One boat launched today. They worked the area near marker 5 for 15 Dungeness crab in a little over 2 hours. Chicken was the bait and they crabbed through the slack tide.

Slow crabbing in the bay now. I've seen a few keepers from the pier and a few more from the boaters in the bay, but all told, it's the slowest it's been this season. The guys that did well last week were using chicken and mackerel in their pots. I don't know that the bait is the secret, but it can't hurt to try. The ospreys are catching surfperch but I haven't seen any people fishing for them.

The high score from the pier yesterday was a couple of keepers for a couple of guys. The bay has a fresh crop of crab coming in but they're mostly females and ones that are just barely short. Still, there's enough keepers mixed in that a pair of guys with a boat have caught over 75 Dungeness in the last 9 days. It just takes patience and good sorting skills. There was a leopard shark hooked and lost by a fisherman on the pier yesterday. I haven't heard of any surfperch yet.

The pier was very slow for Dungeness again today. The inner bay had some keepers for the guys that worked it hard. One pair of guys even limited out. Ten Mile had lots of females in the pots. One pot pulled from down there had 14 females in it and no dudes. Now, you can legally keep the females, but a gentleman (or -woman) returns them to make more crabs. Hopefully the "ladies' night" on the beach means there will be lots of babies. No surfperch reports.

The folks crabbing on the pier had a bit of a show today with the retrieval by helicopter of the shipping container. The entertainment was important because the crabbing was pretty bad. Inside the bay I've heard mixed reviews, with a pair of locals getting skunked in the same "honey hole" in which another fellow caught a limit. On the ocean, the outer bay gave up zero crab for yesterday's crabbers from here and one for today's guys. The boat that went down to Ten Mile got three limits of nice dungeness working gear in 50 to 100 feet of water.

   Here's that container. It looks pretty good from the angle of the photo but it's pretty messed up on the other side. There are no flatscreens in it. Parker Diving Service is going to fly it out this week. I'll try to get a picture.

   The crabbing is on the slow side but still catchable. The pier has been pretty tough but has still had a few good days for a lucky few so far this year. The ospreys have been packing around surfperch, so the fish are there, even though I haven't heard any catch reports. 

Firstly, I hear that the shipping container is an empty refrigerated unit. If you want to make the hike, go for it, but don't expect any booty. The crabbing was slow in the bay, as usual, but from what I hear the outside is slowing down as well. It makes the bar less tempting to cross when the crabbing is just as good in the bay as out. Carson City Randy left today, so mere mortals have a chance of catching again. He and his wife caught over 50 from the pier in their week here, so the Dungeness are here. And my apologies to Randy; for those of you that came out to witness his glory, I didn't actually mean for you to follow him around.