Did you hear all the splashing this morning, around 8:00 AM? That was both sport and commercial pots finally splashing in the drink for their very delayed trap seasons. Finally! Now let's see if that does any better.. Generally, the crabbing is better before the commercials start, as less competition means more for those actually crabbing. The crabbing pre-commercial wasn't awesome, so trap results, to my mind, should be similar. A longer soak doesn't guarantee crab. You can't catch what isn't there. Gage is working a week or so with my cousin, Chris, on his crab boat. According to the Gage (and so Chris), pretty much every commercial crab pot locally is soaking between San Francisco and Point Reyes. Everybody was corking everybody, and mostly nobody was trying to (only mostly). You can almost walk on the crab buoys from Point Reyes to the Farallones. Don't try it, it's only almost. Just know that my cousin, that guy that bets his living on knowing things about crab and fish, is not expecting a long functional season. He expects a season open through March or April but most of the catching (as is done most years) all happens in the first few weeks. The price for crab, I hear, is very good. The only time the buyers want to pay is when they don't expect anybody to catch, so we must assume that the guys that know, know it sucks. And when it opens up north the price will drop, even though the crab wight be a bit light (not heavy with meat). I saw a picture from a New Year's Eve crab trip to the outer bay with a female Dungeness loaded with eggs. Bad sign for the now, as the clutch (the spawn and molt) is bad for catching and eating. Good for the future, as we all want to eat crab then.  Rockfish, as much as it was a season, is done until April, I believe, when it will open deep, even though you mostly won't be able to go there during April, as the weather mostly sucks. Well good for those rockfish. I'll see them in October, with a vengeance.

      Almost forgot. Happy New Year! May all of your good experiences outweigh your disappointments this year. Last year I was lucky enough to experience such a thing, and I hope you get to do the same. Buena suerte!