Sorry to jump into this so late. Been logging in some time on my namesake river. Anyway, I fish Seacrest pier for kings nearly every day during the summer and these are some of the facts as I know them. The sharks have always been out there in the bay. I believe the reason they are "schooled" in front of the pier is because one of the regulars ("pier rats") hung herring in plastic bottles over the side of the pier. His explanation was that it was done to compensate for the lack of live-bait pens, which attracted many resident and migrating salmon to the pier in the past. The last time I was at the pier, the bottles were still hanging (three weeks old, whew!). This practice could be considered chumming, which is illegal. Days after they were hung a ten foot shark attacked a crab net baited with chicken right under the pier. The recent flurry of shark catches coincides which these baited bottles. I'll go done to the pier tommorow and remove these bottles if they are still there.

Parker, calling these shark fishers "pier rats" and insinuating that they are regulars is totally off base. These dudes (2) are from Cali and fish the pier at night. I've been fishing Seacrest regularly for over ten years now and I've never seen them before this summer. Also, these dudes are pretty fuzzy. I've talked to them and have seen their riggings. Their gear comes nowhere near the complexity of the tackle used in the shark surf fisheries from the Gulf Coast that Spurdog has eluded to. We're talking stock Wally Whale wire halibut leaders w/the sliding hook and store bought Atlantic salmon for bait.

Parker you are a respected member of this BB, but you are entering a sensitive area and possibly dissing members of your own diving community by condoning the snagging of divers that "get close to the pier." Already a diver has been snagged by an angler this year. I like to think that I have helped bring about the new buffer zone around the fishing pier through a concerted letter writing campaign over the last six years. I did this not because I'm a pier rat and want to hoard this facility, but rather I was concerned for the safety of other divers and still am.

Peace Out...

[This message has been edited by Hohwaiian (edited 08-18-2000).]