Palo Alto Foothills Park.

[Radman64]

Just wondering if any one has any memories of going here, for years one could only get in only if you showed Palo Alto residency on your ID, I lived in Mt View back in the 70's as a kid but there was a really cool older girl who was part of the neighborhood I lived in and knew about it, back then if you changed your address all you had to do was put the new one one on tape on the backside which was what she did using a friends addy.
The fishing was off the hook in the lake for Bass & Catfish, mostly those who went there was to BBQ/Picnic.

 

[Shaunatello]

I work in Palo Alto and have been quite a bit. It’s open to everyone now, you just have to pay a vehicle fee. You should be able to get a free day pass from any Palo Alto library

 

[Radman64]

I work in Palo Alto and have been quite a bit. It’s open to everyone now, you just have to pay a vehicle fee. You should be able to get a free day pass from any Palo Alto library

Yes, I know it is now but for 50+ years it was not, I believe that was a direct result of lawsuits getting filed if I recall only opening to the public in 2020.
I only went there maybe 5-6 times back in the late 70's as she would meet her friend there and they would spend the day drinking, sunning & BBQing like everyone else that would be there, never recall anyone else fishing it when I was there but me and my friends. Its not really a lake but a good large size pond that no boating, swimming etc was allowed. The city park rangers never really cared if we waded out a couple of feet (in our shorts or jeans) so we could cast in front of the reeds, I do believe they actually enjoyed watching a bunch of really young teenagers entertaining all that where there as the Bass were quite feisty and a 3-4 pound Big Mouth was very common. It was the 1st time I got one to hit a hula popper and it was epic as it leaped out of the water taking the lure then leaping more trying to shake the lure lol.
It was always catch & release and I never recall being asked if we had our fishing license (we all did), not sure what Catfish was in there but I think the were Brown's, we fished for those differently in the open area's casting out with nightcrawlers on sinkers. I caught one so big it actually snapped the shank off my hook as I was trying net it, had to be close to 7-8 pounds at least and put up one heck of a fight.
It's not a natural body of water by the way, it was created by a Federal program that came after WW2 that ran into the 60's creating ponds on ranch land where they stocked them with Bass, Catfish & Bluegill as long as there was a natural water source. I fished a lot of them on private property in the Sierra foothills back in the 80's that were completely overgrown with reeds all around, a lot of old lunkers to be had but I would never eat one.