Stearns Wharf Bait & Tackle

The wooden planks of Stearns Wharf creak underfoot, leading out to a small, weathered shack perched above the Pacific. This is the oldest working wooden wharf in California. While the rest of the structure hosts restaurants and souvenir shops, the bait and tackle store maintains the pier’s original purpose as a fishing hub. In nineteen seventy-three, a massive fire nearly destroyed the entire wharf, but the city rebuilt it, keeping the shop exactly where anglers have cast lines for over a century.