Inside Tomales Bay there a few Dungeness caught but it was not the opener most people hoped for. I talked to one guy that said his crew had 34 Dungeness "across the bay", but the next best number I heard was five. It sounded like the East side of the bay was better and the pier even kicked out a few keepers for some lucky crabbers. Mostly it was red crab getting the boiling water spa treatment from the bay crabbing crowd, though. The outer bay was way better, not wide open, but most of the traps dropped out there had something good to eat in them when pulled. Ten Mile Beach had lots of crab but was too far away in the wind for most boats to make the run. Those that went caught their limits but took some abuse returning home. I did hear that 180 feet of water straight out front had a load of jumbos.
Here's a late update and report from Kevin Fogal:"
Lots of crab at ten mile , life jackets a must on Saturday , Sunday a whole lot nicer !!"
Those are the kind of pictures that sell boats. Nice bugs, Kevin. Reports from in the bay were disappointing today as well. With a strong current from the extreme high/low tides this weekend, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't as many pots lost as crab caught in the bay.
26 comments:
Always crabbed out side Tomales Bay mouth towards Bodega Bay. Never tried 10 mile. Do you know what depth they where hitting the mother loads?
We go 40 feet but others go deeper and some shallower.....
Saturday was a bit snotty out there, we opted just to leave the pots Saturday and pick them up Sunday morning. We came back up hill Saturday at 5kts, slow wet ride back. We got our limits so it sounds foolish to complain but normally we are sorting thru 80 crabs to get a couple of very decent size limits, we pulled 37 crab Sunday morning.
Although..........We had 2 empty pots just as some others did in our immediate area, other pots had plenty of crab. When we first got down there within sight Sunday morning 3 early bird boats high tailed it out of our spot, not sure but it appears we had some pirates taking advantage of other peoples work. Sundays water was much better and I am sure today is really nice on the sea -good luck!
We did well as usual right out front in 180ft both Saturday and Sunday. Nothing like last year though and we also had several empty pots on Sunday. Pirates yes I believe so
like others are saying,NO where near counts of last year in 200'!big let down for us..only three per on overnight soak:(did hear that shallow pots did great..go figure
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sunday, we launched out of Westside at 0645 hrs. on my crew member's new boat. We got to the drop spot about an hour later. Kinda choppy seas in the morning. Dropped 6 Danielson's in 90'. Had some coffee and snacks for one hour . We pulled the traps . We kept 16 crabs over 6 1/2 " up to a couple of 8". We dropped a second time, waited an hour and started pulling traps. We got 19 keepers and only kept 14 over 6 1/2" up to 7". We throw back at least 2 legal limits. We headed back to the ramp with 30 nice crabs for 3 happy crew members. AHHH, life is good! . We dropped in 90' at our old reliable hot spot.
IMFISHBOY--- Never heard of westside launch? Where is that? We are heading to Lawson this Thurs -Sun and I think I might try 10 mile for crab weather permitting and fish around elephant rock. Any one know of good rock ling spots around there? Cheers All Happy Fishing!!!!
Ahh Westside regional park launch ramp in Bodega!
202 jumbos in 15 pots over 2 days. It was pouring after midnight. If you can't read a map be careful around bodega. We saved 2 boats pricey tickets. They set pots and we're fishing off the college. Googones!!
Ab fish...sounds like the crab are in shallow and deep. What depths were you working?
Sorry, I'm not gonna burn my spots I'm sure the commie guys want to know right were to set. Make them work for it. It's not like they helped sport guys get on salmon this year!! For what it's worth we didn't have any stuffed pots but more jumbos than any other opener. That could be due to the tides I want a pot stuffed with jumbos
Definitely plenty of jumbos in the mix
More than half jumbos and all were over commercial grade
BTW, what size is considered commercial size crab? What is an 8" crab considered?
An answer is appreciated.
what I am hearing is square gear is outfishing round gear by a huge margin,even on overnight soaks,and I am starting to believe that..strange?quality is awesome,just shocked on 1/4 counts from last year in same exact spot..
6 1/4 is commercial grade.8in would be a jumbo.
IMHO, square gear, or cheaper vinyl-dipped gear, will fish dependent on the bait, where commercial style gear has electrolysis to add to the equation. Good voltage and you hardly need bait. Bad and your bait doesn't matter.
Ab, are you commercial grade or jumbo;)
I just read the report from USA fishing about the authors son getting his pots raided and I feel pissed off all over again. I'd love to catch some SOB doing this.
I had a great time with my family and found some nice big crabs not total limits but ended up with 51 crabs 26 rockfish and 4 lings somebody also pulled a couple of my pots and cleaned them out tangled my lines if not for that I'm sure I would have gotten 9 more none the less a great time at lawson landing there staff is a great bunch. I won't let some Joe Magee ruin my fun they will surely reap what they sew thank you willy and the staff well be seeing you guys soon
Touch my gear and my bow is going through your gunnel.
Onto another issue is the googones that drop gear in the slot. That's between the island and the head. When They carpet bomb the harbor entrance it endangers many. At least boat license are coming sood.
Yep ab fish that always annoys me too. Nothing but a bunch of rock crab in between there anyways.
Once again, I'm not sad we didn't fish the opener.
Outlaw
You can't call yourself a diehard or you didn't want to be called a googone?
I'm really way past caring what anyone calls me or thinks of me. Have a good season.
Outlaw
Post a Comment