Anybody ever fish Lake Merritt in Oakland?

[george]

My son is moving back to Calif from Boston and I am trying to set him up in an apartment at Lake Merritt in Oakland so he will be about thirty mins from SFO where he will be working.
Is fishing allowed on this lake and if so is it any good?
He is looking for a apartment near SFO if anybody has something for rent in a decent area!

Thanks,
George

[Revoke36]

Tell him to grow eyes on the back of his head. The lake Merritt area is notorious for robbery and rape. I have several friends that live there and they'll be the first to tell you to always be aware of your surroundings and don't walk around with any valuables. Sorry I can't offer any fishing advice on lake merritt but lake chabot is awesome!

[GW]

+1 BAD AREA. My brother is an Oakland Fire Capt and knows the city real well.....I would look at the location nearer SFO or maybe a bit further in the south bay.

[george]

Thanks a bunch!

[Rich hamilton]

you might catch something other than fish in lake merritt! "cement shoes" I would stay as far away from that place as possible. it is a powder keg ready to explode! Have him try lake Chabot, Del Valle or some Marin/Sonoma county lakes. Try Novato for housing or Petaluma. My 1/2 cent from experience!

[Big Buddy]

+1 Keep your son as far away from that ghetto sh#t hole as possible

[DG]

Actually I don't know anything about fish in that lake. Maybe because there are none!

As far as a place to live, Alameda is just minutes away and it's like two different worlds!!! My wife took a job there and was provided an apartment across the street from the beach. We walked there on many evenings and never had a problem. Also the town is very nice with lots of restaurants and again it's safe at night.

The rent won't be cheap but considering the location (bay area) it's not that bad. We would have moved there but the housing was way too high to give up what we have in Roseville. A 800 sq.ft. fixer upper was over $300,000! If I remember, the rent for our two bedroom apartment on the beach was $1500. Good luck
DG

[Fast Eddie]

George,
Check San Bruno, Burlingame, San Mateo, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Mountain View. Stay on the peninsula. Pacifica is another option. Just google them and then check real estate rentals. Figure around $1800-$2500 mo. And first and last month plus security.

Several lakes are a short drive from those locations (as this is Calif it's nothing to take a 3 hr day trip there an 3 back ) such as Lexington reservoir, Calero, etc. check out Hi's tackle in South San Francisco once settled. They will steer your son in the right direction. After awhile depending on where he settles, there's Walton's Pond, fishermans warehouse, and Coyote Bait an Tackle. All good and reliable informants on where to go.

When you come to visit, be sure and let us know how the fishing was.
TL
FE

[Burke]

Years ago, I use to work across the street from Lake Merritt. Friends of mine that lived in the area say the water is so polluted that the only thing that lives in the lake is algae. The only things that I ever saw that got fished out of Lake Merritt were body parts and a horse. Yes, a horse. It was a police horse that was patrolling near the edge of the lake and got spooked. The section of the lake where the horse fell into the lake with it's rider had 2 foot high concrete wall instead of a sloping edge. It took several hours to get the horse out.

Another suggestion for fishing is San Pablo Reservoir. It's less than a 30 minute ride from Oakland and has some great fishing. You can catch trout, black bass, catfish. They stock the reservoir on a regular basis.

Here a link to an article written earlier this year about fishing at San Pablo:

http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/ ... 334926.php

Good luck.

[fish_food]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/a ... 192915.php

Fish traps have no place at Lake Merritt
Chip Johnson
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Whether a reflection of local economic woes or just a couple of anglers who believe they've found a secret sweet spot, commercial fishermen are dropping traps and casting nets into the murky 10-foot depths of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

Ever-vigilant Lakekeeper Dick Bailey first heard reports a couple of months ago about trucks around the lake late at night. Then on March 24, he ran across a group of licensed commercial fishermen working in the early morning hours.

"They were putting out small traps and casting nets into the lake," said Bailey, who heads the Lake Merritt Institute, the nonprofit group that maintains the lake.

While it certainly isn't the world's deadliest catch, the fishermen were hauling in sculpins and yellow-tailed gobies by the hundreds. Most were 2 to 5 inches long, the size typically sold as bait for use in deeper waters.

Bailey contacted state wildlife officials, who said they routinely contact offenders and warn them of the violation before issuing a $500 citation.

One thing is sure. This needs to be stopped.

For Oakland residents, Lake Merritt is a whole lot more than just a tributary of the estuary, San Francisco Bay and the ocean beyond.

It's a beauty mole on the city's pockmarked face. Residents from every walk of life have made the 3.3-mile jaunt around the lake a part of their daily routine.

It's a lush, green and pedestrian-friendly walkway wedged between residential neighborhoods and downtown Oakland - and it represents the city's best foot forward.

For that reason alone, it warrants all the protections the city can muster.

At least two groups have been setting traps on some nights after Lakeside Park's official closing time of 10 p.m. They pull them up in the early morning hours, Bailey said.

But even a fisherman would have to get up pretty early in the morning to visit Lake Merritt without someone jogging their way around it. Despite their best efforts to maintain a low profile, fishermen were seen on more than one occasion pulling up traps on the docks behind Lake Chalet. Once they were spotted by a restaurant employee. Joggers have also reported seeing people checking the traps, usually before 7 a.m.

"I've never seen this before in the 12 years I've been here, but I believe people are looking for ways to make money in this economy," Bailey said.

Although such enterprises are rare, in previous years Bailey has caught people fishing for striped bass.

"They were setting gill nets and selling bacteria-laden fish in (Oakland's) Chinatown, but that was more than a decade ago," he said.

State Department of Fish and Game Warden Roxanne Bowers, who serves with a unit that patrols the woods and waterways of Alameda County, said there is nothing unusual about a commercial fisherman trying to get a leg up. Not even at Lake Merritt, which is the nation's oldest wildlife refuge, protected by the state Legislature in 1870.

"He may have thought he found a sweet spot because typically they're not out there trying to break the law," Bowers said.

Unfortunately, the urban lake is probably not one of the best places to cast a wide net.

Bowers said she plans to issue a warning about the lake's protected status and maybe even mention that the pollution from street drainage coupled with low channel flow in and out of the lake doesn't exactly make for safe eating.

"It needs a little fresher water than what flows through the streets of Oakland, and it's probably not a good idea to eat the fish out of that lake," she said.

The other problem with commercial fishing is the lake's role as a waterfowl habitat, Bailey added.

Diving ducks and other birds eat those fish as part of their staple diet, and anything that throws off the environmental equilibrium of the city's most accessible natural resource can't be allowed, said Bailey.

In the coming years, as part of a $198 million bond measure improvement project approved in 2002, Lake Merritt will one day be a legitimate waterway for kayakers and other small crafts connecting the lake with the estuary and open waters.

In anticipation of greater use, Bailey has asked city officials to put up signs that inform the general public of the park's protected status.

"It should be brought to light that this place has been a (wildlife) refuge - one of the first in North America - for 140 years," Bailey said. "Public sentiment for keeping it as a refuge is probably stronger now than at any time in the last century."