Dungeness opening results?  Meh. A LOT of effort. Not too much catching inside the bay, at least. Best report I heard was a boat with 35 Dungeness.  Next best was 12. Less after that. I heard one report from the outer bay with a catch total of seven keepers.  No bueno. The shore snares who stayed up all night did well at first but by dawn's early light their catching was mostly over as well. Apparently, the many crab being caught from shore were mostly the same hundred crabs being chucked back in. Once they were kept the catching slowed dramatically. 

   Is that it for the Dungeness? I'd guess no. My experience is that the only constant is change, and one day of data doesn't dictate the season. And it's a wierd year. Water temps are super high for November. Crab can't move around like fish to follow the "right" conditions but they can sure not feed if they're unhappy. We shall see. Hopefully we get some weather this month where we can go see. Maybe deep? Maybe belly up? Time will tell.

    So we are go for Dungeness here, starting at 12:01 am tomorrow. Inside Tomales Bay should be fine.  Getting outside from here could be fatal. You want to crab outside Tomales Bay, go to Bodega. The ocean will be bumpy. Avoid shallow water. Inside Tomales there's some crab. Probably less than it seems as we're likely seeing the same crab caught time after time, but there's not none. Hopefully I'm posting pictures of lots of crab tomorrow. Just be safe.

    There was another round of picking straws and this time the short straw got pulled by Eureka. No crabbing for them. Secret domoic acid tests came up too high.  There's still time for them to decide thar our area is too high. No crab test results have been published for Eureka or Bodega areas, so I guess we're still up for grabs. We'll know for sure in 24 hours. As things stand the extreme shallows seem to be holding crab, as many Dungeness have been caught and released recently. Many of those crab could be the same crab released many times, but there's some crab for sure. The weather looks a bit sketchy from Tomales bay, as big swells may shut us down, but smart, skilled boaters can probably run out of Bodega Bay over the weekend. But be smart. If unsure, follow someone at a distance. 

 Good news! We drew a long straw and Shelter Cove got the short one! Sorry, Shelter Cove guys, but our Dungeness season will open as scheduled at 12:01 AM on Saturday November 7th, hoops and snares only, no traps.

"Recreational Dungeness Crab Fishing Begins in Most Areas Nov. 7 with Trap Restrictions, Commercial Season Delayed

The recreational Dungeness crab season will open under trap restrictions beginning Nov. 7, 2026, except in a portion of Northern California where it has been delayed due to a public health hazard.  

State health agencies determined that Dungeness crab collected north of Fort Bragg (southern Humboldt County/northern Mendocino County) have unhealthy levels of domoic acid and recommended delaying the opening of the recreational fishery in state waters from Cape Mendocino (40° 10' N latitude) to the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve (39° 33.3' N latitude). Following this recommendation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Meghan Hertel has delayed the opening of the recreational Dungeness crab season in this area. Recreational take and/or possession of Dungeness crab is prohibited in these closed waters.

The use of recreational crab traps will be restricted from the California/Oregon border to Point Conception (34° 27' N latitude, Fishing Zones 1-5) until at least Jan. 1, 2027, due to the number of confirmed entanglements this year and high abundance of humpback whales across the fishing grounds. A Fleet Advisory has also been issued for all Fishing Zones for the recreational fishery and crabbers should avoid setting any gear in areas where whales are present. The trap restriction does not affect the use of hoop nets and crab snares (loop traps), and CDFW reminds anglers that all hoop nets must be serviced every two hours and cannot be left unattended for longer periods.

The commercial Dungeness crab fishery will be delayed from the California/Oregon border to Point Conception until at least Jan. 1, 2027. The commercial season delay and recreational trap restriction is required due to the number of humpback whale entanglements during the 2026 calendar year. Current regulations require the CDFW director to take these actions to reduce the possibility of additional entanglements for the remainder of the year. This delay will also allow whales to migrate out of California waters prior to the opening of the commercial fishery."

So the Commies are screwed as usual. We get to crab with hoops not traps, as usual. SNAFU, as usual. There are a lot of humpback whales out there. Usually you don't see them inshore but this year they are here. Warm water isn't likely to send them away anytime soon, nor does the warm water seem likely to go away for a while. Speaking of warm water....

Eric Sheppers caught this 33 pound, 45" white seabass today while rockfishing off of Abbott's Lagoon on a white fly with a piece of squid on it. It almost spooled him a couple times. Nicely done sir!

      Pretty slow last weekend. The weather was meh, but Mike Mack and crew landed a few fish.  The weather was also meh. And yet, bonito made the smoker for Mike, and he found smoked  bonito was really good. More was tried for over the weekend but reality intervened.

  Over the weekend a friend of the report has passed.  The Simpsons, "The Wet Dream" guys, have been pretty regular contributers here. Recently the worst happened for them. Derrick was killed in a car accident. This is a fishing report, but he was a reliable reporter.It hurts because I  know them. Here's a link for helping: https://gofund.me/689d753d3 The Simpsons landed a white seabass back in early September in the bay.