On Tuesday, September 29, Ed Burrell launched a skiff by himself off the Capitola Wharf. He came back with a few rockfish, a couple of barracuda and a white sea bass in the 40-pound class. Burrell spent his career at Capitola Boat & Bait renting skiffs and helping people find fish, and he's now semi-retired. A fishing report published October 2 includes a photo of him holding the sea bass, with a couple of pier anglers he enlisted to hold the rest of his catch.
That photo shows what the wharf is right now. The rebuilt deck reopened in September 2024 without the Wharf House restaurant. The city's listing for a replacement is marked closed but doesn't name a developer. What's left is the wharf's oldest use, and every official document about its future treats that use as fixed.
A wharf with fewer reasons to linger
When Tina Williams talked with the Santa Cruz Sentinel in July, she didn't soften what the past two years have been like. Williams co-owns Capitola Boat & Bait with her brother, David Morris. Their mother, Sally John, bought the business in 1997 and handed it to them two years ago. She said that with the Wharf House closed, fewer people have a reason to spend time on the wharf.
"We're struggling to make it work. As you can see, there's not many people out here." Tina Williams, Capitola Boat & Bait, to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 2026
The shop has been working out of a cluster of temporary metal sheds the city provided when the wharf reopened. The city didn't allow holes in the shed walls, so the family put up freestanding pegboard displays for bait and fishing line. A fabric divider separates the customer area from the boat repair space. The rent is lower than they paid for the old storefront. Williams said she and her brother haven't heard from the city about any timeline for a permanent building.
The rest of the wharf has been rebuilt. The 2024 resiliency project widened the deck, replaced failing pilings and decking, and added restrooms near the entrance. Community donations paid for seating areas, picnic tables, ADA-compliant viewing stations, bike racks, a fish-cleaning station, a water fountain, public art and new lighting along the length of the wharf. Lookout Santa Cruz reported those community donations came to $425,000. Most of what was added serves people who come to fish or walk. Nothing serves people who come to eat.
The June vote that kept the bait shop on the wharf
The shop's future was in question earlier this year. Capitola leases city property to three businesses: Capitola Boat & Bait on the wharf, Capitola Beach Company in Esplanade Park, and the patio outside Britannia Arms where Cafe Lido used to be. The city had no formal policy for those leases. At the council's direction, staff drafted one that would have required advertising each lease and taking requests for proposals. Williams told Lookout she would be "the first one on the chopping board if the [new] bid comes in higher."
According to the Sentinel, 13 people spoke against the policy at the June council meeting and more than 40 wrote letters supporting the shop. The city's summary of the June 25 meeting records the outcome in one line: the council "voted not to move forward with a leasing policy."
The vote didn't extend anything. In June, Lookout reported that Williams' current lease expires at the end of this year. Williams told the Sentinel the shop's future is more stable but still uncertain. "We are still here," she said. "Hopefully we'll be here in the future."
What the city asked a private partner to build
The restaurant question is moving on a separate track. In May 2026, the city issued a request for proposals for a "Capitola Wharf Restaurant and Fishing Concession Marketplace." The selected developer would design, finance, build, operate and maintain the project under a long-term lease. The city's bid page shows the deadline was extended to August 31, 2026, and the solicitation is now marked closed. The bid page doesn't list how many proposals came in, who submitted them, or when the council will choose.
The RFP is most specific about fishing. A developer gets flexibility on the restaurant. The city wants it to run year-round, but the size and menu can differ from the conceptual plan. The fishing concession comes with a minimum list:
- A bait and tackle shop
- Boat hoist operations
- Water taxi service to and from moored boats
- Management of up to 50 moorings near the wharf from May 1 through September 30 each year
The RFP states it plainly: "Maintaining the Capitola Wharf as an active fishing wharf is important to the City." It also cites Capitola's Coastal Land Use Plan Policy II-8, which calls for the wharf to stay a free-access public fishing pier with low-intensity facilities such as food service, a fishing and boating shop, a water taxi and public restrooms.
