I mentioned a video about a boat crossing the bar a while back. Alec decided to make it a PSA so it took a while to prepare (he does actually work). Here is the finished product. Apologies for the cameraman who flinched during a jump or two. A little PTSD? Maybe. But you can get the gist of it.

     Day two of the Dungeness season and the crabs held up. Mostly good reports from the bay again. Nobody went out today as the bar was constant sadness. This morning you could hardly see the channel from the fog spray coming off of the breakers. Who needs out when there's  crab inside? Standard rules for Tomales Bay apply: Avoid strong current areas except at the tide turn when you want to hit them momentarily, weight your hoop so it doesn't travel, pull early and often and move if no critters are present. Universal rule; it is hard to catch anything if the thing you want to catch is not there. Move. Move again. Sometimes the move is 20 feet. But don't dedicate your day to dead holes. 

 

      It looks like there's some crab in the bay. Well, less now, but still quite a few in some areas. Some folks knocked 'em, like these folks, but many others struggled. It is better than last year, but last year sucked so bad that's not really a compliment. It's like, "the bleeding has slowed" or "the fire has ceased forward movement." This, of course, speaks for inside of the bay. Getting outside the bay today was difficult in the fog, early, and then almost impossible later when the fog lifted, the tide turned and the swell picked up. I say almost, as someone in a SAFE Boat jumped the bar going out this afternoon. They made it, but I'll bet they're sore tomorrow. Those that did make it out did well. The outer bay has crab, and quite a few in spots. But the forecast keeps calling for more big swell, even bigger tomorrow. Parts of Bodega Bay proper should be fishable tomorrow in the wave shadow of the Head, but beyond that, I don't know. Not from Tomales Bay for sure. It's a long season. Wait for better days. A boat flipped out of Half Moon Bay today and three guys were pulled from the water. Let's not start that up here again. There are crab in the bay and they're being caught pretty well, so don't try going out tomorrow. You can catch Dungeness without risking your life. 

    Here's a reminder of why we don't cross the bar when she's breaking. This is the boat from two weeks ago, floating upside down near the lovely American Challenger. By the next day she was ashore aside the other hulk, getting smashed by the waves.