You catch the northbound at the Menlo Park station on Merrill Street before 8 AM. Rod tube in hand, tackle bag at your feet, no coffee yet. Twenty minutes later you step off at Burlingame. Twenty-nine minutes after that you’re standing on a public pier at the edge of San Francisco Bay, cut anchovies in a Ziploc, the morning rising tide doing the work for you. No car. No fishing license. No fee at the gate.
This is the trip. Repeatable, cheap, quietly excellent. May is the right month to start running it.
The underlying rule is the one most Bay Area anglers either don’t know or don’t fully use. California’s public-pier license exemption. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife states it plainly: “Unlicensed fishing in California is allowed only on public piers. Public piers must be connected to the shoreline, allow for free, unrestricted public access, and have been built or currently function for the primary purpose of fishing.” Coyote Point’s pier qualifies. Bring a rod. You don’t need a permit…