On the wharf now | In the city's conceptual plan | |
|---|---|---|
Food | Snacks, drinks and microwaveable food from Boat & Bait | Year-round restaurant with kitchen, bar and entertainment area |
Fishing and boating | Bait, tackle, skiff, kayak and paddleboard rentals from temporary sheds | Bait and tackle, boat rentals, sales, repairs, hoist, water taxi, moorings |
Public amenities | Entrance restrooms, 40 benches, 4 picnic tables, fish-cleaning station | All of those kept, plus two more bathrooms and a lifeguard station at the wharf head |
Even the restaurant plan comes back to the deck's strength. People at the June 2025 council meeting worried that a building at the end of the wharf would be exposed to the same storms that broke the 855-foot structure in two in 2023. Engineers at Moffatt & Nichol told city staff that a two-story building could help stabilize the wharf by pressing down when waves push the pilings up into the deck.
Building it won't be cheap or quick. In 2025, staff estimated a full-kitchen restaurant at $5.2 to $6.2 million and capped the city's share at about $3 million, so private investment would cover the rest. The council reviewed the master plan as a draft on April 23, 2026, and the RFP says it does not approve a final design. Any project still needs council approval, and the Planning Commission has to sign off on design, coastal development and conditional use permits plus CEQA review. At that June 2025 meeting, Councilmember Susan Westman suggested a temporary hot dog or hamburger stand. "We all know a project like this would take a bit of time and it won't happen soon," she said. We haven't found any confirmation that the stand, or the interim bathroom and lifeguard tower discussed that night, have been built.
The fishing pier, this fall
For now the wharf is a working fishing pier, and the water has been unusually generous. The October 2 Monterey Bay report describes a warm-water pattern. All the regular species are biting, along with fish that are less common here, including thresher shark, barracuda, bonito and white sea bass. It also says the pattern is expected to break soon. A local angler's report from the wharf on August 25 listed Pacific staghorn sculpin, jack silverside, mackerel, anchovies and white croaker.
You don't need a license. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife lists Capitola Wharf as a public pier, which means recreational anglers can fish from it without one. Size limits, bag limits, seasons and report cards still apply, and each person can use no more than two rods or lines.
Boat & Bait sells hooks, line, sinkers, lures, and sardines, anchovies, shrimp and squid for bait. It rents 16-foot skiffs with 8-horsepower motors. Kayaks and paddleboards are booked by phone in one-, three- and eight-hour blocks. Williams keeps a photo book in the shop of customers and their catches, going back to the 1990s. It includes lingcod, rockfish, halibut, flounder, sea bass and the occasional octopus that had to go back in the water.
Before you head down this month, check these dates:
- October 3 through 11: Boat & Bait isn't launching boats. The shop is open limited hours, and rentals resume October 12.
- October 11: The wharf is closed all day for the Monte Foundation fireworks, which run from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Capitola Beach. Plan to watch from the sand or the bluffs.
- October 17 and 18: Women on Waves, a surf contest and open-water swim, takes place at Capitola Beach.
- October 25: The Village Halloween Parade starts at 2 p.m. It goes down Capitola Avenue to Esplanade Park, and trick-or-treating at participating shops follows.
- November 12: Outstanding in the Field holds a ticketed long-table dinner on the wharf, roughly 1 to 5:30 p.m. Tickets are listed at $415.
- November 14: The Business Improvement Area's Capitola Sip & Stroll runs in the Village from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $50 and include tastings and a commemorative glass.
Boat & Bait's website doesn't list regular hours or an end date for the rental season. The shop's number is (831) 462-2208.
The next decision for the wharf is at City Hall. The council will review whatever proposals the city received, and Boat & Bait's lease is up in December. Every version of the plan so far keeps bait for sale, boats available to rent, and a free place to fish off the end of the deck.
Questions about the wharf, the Village, or how changes on Capitola's waterfront could affect a home nearby are the kind of thing we follow closely and like to talk through. Mike O'Boy and Tara O'Boy are happy to share what we're hearing as the council takes up the marketplace proposals this winter. Connect With Us Today.
