Monterey’s municipal wharf draws fishermen as much to hang out as to actually catch fish.

On some days, the fishing lines hanging off the pier of Monterey Wharf 2 are just dangling there, no action. That does not stop regulars from coming to the wharf for sun and maybe to crack a beer, maybe to play some cards – there’s a community that converges here regularly, whether or not the fish are biting.

Randall Cunningham of Cachagua comes his with dog, Bruno, roughly every other day, “just to pass the time.” He catches something on average once a week, but fishing is only partly about catching fish. “I just kick back and drink a beer,” he says. (His fishing success rate is much better when he takes a boat offshore for salmon.)

On this particular day, there was a bit of excitement when Cunningham dropped a fake $100 bill in the water while nobody was looking – once it was noticed, all rods turned toward the apparent cash. When nobody could hook it, one guy stripped down to his boxers and jumped into the chilly water to grab it. Hours later, Cunningham is still laughing about the story with his buddy, Gary Stone, who lives in Pacific Grove and frequents the wharf just about daily.

Stone is also catching nothing today, and he doesn’t even have a fishing pole out anymore – not the right bait or the right rig. “That’s why they call it fishing, not catching,” he says.

He says the fishing has gotten worse here over the past five years, but that’s not to say he hasn’t had success. He’s caught mackerel, striper, halibut and smelt. He keeps coming partly for the vibe. “It’s convenient, and I know people,” Stone says.

He’s not the only one to report that there used to be more fish to catch from Wharf 2, which was constructed in 1926 by the city of Monterey, for a cost of $262,000 and today remains home to wholesale fish companies and an abalone farm. On the blog pierfishing.com, Ken Jones writes about a fishing trip to Wharf 2 in 1984: “The sea itself was calm but as I watched the water a dark ball would form: a school of anchovies several feet thick and solid with fish. But a second school of fish, predators by nature, was also present and the mackerel in that school were larger and faster than the anchovies. Soon the mackerel would attack and the anchovy school would disintegrate as individual anchovies literally fled for their life. It was a Roman holiday, nature at its most vivid… it seemed almost too easy as an hour-and-a-half of fishing produced 32 fish.”

“That’s why they call it fishing, not catching.”

Some fishermen just up the wharf from Stone and Cunningham are catching today – glittery sardine after glittery sardine, what will become dinner for Eddie Romero of Seaside. “I like fish a lot, and it’s good for your health,” he says. “And, here it’s fresh.”

He comes to the wharf often, four or five times a week when mackerel or sardines are biting. “Last year, oh my goodness, I caught a lot of mackerel,” he says. He’ll eat today’s sardines fried to a crispy perfection, but he sometimes makes soup to change it up.

Near Romero, Ruben Gomez of Salinas is having a good day, reeling in a sardine every couple of minutes. He mostly fishes down the coast off the rocks at Garrapata trying for rockfish or lingcod, but today is more about the time with his son on the wharf.

Fishing is something he learned from his dad, and he’s now teaching his son. “I’d rather be outside, getting fresh air,” Gomez says. Sometimes, he’ll save these four-inch fish as bait for bigger fish, like stripers in San Luis Reservoir.

The fishing scene on the wharf draws its regulars, but also tourists. One bonus of fishing from the wharf is that in California, fishing from a pier does not require a fishing license, so it’s an easy-access way to try your luck. (Just be careful about any fake money floating around – and note that fishing on Wharf 2 is allowed on the east side only, facing Del Monte Beach.)

To join in doesn’t even require a fishing rod or bait – take the example of Stone, who on this day is just chatting and soaking up the afternoon sun. He looks down over the edge into the surprisingly clear water, and catches sight of hundreds of sardines swimming below, tiny flecks of silver glittering in the light. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” he tells them.