Gage put his boat in the water and tried for sand dabs yesterday. He was sort of successful. I'm not sure if you can see his catch in this photo, so here's a closeup:
With a big enough screen, these fish could be larger than actual size. Calm down ladies, his hands are only normal sized. Luckily Gage's mother wasn't very hungry, so she ate his fish for dinner. She said they were delicious. Both fish came off of Tomales Point in 200 feet of water and bit immediately on his first drop. There was no encore.
Yesterday the California Fish and Game Commission voted on the emergency hydraulic pump ban. The press release today reads: "The Commission unanimously voted to adopt an emergency regulation to prohibit the use of hydraulic pump gear for recreational take of clams, sand crab and shrimp. The emergency regulation is in response to dramatic increases in recreational clamming effort and harvest rates using hydraulic hand pumps, necessitating immediate additional protections while a standard regulation is under development." It looks like the "classic", solo operated shrimp and clam guns (slurp guns?) will remain legal to use for now. In six months the Commission will reexamine the situation.
I was sent a note earlier with this link: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB534 It is a new bill in the State Assembly to : "Notwithstanding any other provision of this code or regulations adopted pursuant to this code, by no later than November 1, 2025, ropeless fishing gear, as determined by the department, shall be required when taking any species of fish for commercial or recreational purposes in any trap fishery, including, but not limited to, Dungeness crab, spiny lobster, and spot prawn. " This sounds pretty complicated, but luckily there's companies already making products to satisfy these rules. Here's one :http://ropelessfisher.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAyJOBBhDCARIsAJG2h5cMHD0ShDIFDJW8gXY7nW8R8AAL2TS2ZA_BZvREu65I6Lc29QhN1fsaAsrtEALw_wcB A coastal kit only runs $4950.00. I think that's more than my boat is worth. Hello, ring nets.
8 comments:
Well at least I don't have to do another round of repairs on my clam pump.
I saw a note that some charter boats out of Monterey have had such good catches of sand dabs (560 for 14 anglers) and sole that they will start targeting some trips for them. Nice catch Gage.
I try to be a reasonable person and not believe in conspiracy theories, but the constant "death by a thousand cuts" is hard to ignore when it comes to fishing in California. They won't outlaw fishing, they won't say they don't want consumptive use of our resources, but they are going to make it so hard to fish and crab in California that everyone is just going to give up. 5 grand for releasable buoys?! What sport fisherman can even come close to justifying that? Unless you dive down and pick up your crab rings there will still a rope attached. Maybe they'll let us use snares from shore even though there's a fishing line attached. Brutal.
I feel stupid. But what the heck does ropeless mean? Topless I understand? And in fact am not opposed to. But ropeless.? I don’t get it.
Ditto. I have tried not to fall into that camp but the proposed changes that would mandate non-static bouys for crab traps have pushed me ever closer to that edge.
What is the realistic future of recreational crabbing in CA ? Since it sounds like hoop and ring traps wont be included in this legislation, what are crabbers to do but try to foolishly work rings and hoop traps in 150 feet of water ? Or are we all supposed to cram ourselves into that sub 30 foot deep range ? Talk about combat crabbing - it'll be worse than the jetty at Doran.
Hey Mateys
Take notice. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB534
Orwellian CONTROL The power in control can delete the past and control the future. Sad.
New clam gear rules are effective as of March 8th.
https://fgc.ca.gov/Regulations/2021-New-and-Proposed?fbclid=IwAR3VU1HdTvgYPtqptqU1mR7ve9V59v3i8DwweAUn4caHO_yZh8cYRxXdg3Q
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