Best Fishing Spots in Los Angeles: Five Public Waters, Verified with the Agency That Runs Each One

How these five were chosen

Every spot on this page passes the same three tests. It is public water with public access. The agency that manages it says, on its own site, that fishing is permitted there. And the rules that apply — licence, limits, hours — are linked to that agency rather than restated here, because they change and we do not want to be the reason you got a citation.

Los Angeles County’s Department of Parks and Recreation does most of the work for us. Its FAQ answers “Can I fish at any Los Angeles County lake?” with a list: Castaic Lake, Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, Legg Lake at Whittier Narrows, Santa Fe Dam, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, Apollo Park, Alondra Park, Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park, Cerritos Park, La Mirada Park, Peck Road Water Conservation Park and Belvedere Park. We took the three nearest the centre of the city and added the two saltwater options whose managing agencies say the same thing.

The licence rule itself is state law. California Fish and Game Code section 7145: every person 16 years of age or older who takes fish for any purpose other than profit shall first obtain a valid licence and have it on their person. Section 7153 carves out the one exception that matters on this list: no licence is needed to take fish, by legal means and not for profit, from a public pier in the ocean waters of the state.

Belvedere Park Lake

East Los Angeles · Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The lake sits in Belvedere Community Regional Park, tucked between the Pomona Freeway and the East Los Angeles civic centre, and it is on the county’s list of lakes where fishing is permitted. It is small, paved at the edge, and entirely a shore fishery — which is exactly what makes it a first trip: no boat, no long walk, a car park beside the water.

The county publishes no species list for it. What the county does publish, for its Bonelli lake, are catch limits for trout, catfish, bass and sunfish — the four families it manages its lakes for — and winter trout and summer catfish in urban lakes across the region come from the state’s fish planting programme. Check the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s planting schedule for this lake before you go; it is the only source that says whether a plant happened.

Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area Lake

Baldwin Hills · Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. A wooded lake in the hills between Culver City and the 10, in a state recreation area operated by the county. It is on the county’s fishing-lake list, and it is the one spot here you can reach without a car: the county’s page describes the Parklands shuttle running from the Metro Expo La Cienega station into the park at weekends and holidays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., for 25 cents a ride. Entrance and parking fees are on the county’s fee page, which the park page links.

Shore fishing around a tree-lined bank, with the same species caveat as Belvedere: the county does not list what is in it, and the state’s planting schedule is where stocked fish are recorded.

Legg Lake, Whittier Narrows

South El Monte · Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The largest water on this list — a chain of lakes with wooded islands inside the 1,500-acre Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, which the county’s page describes as featuring lakes for boating and fishing alongside bike trails and a nature centre. It is on the county’s fishing-lake list, and the park concession rents pedal boats and other small craft, with the last boat going out two hours before sunset on operating days.

More water means more bank to work. Our reading water guide covers where to start on a lake with islands and points; the shore fishing basics guide covers the rest.

Marina del Rey Jetties

Marina del Rey · Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. The county’s harbour department is unusually direct: licensed fishing is permitted at the north and south jetties. Those are the two rock breakwaters at the harbour entrance, and the licence is the full requirement — the same page notes that nearby Venice Pier does not need one, which is the public-pier exception, and that the jetties do.

Rock jetties are tide water. NOAA’s Santa Monica station (9410840), a few miles up the coast, has recorded tides here since 1932 and publishes a mean range of 3.76 feet; our tides page explains how to read the predictions and why the moving water on either side of slack is when jetty fishing tends to happen. Footing on wet rock is the hazard the county does not need to spell out.

Redondo Beach Municipal Pier

King Harbor · City of Redondo Beach. The city’s page for its pier and harbour area lists fishing among the activities the area offers, alongside boating and swimming, and describes King Harbor as including the Municipal Pier, marinas and boat slips across roughly 150 acres of land and water.

The pier is why this spot is here. Under Fish and Game Code section 7153, a sport fishing licence is not required to take fish from a public pier in ocean waters, which makes the Redondo pier the one place on this list where a first-timer can fish legally with no paperwork at all. Everything else still applies — limits, sizes and gear rules are the state’s, and the city’s own harbour rules sit on top — so the pier is licence-free, not rule-free. Our pier and jetty conditions guide covers the surf side of the same shoreline.

Before you go

Three things, in the order they bite you.

The licence. Section 7145 of the Fish and Game Code: 16 and older, valid licence, on your person. The county repeats it on its park pages — Bonelli’s, for instance, says all Department of Fish and Wildlife laws are strictly enforced — and the only exemption on this page is the Redondo pier. Our licences and regulations guide shows where to buy one.

The rules for the water. Limits, sizes, seasons and where on a given lake you may fish are set by the state and, on county water, by the county. Bonelli’s page is a good example of how specific county rules get — fishing allowed around the lake except off the sand beaches, boat docks and within 100 feet of any launch ramp — and each park page carries its own. Read the page for the lake you are driving to.

What is actually in it. The agencies are careful here and so are we. The state’s fish planting schedule is the record of stocked trout and catfish; the county publishes managed species only in its rules. Our species pages for largemouth bass, channel catfish, rainbow trout and bluegill tell you what you are looking at once you have one in hand.

City of Los Angeles lakes — Echo Park Lake, Lincoln Park Lake and the others run by the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks — are not on this page yet. They will be added when we have verified them against the city’s own pages, the same way as the five above.