Here's a report from yesterday that I missed (as usual). "

A tale of two crab trips. 11/9 I stayed with the fleet near marker 5. Not great, not terrible. 22 rock crabs, 3 dungies in five hours. Pockets of greatness in a sea of mediocrity was dead on. 

"Vulture" got brand a new Yamaha and a bunch of work done and I wasn't feeling bold enough to perform a shakedown run on the big pond.

Moving to the outer bay today was like flipping the "decent crab" switch. Every pot came up with at least one keeper male dungie or dinosaur male rock crab. I couldn't get a "zero" pot. By my second set, I had dungie limits. By set three, I was culling six + inch dungeness.

I won't say what part or particular depth of the outer bay, but the five guys in the 24ft cuddy-console know, and if you're reading this, 1) shhhhh....  2) I hope the juicy brined rock cod carcasses and juicy intel was very productive for you as it was for me. 

Also, new tasty treat. Dungie sized yellow rock crabs. I grew up in Marshall and could drive a skiff and run crab gear long before I could drive a car. I do not remember these ever being this big until this year. I remember them being palm size, and incorrectly assumed they were juvenile pacific rock crabs. You've been on the bay far longer than me, what's your 2 cents on these fellas? 

 - Wingle / Sam W " Nice work, Sam.  Those yellows show up periodically. Those are some big boys you caught. Surprisingly, they are currently considered closer to Dungeness than the red crab and are in the same genus as the Dungies. These things change, though, as science is not carved in stone and is closer to an argument, especially in the realm of taxonomy. Dungeness used to be Cancer magister but are now Metacarcinus magister. Yellows are Metacarcinus anthonyi (previously Cancer anthonyi) and red crab are and have been Cancer productus. Apparently taxonomists thought they were all cousins at one time (all Cancer crab) but they've now split them up and thrown yellows in with the Dungeness, because I guess coloration is more important than morphology? Whatever, all that matters to us sport fishermen is the yellows fall in with reds and rocks as far as regulations and have a separate 4" minimum size and 35 crab limit from the Dungeness. Until someone in CDFW decides different.  Your crab were monsters, as they only need to be 4" and yours were Dungy legal. Good work on all the crab, as not everybody was killing it like you.

    The weather has mostly stopped most folks from getting out of the bay this week. There were a few passable days and guys did well outside, again, when they looked around. Inside and outside the bay, crab are plentiful in patches. Don't drop on a patch and don't catch. Move early and often.