said it was trickier. Those must have been THE DAYS!

 

I remember that PLUMBING hanging on the side but I kind of remember them pouring concrete into those pillars and in my memories wrong.
I remember across from my family’s restaurant place called maintenance and they sold spaghetti specials on Wednesday for something like $.25 or something like that and then be a line all way down the street, my friends and I would play in mission valley area now all bridges and mall none of it was there. By the way Has anybody thought about all those bridges and freeways over the mission valley area which is mostly sandy dirt one in Earthlite does come remember San Francisco this could be a repeat.