Why Do People Fish off Highway 101 Near Brisbane?

Read the transcript of this episode here.

As you drive on Highway 101 between South San Francisco and Candlestick Park, there’s a stretch of road that gets very straight and runs right next to the bay. The road has a big shoulder in this section, including a wide section of dirt with “No Parking” signs placed every 50 feet or so.

Bay Curious listener Eyra Dordi drives this stretch of highway almost every day on her commute to work. She often sees cars parked along the side of the road, despite the signs and the hazardous conditions.

“I realized there are people out there fishing really frequently,” Dordi said. “And I was really curious as to why anyone would decide that was the spot in the bay that they wanted to have a nice, relaxing fish.”

Dordi also wondered why fishermen and women would risk getting a parking ticket to fish here. It’s illegal to park on the side of any freeway due to safety concerns. The fine starts at $238, but could be more for repeat offenses, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Fishing ‘the tubes’

It turns out there’s a very good reason fisherfolk are willing to risk the hazards of traffic and CHP officers at this spot along 101 — the fishing can be great.

“We call it the tubes,” said Anthony Spears Sr., an avid fisherman who happens to also be the facility services supervisor at KQED. “For years we’ve fished there.”

Here’s the deal: There are two concrete viaducts — “the tubes” — that connect the bay to Brisbane Lagoon, located on the inland side of the freeway. The tubes run under the freeway, allowing water to flow back and forth.

“As the tide’s coming up, the water is flowing into the small pond on the other side. And then as the tide is going out, that same flow is going out into the bay,” Spears said.

Smaller fish, like herring, swim into the lagoon to spawn in quieter waters that are more protected. But when the tide flows out, they are washed back out into the bay.

Larger fish like halibut and striped bass, as well as stingrays, wait near the bayside opening of the tubes for an easy meal. And human fisherfolk wait there, too, eager to snag some delicious halibut or striped bass. It’s the whole food chain, concentrated in one spot.

While the parking is illegal, people can still fish from boats, or walk to accessible points nearby legally. Or they can fish on the lagoon side of the tubes, where there’s a small park.

Spears remembers fishing the tubes as a kid with his dad, and then later with his best friend, Tony. They’re both still avid fishermen, although Spears lives further from the tubes now and so doesn’t stop to fish there as often.

“I only fish there once a year,” said Albert Chu, a fisherman I met along Ocean Beach. “That is when the herring are there. Usually around January or February. It’s a good eating fish. Very healthy.”

Fishing around the Bay

While some Bay Area residents, like Spears and Chu, have been fishing for a long time, others are just getting into it. Popular fishing YouTube channels like Fisherman’s Life, as well as Facebook groups dedicated to crabbing or fishing off the Pacifica pier, have made fishing feel more accessible. During the coronavirus pandemic when people were looking for socially distant activities, fishing suddenly became appealing.

“There’s water everywhere and it’s all different,” Spears said. “There’s freshwater, there’s brackish water, there’s saltwater, there’s the bay, there’s the ocean. There’s a great variety of fish and a great variety of styles of fishing.”

That may be why it’s easy to spot fisherfolk spaced out every 20 feet all along San Francisco’s Ocean Beach snaring for crabs. Snaring means they use a fishing pole with bait in a little wire box at the end of the line that has wire hooks coming off it. The fisher casts the line into the waves and hopes the bait will attract a crab that will then get caught in the loops. When the fisher sees the line strain, he hauls in the crab, measures it to make sure it’s big enough to keep and then stores it in a cooler with some seawater to keep it alive.

Other people prefer to take crab pots out on kayaks, stand-up paddle boards or boats to try for a bigger haul. The important thing is to have a fishing license (unless you are fishing from a pier — then you don’t need one) and to be on the ocean side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

If you’re interested in trying your hand at fishing, stop and talk to one of the many folks fishing around the Bay on any day. Most of them are very nice and willing to give pointers.