Happy New Year, y'all. May your fishing adventures this year be almost as successful as you imagine them (Unfortunately, reality probably can't support all of our dreams all at once. But maybe almost?). Winter ocean weather has arrived with seas ranging in size from not bad to holy crap! Water temps offshore are still really warm but the next few days of offshore high pressure and spring-style winds may finally cool the water and send the anchovies, pelicans and whales to the south. If the forecast comes true, you may be using traps before the end of the month, and commercial crabbers may finally get a shot here. The huge seas we just experienced may have sent a good portion of the nearshore crab scurrying offshore to avoid the surge. The most recent reports that I have heard from nearshore have been bad. I'm sure that there's a few pockets of happiness out there and people will find them, but there's more water without crab than with. Good luck. The weather mostly sucks lately, so if you want to take your life in your hands to go try to catch crab that mostly aren't there, cool. You do you. Inside the bay, where the Cost Benefit Analysis is on your side (Hint: The benefit is minimal. Less chance of dying, though. Not no chance of dying, people do it successfully here pretty regular, but crossing the bar and even just being out on the ocean can be dangerous this year. I saw wave break in places that I hadn't seen break in a few years (I missed last year's big swell, but Gage told me it was HUGE.. This year I saw the swell. It may not have been bigger than last year, but it coincided with a king tide, and Damn! It was big and scary. I tasted my mortality just looking at them from the hill). That said, people are still catching in the bay, and a heard a few good stories about Dungeness off of the ocean front beach (at least pre-giant surf) from some fellows using a non-standard technique. As I haven't been cleared to say how they're doing it, just know that a couple of guys were getting limits off of the ocean front beach. The crab are there (or they were...) and snarers could catch them if they're still there. Or not. It's fishing.