James C. Liu's Weblog

Saturday November 06, 2004

Peninsula High Tech Waterfront Fishing

It was just a week ago that we switched from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time. Suddenly, the modicum of evening daylight has completely disappeared. Certainly this happens every year as autumn turns toward winter. But I can't help but think how much better work life seemed just a few months ago when twilight lingered past 9pm. During those months, I would drive to work with fishing rods in the back of my pickup truck. I made special efforts to get out and meet with local ISVs during the afternoon. And for good reason, many of them are located on prime Bay Area waterfronts that provide some great shoreline fishing inside San Francisco Bay.

A host of High Tech companies are located on prime fish-producing waterfronts. Starting just north of SFO Int'l Airport, is the Sierra Point Technology Park. Home to Hitachi, Collab.Net, Turbo Linux and others, it provides some 1/2 mile of shoreline and a public pier to fish from. Just a few minutes south is Oyster Point, where there is another public pier and considerable length of shoreline from which to fish. Heading further south to Hwy 92, there are a number of companies like Siebel, Blue Martini and RSA. SAP used to also be along the 92/101 corridor. These ISVs are just 10 minutes from some fishable shoreline adjacent the San Mateo bridge. And just under the current San Mateo bridge is a nearly mile long remnant of the old San Mateo bridge built originally in 1929. It's called Werder Pier and until 1995, when it was closed to provide CalTrans access with heavy equipment to fix the underside of the new San Mateo Bridge, Werder Pier was California's longest fishing pier, extending almost to the edge of south bay shipping channel where the deep waters are a magnet for large sturgeon.

Further south on 101, we soon hit the 2nd largest ISV in the world - Oracle Corp. Their company headquarters are just off the Ralston/Old Marine World Pkwy exit. If one drives east on the Old MW Pkwy about 1.5 miles to Shearwater Pkwy, one will hit a jogging path adjacent Belmont Slough, which connects to the Bay. Here, the slough is shallow and muddy during low tide, but can get filled nearly to the brim when the water rises almost 8 feet at the crest of a high tide. The slough meanders through sets of high tech buildings and winds its way west behind Oracle HQ. The slough has connection pipes and large gate valves that manually regulate flows in and out of the many Peninsula lagoons in the Redwood Shores area. Many anglers are known to have caught Gobis for bait fish in the lagoon directly across the street from Oracle Corporation, opposite of Larry's Pond, as many folks have named the small pool and lighted fountain outside bldg 600 that sometimes provides a pretty display to passers by.

Anglers wise to the tides in these sloughs can find brief periods of 30 minutes 4 times each day when many types of fish cruise in and out to feed. Below is a picture of my son, with his first Striped Bass. About 5 lbs and 24 inches long. Caught just a mile east of Oracle Corporation on Oct. 31, 2004.

Just one more exit south is Holly. Heading east, Holly becomes Redwood Shores Pkwy. And nestled in between the numerous waterfront homes with well-landscaped meandering sloughs that wind between homes, we can find Steinberger slough. This thin slough nearly goes dry during low tide. But with the incoming tide, the water quickly rushes by heading west all the way past the San Carlos Airport and near the Hiller Air Museum and under Hwy 101 into San Mateo. This slough and many of the other small sloughs that flow between homes along the Radio Road strip can hold some surprises like California Halibut, Jacksmelt, skates and bat rays, and small smoothound and leopard sharks.

Still heading further south 2 exits to Seaport Blvd, we can head east and go to the Port of Redwood City. All the way east to the end of the port is a new technology development called Pacific Shores Center. A mile long public shoreline, modern and well maintained landscape and parking facility, baseball fields, soccer fields and basketball court are nice amenities. But there are quite a few large mirrored high-tech buildings. You'll find Openwave and Informatica located here. Employees can enjoy a lunch outdoors and cast out from the steps near the north end of the shoreline and catch some giant Myliobatis Californica (California Batray) which frequent that stretch of water. My personal best exceeds 80 lbs from those steps.

Two more exits south again and you will hit Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park Campus. Fishing access is not particularly good out behind MPK22 (the Company Rec/Gym) along the path. Salinity conditions are too high and varied right there due to evaporation ponds run by the Cargill Salt company. But in winter, after heavy rains, the channel out at the very end of the jogging path may provide a shot for a sturgeon or two. In the old days, the west end of the Dumbarton bridge was referred to as Ravenswood point. And a number of feeder creeks like the San Franciquito Creek empty out into the Bay not too far from the Sun MPK campus. Not more than 5 minutes south in East Palo Alto is one spot to catch more rays and sturgeon. The only issue is the dangerous neighbourhood. And for folks living in the East Bay, the Sun MPK campus is great launch pad for heading across the Dumbarton bridge toward the Newark Campus that is just adjacent to the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. This is a federally managed wildlife refuge that has an amazing diversity of birds and other wildlife. And best of all, the Dumbarton Fishing Pier is inside the park and provides casting distance access to the eastern side of the SF Bay shipping channel. The Dumbarton Pier sees more sturgeon caught regularly than just about any other salt water pier in California.

As we head further south, we'll find more familiar names. It seems like any town along 101 with an ISV can find some fishing just 15 minutes away, be that Palo Alto, Mountain View, or even Sunnyvale.

Much of the fishing is easily accessible for drivers and most are family friendly. The fish may not be good to eat or even healthy, but at least they are exciting to catch and release. It's also a great way to relax after a meeting with an ISV. During the summer, I was certainly motivated to work with my partners. November 06, 2004 01:47 AM PST Permalink