In San Francisco and San Pablo bays you can only use one fishing line with no more than three separate hooks or lures. When fishing from a boat, fishing is restricted to daylight hours only (one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset). While fishing from public piers inside San Francisco and San Pablo bays you cannot use more than two rods and lines, two hand lines, or two nets, traps or other appliances used to take crabs.

In ocean waters other than San Francisco and San Pablo bays, you may use as many poles as you can attend to for many species, but single pole restrictions apply to some species such as salmon and rockfish. The second pole stamp only applies when fishing in fresh water.

Carrie Wilson is a marine environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While she cannot personally answer everyone’s questions, she will select a few to answer each week in this column. Please contact her at CalOutdoors@wildlife.ca.gov.