I really don’t know how good the fishing can be on this pier (I catch nothing today), but there’s an energetic every-slice-of-life ambience that’s a keeper.
Go to the northwestern corner of the pier on a Monday or Tuesday and you’ll probably see the mild-mannered Jesus Lopez whom I am talking with as I dunk a slice of squid that he gave me. Jesus stays on this pier for 48 hours straight every Monday and Tuesday – stays up all night, sleeps some in his chair during the day. He fishes for sharks.
“The one I caught last week was half as big as my car.” (I have seen one of his baits – a mackerel head.) “That one almost took my rod over.”
Jesus is 22 and has been coming here since he was 12. He says he remembers his first time: he got lucky and caught a lot of mackerel. “Then a Chinese guy asked if I was selling them and I said yes, give me $1.50 each. I got $60 – spent a lot of it on burgers.”
Jesus works as a street vender in Hollywood – sells flowers and toys and other things. Single roses go for $5 each. He’s been doing this since he was a child; his mother taught him.
“What kinds of customers are best?” I ask.
“When they got their girl or their wife and they stop, I know they’re going to buy.”
“When they do stop, do you say anything to them?”
“I might say, ‘How are you doing?’ or ‘Good afternoon.’ And then, ‘Would you like to buy a rose for your wife?’”
“Who buys more – younger people or older?”
“Older people buy more than the younger ones,” he confirms.
“As old as me? I’m 57.”
“No, not that old,” Jesus smiles and shakes his head.
He lifts his Sabiki rig and winds in three cigar-size fish he says are perch and puts them in his bait bucket. Then he checks the row of tiny hooks to be certain that each still has its tiny piece of squid.
I ask him what he likes about being a street vendor.
“You don’t work for nobody. You get your own hours. You don’t got anybody telling you what to do.” Pretty straightforward. “I also sell watches - $3, $2 and sometimes for $1 when I really need money.”
Two nearby anglers are having difficulty with their lines and Jesus walks over and helps them and ends up giving them new hooks and sinkers which he rigs for them. Bait too.
“I caught six lobsters here yesterday. Gave them to a man that wanted them.”
Why does Jesus like to fish? “When you catch something – get a bite – you’re curious. You want to see what it is. That’s what got me into it.”Photo: Santa Monica Pier - Jesus Lopez
