Good news first. While the crabbing is far from red hot inside the bay, it ain't bad, either. I only spoke with two of the returning boats today but one had nine Dungeness and the other, sixteen. The snare-throwers are still catching some from the bank. The outer bay has more crab but you still need to work to find them. They ain't everywhere. Nobody has been down to Ten Mile since the weekend but nobody that went then complained about the crabbing or fishing. The crab aren't a thick carpet down there, either, but there's probably more good spots than bad spots. Run the gear and move it until you know you're in a good spot. Then consider rockfish.
The bad news: It looks like no traps until at least mid-December. There are still whales. Hey, at least most of us don't have house payments that depend on us catching crab. For those that do, sorry. Here's the link to the Assessment, and here's the link to the data. If you've been on the fence about buying rings, just know that it's not just this year for the restriction. Consider your purchase an investment towards your future. And if you look at the data, page 6 shows the largest concentration of humpbacks to be at Cordell Bank. What does that mean? Concentrations of baitfish, maybe? Big, fat whales gotta eat. So do big, fat bluefin. Correlation is not causation, as they say, but the next largest concentration of Humpbacks is just west of where the Santa Cruz boats are still catching tuna. Well. Cordell isn't far....
11 comments:
Willie, so the rope for a crab ring doesn't danger whales and turtles but a rope on a cage trap does? I need a little help here, what am I missing?
The answer from on high is that with a two-hour limit on how long you can soak your hoop net, you will be staying close by and can move them if whales show up. The other option they have for us is to not open Dungeness at all, so although no traps sucks, it sucks less than no crabbing at all, IMHO.
Blogger Unknown said...
Willie, so the rope for a crab ring doesn't danger whales and turtles but a rope on a cage trap does? I need a little help here, what am I missing?
November 18, 2021 at 5:52 PM
No reason why the trap and pot folks could follow the hoop and snare folks regulations to fish crab, right? I drop 7 traps wait one hour and start picking them up. So what is wrong with that? Nothing! Unfortunately, the bean counters up in Sacto could not figure that simple regulation answer for the rest of us. Stupid is what stupid regulates. Just saying.
Hey Willy, does this mean no traps inside the bay either?
That is unfortunately correct. Traps are only legal north of Sonoma county for now.
I for one am sitting out on this dance. When they open the commercial season we'll be able to use pots, not until. And yes this is a crock of debris. How is it that the party boats can take limits of crab? I was under the impression that each angler had to pull their own gear. Rings/nets The tree hugging, not in my backyard crowd owns the fish and game commission
No hoop rings inside Tomales bay?? Damn I just bought a bunch of the ambush hoop traps.
Hoops and ambush conicals are okay. Run em.
I'm pretty new to Tomales area... where exactly is "ten mile"? Is there any sort of map of Tomales that shows all the major locations? Google just shows hog island, a few of the main points (Preston and Pelican) and then a whole bunch of named beaches.
I'm trying to figure out where it might be safe to try to take the kayak for dungies w/out having to deal with intense current.
Ten Mile is outside of Tomales Bay and south about five miles. The current is generally less than in the bay but generally conditions there in shallow water are not safe. While occasionally someone kayaks there it is usually not a good idea. I would probably try Doran in Bodega Bay to paddle out to the outer bay in the lee of the Head.
Thanks for the explanation Willy!
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