Fishing Forum

Hi, new to the area and have been itching to fish out here! I moved down from norcal and I used to always drive over to SF to go crabbing. Now that I live literally 2 exits down from goleta pier I think I may be crabbing a lot!

Anyhow my main question is I was under the assumption that you didn't need a license if you were fishing off of a public pier. I never had one in SF (had a ranger inspect my catch and say everything was good), but I have been reading the forum and TubeN2 was commenting in a few posts that one is not needed for fishing but one is needed for crabbing. I have been reading the 09-10 DFG fishing guide and fail to see any mention of needing one for crabbing. I see that a lobster report card is nedded when I intend to take spiny lobster (Which I do when the season comes around. Anyone have any good recipies?), but other than that no mention of needing a license. Can anyone clear this up for me, and point me to the correct pages I should be reading regarding needing a license?

All help is appreciated. Hope to see you guys on the pier!
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000][size 3]Hi there B_Wong - sorry can't help you out as I'm not a crabber. lol Anyhow hopefully TubeN2 will be by to help you out. Good luck.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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Try this, all the answers are here:

[url "http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/sportfishing_regs2009.asp"]http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/sportfishing_regs2009.asp[/url]
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Hey neighbor. There is no license needed to fish from a public pier unless you are going for Lobster while they are in season.

Crabbing is ok without a license from most piers in SoCal. You might get some better quality crabs from Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. I have usually found the crabs to be rather small from Goleta Pier.
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