First up, there's a boat on the run. Last night an 18 foot Bayrunner aluminum boat was tied off near Lawson's and this morning it wasn't there. If you see a rando, empty aluminum boat on a beach or otherwise, please email me at lawsonslanding@gmail.com and I'll let the boat owner know. He, and his kids, and his grandkids, are really invested in recovering the boat. Lots of memories, and hopefully more to be made. 

     The crabbing has declined a bit, as it should, as usually January to March is the slowest time as the dreaded "clutch" usually happens about then. For those that don't remember, the clutch is when a boy carb really loves a girl crab and together they make fertilized eggs. That she takes care of. Nature is wise... But during that time, keeper Dungeness have different priorities than bait in your trap or hoop. Who hasn't skipped a meal for love? Also, there's usually a molt around that time, and if you think it would be difficult to eat with a rubber jaw, imagine how it would be if your bones were on the outside and you lost them for while. Even when they first firm up they're just pretty, hollow creatures. You probably know some. You wouldn't want to eat them, either. The crabbing should get a bit (or a lot) slower before it gets better, but it will improve before season's end, as those just short hollow crab fill out and harden up and fill in just in time for the season to close. Guys on the bay today were still catching, even the shore snare guys, but there were few braggers, either due to modesty or just less catching. Probably the latter. I hear that even the commercial guys are spending more time moving their gear than just running it (Running is pulling, taking out crabs. rebaiting, and dropping. Easy. Moving means pulling, coiling, stacking on the boat, unstacking, baiting, dropping. A lot more  hand moving pots. Hard.) A good start for some has turned into a search for crab. I guess a slow start for others just continues as a search for crab. Sounds like most of my crabbing.

 

    George Homenko sent over this report of Sunday's crabbing mission: "Went crabbing on the outer bay on Sunday, the 11th. Pulled out the old traps, left the hoops at home. Loaded them with chicken legs and fished in 50 to 70 feet of water. Had 6 traps, did a soak for about 90 minutes, and had 2 limits on the first pull. Lots of nice-sized males. For every male we caught, we threw back at least 2 females. Hell of a lot of crabs down there. Very few commercial pots were out. Still some good crabbing for us homeboys. Got home in time to see the 49ers' game.

Capt. George"     Good of you to toss the ladies back, George. Although it isn't legally required for sportfishermen to release females, we are all planning on crabbing again in the future and the ladies provide that for us. It's kind of like all of the deer we have in our hayfield now. No shooting does = more deer, especially postseason when all the bucks show up. There were easily 40 deer grazing there this afternoon without a care in the world. If more of the fish were easier to "sex" I'd do my best to release the women, as it should always be lady's night. Except for, dammit, halibut, as they are almost exclusively females and my freezer and plate both demand tribute. So, basically, I'd like to be a better person but I'm not going to be one. It's good that you are a good person, George, and nice job on the crab, and oh, yeah, go Niners, but I'm not watching the game next week for reasons. 

      Gage took a couple of days off and went out commercial crabbing with Chris Lawson. He sent me this picture, which I think means the crabbing is pretty good. I'm not sure, though, because when I called him for comments he was asleep. 

    Alec Bennett sent me this picture a couple of days back. His short report: "Neighbor Amaya (Dale daughter) got these in about an hour snaring on the day beach." The day beach is local lingo for the beach in front of the "day  use" parking lot in Dillon Beach. The surf side has been pretty solid this season with decent crab and almost no snags to lose your snare on. You probably won't do as well as Amaya but it seems like most people that are spending a few hours and changing bait regularly are catching dinner or better. 

       What's all that splashing? Just commercial Dungeness pots hitting the water, finally. The horizon was alight with boats splashing gear this evening after a one week delay while the price of crab was sorted out. I don't think either side got the price they wanted, but bills don't pay themselves and the weather has dropped, so a-crabbing they will go. I hear that there's not as many boats fishing this area this year, so numbers of crab may hold up a bit longer, but you can expect the numbers of jumbos to start dropping. There have been a lot of sub-6 1/4" sport keeper crabs so there will still be catching, just less bragging. Inside the bay the crab put on a pretty good show today with half of the crabbing boats pulling out early due to limits. Early exits are usually either success or frustration and it was good to see the former. One boater I spoke with pulled his hoops after their first soak and found them completely blank. He (very correctly) moved and found his next string to be plugged. He ran through them a few times to limit for four guys and ended up shaking keepers on the end of the string. You gotta crab where the crab are, and they move around, so, so should you. 

 

    

   Alas, I missed a Winglewich email in the holidays and storms and such. My apologies to him and his fans. Here's his report from December 29: "Afternoon Willie, 

I was off the bite on Sunday. I think either the storm put the lings in a funk or they finished spawning in the reefs close to the beach. On Monday, I switched tactics to locating and focusing on rocky pinnacles surrounded by sand offshore - and got my lingcod limit in one single drop. One on the jig, one on the teaser. I was a little disappointed because I thought it was one giant personal-best shattering ling. But it made for a memorable finale to my year and season.

I found my rockfish limits too, three of my brown rockfish came up with gorgeous hitchhikers, it got me fired up and I'm already excited about next season. 

- Sam W / wingle"  Nice redemption, Sam. I can't recall ever doubling on keeper lings myself. It does point out the fact that the rules for good rockfishing and real estate overlap (Three rules: Location, location, location). I imagine you'll be spending some of the next three months of no-rockfishing downtime gazing at Google Earth or Navionics searching for more good real estate. It will be time well spent.

     The King Tides have come and gone, and Saturday they hit along with a stiff South wind. The concrete blocks from the parking lot aren't just there to damage your bumper, as they also make a pretty good temporary sea wall. We were able to keep the store open and the floor dry and the blocks are now back in their proper bumper-damaging positions, ready to be moved back if duty calls. Thank you Alec for the drone picture during peak surge. 

           Happy New Year! 2025 is over, for better or for worse. Gage and I had a pretty good year of fishing but it sure wasn't easy. Halibut was the main game here again last year and with no real salmon season to take the heat off of them, three years of abuse can be seen in the fish counts. Here's an average for the year of the fish per angler of the top eight halibut-catching charter boats in the bay area, according to Sportfishingreport.com:

2023   1.68

2024   1.36

2025    0.90

         That's a 19% drop in the second salmon closure year, a 35% drop in the third salmon closure year, and about a 46% drop over three seasons. That's with a reduction in the limit from three to two in early 2023.  I think that it's safe to assume that there's something like half the halibut numbers from 2022 in the shallow water we like to fish in. Deep water holds fish, but try catching them out in 100 to 200 feet. They're there, because the draggers catch them, but go blind drift ten miles of 150' of water over sand and tell me how many halibut you caught. It's a lot of area with some fish scattered around and not eating much because it is cold down there. As some of those deep water fish move into the shallows to spawn (or just warm up) we get a shot at them, so hope is not lost. Last year it seemed that Dillon Beach and the bar had the best numbers of fish, especially when the water was warm and the fish were moving around. Likely, many of these fish were moving in from some deeper location to enter the bay or shallows to spawn. I had my first experience with a male halibut trying to spawn on the female I'd hooked while I was trying to gaff her (sorry, dude, but right now she's just not that into you) on the bar this year. Gage had the same experience the same evening in a different boat. Definitely ladies arriving for business and guys hoping to party. There will be some fish this year, but it's going to be hard. Come on, salmon! Things are looking good for some kind of real(ish) salmon season this year, and the halibut need it. 

   Also, traps open tomorrow at 08:01 and the commercial guys aren't dropping quite yet due to a price "discussion" so I guess if you don't mind gale force winds you have a chance before they go. Good luck.