There's still been a few limits of Dungeness crab coming in from Tomales Bay. Known crab whisperers Eddie Kim and Thumbs spent Friday on the bay for a couple of those limits. Most boaters are catching a few Dungies but aren't having the same success as the whisperers. Shore snare fishermen are catching a few and occasionally doing better than some of the boaters. Winter storms have scoured our beach down to a flat, gentle slope making launching and retrieving of boats impossible at high tide without a saltwater bath for the launch vehicle. As someone that has had a wheel fall off of his pickup, I recommend not taking that bath.

   Mitch Hamilton found some crab yesterday :"Managed to scrape up 14 nice big crab out of the bay on Saturday, grandson #2 Lucas showing off one of the bigger ones." Those are some big bugs. Nice and clean, too.

    Here's another Saturday report :"Hey Willy,

Took my 84 year old dad out yesterday for a last shot at rockfish and the hopes of picking up
a few crab off 10 Mile.  I was not too surprised to see as many commercial pots on the sand
off Abbotts but was surprised to see pots on all my rockfish spots.  A 4 hour soak produced
4 crabs out of 5 pots.  The rockfish were pretty tight lipped.  We managed to keep about 6
assorted rockfish and let a few shorties go.  Slowest fishing I've had out there in a while. 
Even the New Sea Angler came in late which is rare for Rick.

So that's it for me.  It'll be all about ducks and maybe sturgeon until salmon season.

Brad Stompe" Some really big swells earlier in the week probably helped to slow the crabbing and 
fishing. 

     Here's a bit of a sneak peek at what's coming for the 2020 sport Dungeness season: 

"In Aug 2019, FGC approved an MRC recommendation for DFW to explore possible “common
sense” recreational management measures and consider including the recreational fishery in
its federal habitat conservation plan/incidental take permit application (see Exhibit 1). In Nov
2019, DFW presented MRC with six potential management measures for the recreational
fishery (Exhibit 2):

1. Trap limits - currently the recreational fishery does not have a trap limit

2. Stamp program - currently there is no participation reporting structure

3. Enhanced gear marking - currently only a GO ID number is required

4. Service intervals - currently there is no service interval requirement for traps

5. Gear configuration - currently there are no requirements that specify scope

6. Director of DFW authority for in-season action - current authority is split between DFW

and the legislature (commercial trapping) and FGC (recreational trapping)" 

What does it mean to us? Likely there will be a tag sold like an abalone report card, except the 3 to 10 
tags that come with it will need to be attached to the pots or buoys you intend to fish. Possibly a report
card to self report when you dropped and pulled your gear. You may have to punch a hole in your tag 
on the buoy when you pull gear. There will be a limit to the amount of line you can have on your pot 
relative to your depth that you are fishing. It'll be great.