Sorry for the lack of reports but I was away. Most of our tackle in the store comes via Big Rock Sports which is one of the larger wholesalers for independent sporting goods shops. They have a big sale show once a year and Cameron, my wife, Nicki and myself went off to the show in Nashville on the 4th. On the night of the 5th my wife fell and broke her leg, requiring surgery. It took until yesterday morning to get back home. Good times. At least I like country music and whiskey. But it seems that I didn't miss to much besides some very nice weather. Crabbing has been meh. There's a few in the bay and possibly even less in the outer bay. The commercial fishermen have been diffusing out of the Point Reyes/Farallones pocket looking for the next batch of crab and mostly finding just a few. It sounds like the average has been two to four keepers per pot on a two day soak. No bueno, but $6.00 per pound at the dock will keep them fishing. That high of a price is meant to keep them fishing, as there is still a demand but not much supply. Points north open today, so supply to the market may increase, but as of now there's commercial gear all over, including the outer bay. The Tomales Outlaw gave the outer bay a try yesterday and after a one-hour soak he had.....two keepers. He left most of his gear out and pulled again today for a total of.....four keepers. His pots may not have been in the best spots,  but 24 hours later for less than one crab per pot seems kinda slow. Bummer that rockfish season in still months away. 

   Nice weather here, though.

   Did you hear all the splashing this morning, around 8:00 AM? That was both sport and commercial pots finally splashing in the drink for their very delayed trap seasons. Finally! Now let's see if that does any better.. Generally, the crabbing is better before the commercials start, as less competition means more for those actually crabbing. The crabbing pre-commercial wasn't awesome, so trap results, to my mind, should be similar. A longer soak doesn't guarantee crab. You can't catch what isn't there. Gage is working a week or so with my cousin, Chris, on his crab boat. According to the Gage (and so Chris), pretty much every commercial crab pot locally is soaking between San Francisco and Point Reyes. Everybody was corking everybody, and mostly nobody was trying to (only mostly). You can almost walk on the crab buoys from Point Reyes to the Farallones. Don't try it, it's only almost. Just know that my cousin, that guy that bets his living on knowing things about crab and fish, is not expecting a long functional season. He expects a season open through March or April but most of the catching (as is done most years) all happens in the first few weeks. The price for crab, I hear, is very good. The only time the buyers want to pay is when they don't expect anybody to catch, so we must assume that the guys that know, know it sucks. And when it opens up north the price will drop, even though the crab wight be a bit light (not heavy with meat). I saw a picture from a New Year's Eve crab trip to the outer bay with a female Dungeness loaded with eggs. Bad sign for the now, as the clutch (the spawn and molt) is bad for catching and eating. Good for the future, as we all want to eat crab then.  Rockfish, as much as it was a season, is done until April, I believe, when it will open deep, even though you mostly won't be able to go there during April, as the weather mostly sucks. Well good for those rockfish. I'll see them in October, with a vengeance.

      Almost forgot. Happy New Year! May all of your good experiences outweigh your disappointments this year. Last year I was lucky enough to experience such a thing, and I hope you get to do the same. Buena suerte! 

 

Here's some more video of the big swell from the 23rd. This is the Bodega Bay bell buoy. It ain't that shallow there. I heard that this swell caused damage in Peru. Peru! South of the equator. Well, you know my policy: If it sucks here, it should suck everywhere. 

   Speaking of sucking, the crabbing has dropped off inside the bay. There's still crab, and they're still being caught, but the reports from the last few days aren't as good as from a week ago. My guess is that it is because the tides are really strong again, and strong currents aren't good for crabbing. The guessing isn't often right but it is always fun. Speaking of guessing, salmon season looks like a negative for next year but a friend of mine that knows people that know people thinks that there's a chance for a very short season. Very short. A week? A few days? I think he's an optomist, but somebody has to be. I was one last year but I had it beaten out of me. I'm sure that unlike the last two years, this time will be different... Well, I hope he's right, because the preliminary return numbers were really bad. The fish are overfished without fishing, even though all hatcheries but one had super returns. Unfortunately, the one that missed their numbers was the one that counts for all. Weird! Like the beaten girlfriend always tells the cops, "I'm sure next time will be different."

 Big swells today. not the largest ever but pretty damn big. We had a few break all the way down the middle of the bay. There was even a surfer riding them. 

     We got off light, yet again. It probably helps that we don't have a pier to destroy because most of the piers on Tomales Bay got busted up a week ago and today the end of the pier at Santa Cruz busted off. Big swell today and big tides and wind last week were bad for human-built things in the water. But, between the waves of hurt there was a window of opportunity where it turns out the crab were biting. Last Saturday one boat had 40 Dungeness inside the bay. They caught a few more on Sunday but not quite as well. A fellow today had a quick limit in the morning. They aren't jumbos. mostly, and the aren't pretty, mostly, but there's some keepers in the bay. And more good news, as it seems that traps will open at 8:01 AM on January 2. Commercial gear will hit water at the same time. They get to pull on the 5th. 

     The "King Tides" this week made for some excitement but not good crabbing. Good crabbing inside the bay generally requires slow currents, but the kings have some of the highest and lowest tides, and all that moving water makes for bad crabbing and lots of gear loss. Eight feet of water rushing out of the bay in seven hours makes for a pretty good river. People were still catching some crab, but not too many. As the moon wanes the currents should wane as well. The king tides did happen to arrive with a storm,.  perfectly timed to maximize damage. We were lucky enough to have purchased some large concrete blocks this summer for our parking lot. After seeing the forecast and tide table, we moved our blocks from the parking lot to in front of the store. They worked, and we were able to stay open and not even have to sandbag the doors. We lost more beach and the use of our webcam for a bit, but we got off light compared to many of the businesses and homes on the bay. When the front passed the wind switched from 50 mph from the south to 65 from the west. We get the worst of it from the south, so our neighbors further up the bay caught the brunt of it, as the long fetch built up some serious waves on top of the highest tide, low pressure and a big northwest swell pushing more water into the bay. Our only real damage was our webcam, as the waves washed out some of the dirt floor of our tractor garage, and sitting on that floor was the battery pack that ran the camera. Amazon is sending a new battery and the camera will live again. The blocks will probably stay until the storms chill. How long until April? 

    Commercial crabbing and traps will be opening soon. The recommendation to the honcho at CDFW is to allow commercial to start here at 50% of traps starting on the 5th. Your traps may start earlier or at the same time. Half gear means harder work for half pay for the commercial guys. I hope nobody gets hurt and no boats are lost. But I worry.