San Diego, CA fishing times, tides & weather

Spot type

Enclosed coastal bay with several public fishing piers along its shoreline. CDFW's list of public fishing piers for San Diego County includes the Coronado Fishing Pier, the Embarcadero Pier and Shelter Island Pier (CDFW: California Beach Fishing).

Public access

• Shelter Island Shoreline Park (Port of San Diego): the Port says the park has a public fishing pier and a boat launching ramp, and lists restrooms among its amenities. The Port lists park hours of 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and says free and paid parking are available, with paid parking required at Port-managed meters 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, excluding holidays (Port of San Diego: Shelter Island Shoreline Park).
• Embarcadero Marina Park South (Port of San Diego): the Port lists a fishing pier among the park's features and gives park hours of 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., with paid parking required 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, excluding holidays (Port of San Diego: Embarcadero Marina Park South).
• Status: check the Port of San Diego's park pages for current hours and status before you go ([4]; [5]). CDFW notes that a landowner may close a public pier for safety, maintenance or other reasons at any time. As of 2026-10-16, CDFW's public-pier list does not mark the Coronado, Embarcadero or Shelter Island piers as closed (CDFW).

Commonly caught species

• From Shelter Island Pier, the San Diego Tourism Authority lists mackerel, yellowfin croaker, calico and sand bass, an occasional halibut, shovelnose sharks and bat rays (San Diego Tourism Authority: 7 Pier Fishing Spots, secondary).
• From the Embarcadero Marina Park South pier, the same source lists bonito, mackerel, jack mackerel and small barracuda, plus calico bass, sand bass and spotted bay bass (San Diego Tourism Authority, secondary).
• A San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board report says that of 86 fish species reported from the bay, the most common are California halibut, spotted sand bass, barred sand bass and round stingray. These figures come from scientific trawl surveys, not angler catches (San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, Chapter 4).

Local rules and authority

• Licence: CDFW does not require a fishing licence when fishing recreationally from a public pier in ocean or bay waters. A public pier is defined in Title 14 CCR §1.88: a publicly owned structure connected to the shoreline, with free, unrestricted public access, built or used mainly for fishing. All other regulations still apply, including minimum size, bag limits, report cards and seasons. Public piers also have their own gear limits (number of lines and crab gear per person); check CDFW's current rules before fishing (CDFW: California Beach Fishing; CDFW: Sport Fishing Licenses and Report Cards).
• Regulations: check CDFW's current ocean sport fishing regulations for size limits, bag limits and seasons before fishing (CDFW: Ocean Sport Fishing).
• Fish consumption: in 2018 OEHHA issued an updated, site-specific fish advisory for San Diego Bay. It covers 15 species and is based on mercury and PCB levels in fish from the bay. Check OEHHA's San Diego Bay advisory for how much of each species is safe to eat before eating your catch (OEHHA press release, 2018-07-31).

Tide station

• NOAA 9410170, "San Diego" (prediction list name: "SAN DIEGO (Broadway)"), at 32.7156 N, 117.1767 W (NOAA station metadata; NOAA station home).
• Type: reference station. NOAA's tide-prediction station list gives it type "R", and NOAA publishes a harmonic-constituent table for it (NOAA prediction stations list; NOAA harmonic constituents).
• Same water body: yes. The station is on San Diego Bay at Broadway, about 3 mi in a straight line from Shelter Island Pier (computed from NOAA and OpenStreetMap coordinates, [9]; [14]).

Other spots nearby

Distances are straight-line from Shelter Island Pier, computed from OpenStreetMap and NOAA coordinates ([14]; [11]).

• La Jolla (Scripps Pier area): about 11 mi north-northwest.
• Crystal Pier, Pacific Beach: about 6 mi north-northwest. CDFW lists it as a public pier (CDFW).
• Ocean Beach Pier: about 3 mi northwest. In an August 2024 report, the City of San Diego said it would keep the pier closed to public access, that rehabilitation is not feasible, and that it is pursuing a replacement pier (City of San Diego, 2024-08-23). As of 2026-10-16, CDFW's public-pier list marks Ocean Beach Pier as temporarily closed (CDFW).
• San Pedro / Los Angeles: about 92 mi northwest.

Note updates

• 2026-10-16: Checked against the sources listed below and approved, replacing the earlier draft shown on this page. Statements we couldn't confirm from those sources were taken out, and status lines now carry the date we checked them. Changes from the draft:
  • Embarcadero pier hours now come from the Port of San Diego.
  • Ocean Beach Pier status now follows the City's report, with its date.
  • Removed a boat-launch dock closure we couldn't reconfirm.

Sources

1. California Beach Fishing — CDFW — https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Beach-Fishing — accessed 2026-10-16
2. Sport Fishing Licenses and Report Cards — CDFW — https://wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Fishing — accessed 2026-10-16
3. Ocean Sport Fishing — CDFW — https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean — accessed 2026-10-16
4. Shelter Island Shoreline Park — Port of San Diego — https://www.portofsandiego.org/experiences/where-go/shelter-island/shelter-island-shoreline-park — accessed 2026-10-16
5. Embarcadero Marina Park South — Port of San Diego — https://www.portofsandiego.org/experiences/where-go/embarcadero/embarcadero-marina-park-south — accessed 2026-10-16
6. 7 Pier Fishing Spots — San Diego Tourism Authority — https://www.sandiego.org/c/sunny-7/7-pier-fishing-spots — accessed 2026-10-16 (secondary)
7. San Diego Bay, Chapter 4 — San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board — https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/rwqcb9/water_issues/programs/bay_cleanup/docs/chapter4.pdf — accessed 2026-10-16
8. Updated Fish Advisory for San Diego Bay (press release, 2018-07-31) — OEHHA — https://oehha.ca.gov/sites/default/files/media/downloads/fish/press-release-fish/sandiegobaypressrelease073118.pdf — accessed 2026-10-16
9. Station 9410170 metadata — NOAA CO-OPS — https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/mdapi/prod/webapi/stations/9410170.json — accessed 2026-10-16
10. San Diego, CA station home — NOAA Tides & Currents — https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stationhome.html?id=9410170 — accessed 2026-10-16
11. Tide prediction stations list — NOAA CO-OPS — https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/mdapi/prod/webapi/stations.json?type=tidepredictions — accessed 2026-10-16
12. Station 9410170 harmonic constituents — NOAA CO-OPS — https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/mdapi/prod/webapi/stations/9410170/harcon.json — accessed 2026-10-16
13. City releases report regarding status of Ocean Beach Pier (2024-08-23) — City of San Diego — https://sandiego.gov/insidesd/city-releases-report-regarding-status-ocean-beach-pier — accessed 2026-10-16
14. Shelter Island Pier location — OpenStreetMap Nominatim — https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Shelter+Island+Pier%2C+San+Diego&format=json — accessed 2026-10-16