Kerry Apgar forwarded these pictures from Nick Nichols. No text with them, but my skilled photo interpretation would indicate that the rockfishing is really good by Point Reyes and the crabbing is really good on Ten Mile. I believe that this was Nick's maiden voyage on the salt with his new boat and it looks like he's pretty happy with it. This new boat is big enough that he had a second station installed in back because the run from the forward helm to a rod with a fish on it was so far you would need to to take rest breaks. Well, I would.
     The crabbing inside Tomales Bay has really dropped off. It was slow at the start and three weeks of heavy pressure hasn't made it any better. Ten Mile and the deeper waters (150'+) have been steadily good but getting harder to get to with the ocean weather steadily getting more winter-like. The Tomales Bay bar claimed two boats over the weekend (a Whaler and an inflatable) but thankfully no lives. Whoever the guy was that was dropping pots on the bar on Saturday morning and almost got flipped, glad you made it back but don't do it again. I hope the brown stains in your underwear don't come out.  Someone coming in that gets your rope in their prop and ends up flipped by a breaker is someone you just killed.
    Also in crab news, the commercial season is delayed again for whales. There's still a bunch of whales around, and if enough whales get entangled in gear the commercial season will get shut down for years. If you think that means we would get free reign of the crab then you should pay more attention to the world around you. First them, then us. Right now the "commies" are taking one for their team and ours.

 

     Here's a three hour soak in 60 feet of water at the Towers on Ten Mile (about the 38º 06" line). A half pound of squid in the bait jar caught 14 Dungeness, all keepers. It made me wonder why I dropped four pots until I pulled the next one and found only two crab in it. "Pirates!" I thought. Then I noticed that the door wasn't latched and I vaguely remembered dropping the bungy hook over the frame, not into the wire, and realized I had pirated myself. So, I basically need to run extra gear to make up for my carelessness. I'll need to buy some extra gear, then, because the crab numbers will start dropping soon after the commercial gear starts dropping. There's a chance that the commercial fleet will end up crammed into the area between Point Reyes and Gualala, depending on the outcome of the next crab test from Duxbury Reef. Should that happen you'll be able to walk on the buoys. Fingers crossed for a clean test. Ten Mile and the deeper water (150'+) will still have a lot of crab for us (over 5.75" and less than 6.25") but I think we all like to catch jumbos.

 The crabbing inside the bay has really dropped off. There are still some Dungeness getting caught but I only heard of one guy this weekend that was happy with his total. The average has been 0 to 2 with a couple guys catching half limits and one fellow with a lot of gear catching 28. 

Veteran's Weekend 2019

    Of the many boats launching from here this weekend, these folks were the only ones tha didn't go crabbing. It looks like specializing pays off. The largest ling weighed in at 17.5 pounds and the weird looking fish on the left is a wolf eel. 

    Thumbs sent in a picture of this big ling, caught at Point Reyes on Dungeness opening day. He says it was pushing 30 pounds. There's some big lings out there right now. This time of year the largest ones are usually females full of eggs, so if you get a photo and let them go, that's okay too. 

   The southern three-quarters of Ten Mile Beach has a lot of crab. Doug Bagley and I dropped seven pots along the northern half on Thursday. The two pots closest to Keyhoe Beach had a combined six Dungeness. The other five traps averaged 12 per pot. The outer bay has some decent crab if you can soak a pot overnight in the right spot and be the first to pull it. Otherwise it's been difficult. A few guys are still catching fair numbers of Dungeness crab in the bay but there's way more wrong spots than right ones. Most bay crabbers are doing well to catch a couple of legal Dungeness. As long as the weather keeps cooperating, go south if you can. The rockfishing is really good down south, too, in case cleaning a bunch of crabs isn't enough for you. Commercial season is on the books to start this week, although I heard a rumor of a single bad crab in a recent test, so there may be further delay. 

    Here's an excellent report from Kyle Maclachlan: "Just wanted to share some pics from our crab opener. We worked 3 pots and had 3 good pulls.  My 22” pot had 10 crabs, 2nd pot for 8 and 3rd had 16! All were from ten mile beach and the fish were from point reyes reefs. Couldnt believe the t- shirt weather down at the point. Hopefully a catch like this is worthy of the fishing report, I always follow the reports, thanks."  Absolutely worthy. It doesn't look like the dirty water bothered the crab or the rockfish, at least for you. There is a CDPH warning now for crabs caught south of Point Reyes (to Pigeon Point) and north of Point Arena. It's the standard "clean 'em before you cook 'em" warning for two crabs that were a few parts per million over the warning threshhold. The crabs out of Bodega and Tomales Bays have tested okay and the other areas should be clear before the commercial fleet gets their chance at them on the 22nd.

     There are some nice Dungeness inside Tomales Bay and in the outer bay but the guys getting decent numbers are really putting in the time and fuel to drop and test, then move and drop and test, trying to find the place with the crab. Letting your gear soak all day where the crab aren't is not a good way to get your limit. These guys know where the crabs are. Or were. 

    Mike Mack and Tim Nelson made a run down to Elephant on Saturday for some ling cod and they found them. The big one was in the mid-twenties. It was nice to see a few fish among all the Dungeness madness.

The weather was fantastic today but the crabbing was kind of average for the opener. A few guys killed 'em and a lot of guys didn't. The outer bay was spotty with limits for some and scratching for a few for some others. Ten Mile Beach was very good for the boaters that didn't mind spending a little more on gas. I talked to one boat that ran up to the Russian River in 60 feet of water and it sounded like that was not the place to be. The longish stretch of flat seas has probably let a lot of Dungeness move in close to shore, so dropping your gear shallow may help.

    Not too much fishing going on. I guess everyone is prepping their crab gear. Nathan Porter, John Brezina and I gave the albacore one last try yesterday. We ran out to 38º 28' by 123º 54', or about 45 nautical miles from Tomales Point. I didn't get skunked (barely). Nate caught eleven and John caught five. I guess a few tuna didn't know that it was over. Also not over, there were a couple halibut and a striper caught back near Marshall on Monday The rockfish have been biting pretty well, too. As of the time of this post, no health warnings for domoic acid in the crab. Remember, no traps in the water until 12:01 AM Saturday.