Dungeness season in Tomales Bay started off kind of slow and then has tapered off from there. The outer bay still has some good crab but it seems that many of the pots are moving North. I'm not sure if that's because the crabbing is slowing down in the South part or if there's some vain hope of escaping pot pirates by going farther away from the busiest port (Newsflash: They're like Visa -"Everywhere You Want To Be").  If you feel you must go farther, these gentlemen in the photo told me that yes, there's still quite a few crab down on Ten Mile. Running out of Tomales Bay means crossing over the bar which was breaking today (8-10 foot swell). Everybody made it in safe, but one crabber noted that it might be a good idea for our store to carry clean underwear in the future. 

    Here's a close-up of one of these Ten Mile crab with an extra claw on his claw. It kind of reminds me of John Madden's six-legged turkey. 

   The Nursements and crew got to witness one of Mother Nature's killing machines doing what they do best on Sunday as the "Man in the Gray Suit" performed his duties on a sea lion off of Bird Rock. "Uncle Bigbite" never came out of the water but they could see his shadow cruising around, waiting to make sure dinner wouldn't flop around too much. I'd like to think that it was the sea lion that was trying to eat my salmon a few months back. I'm sure it wasn't, but I like thinking that it might be. Unless you're a surfer, great white sharks (and sunfish) do the lords work, eating the things that bother you when you're fishing. If you're a surfer that fishes for salmon, I guess you may have some really complicated feelings about the mighty whitey.

   The final report on Ten Mile crabbing from Team Nursement:"Even with crappy seas our haul was good and tasty!!!"

    Here's a crab report from Kelley Roy :"Hey Willy

Did ok down on 10 mile on the opener Saturday, we were able to do a 4 hour soak and were 1 shy of 3 limits – had to let a couple of questionable ones go but our keepers were decent size crab.

The ocean was not the prettiest and my son who was on his 2^nd crabbing trip commented there has to be an easier way to get crab, I am thinking right along with him…..having trailer and motor  problems only added to the work.  I only crab once a year as the crab is my least favorite sea fare – give me anything that swims in the ocean but I leave the shell creatures alone for the most part."

   Inside Tomales Bay it was pretty tough crabbing for Dungeness yesterday but most of the guys I talked to were lucky enough to catch a few. The smiling gentleman above and his fishing partner limited on nice-sized Dungeness by noon but they were the exception. Those that braved the ocean waters did better on average but just being in the outer bay was no guarantee of success. Remember folks, if you aren't 100% sure that you're on the crab, check 'em soon after you drop 'em and find out. There's nothing like that sick feeling when you realize you left your gear all day to soak in a blank spot and the guys 100 yards away clobbered them. Trust, but verify. There was about a 12 pound halibut caught across the bay on Friday but I think all of the crab gear pinned the fish to bottom on Saturday. Today the wind that had been forecast showed up on the beach and made things unpleasant, especially in the ocean.The forecast is bad for the next couple of days.

   So, no pictures, just observations. Not too many Dungeness crab being tossed back by the red crabbers in the last month. The crabbers were complaining about the Dungeness, then not. From my dive under the pier a few weeks ago I can say: doesn't look good inside the bay. An outer bay red crabber (I know; I didn't think such a thing existed either) said that there were a disappointing number (for him) of Dungeness crab in the outer bay. I hope that remains true. It would seem that inside the bay may (suck) not be that good but outside might be good for a while. The weather forecast is sub-optimal for the weekend but more disappointing than possibly fatal (windier than swell). I think that the outer bay will be doable and Ten Mile, maybe (depends on your level of abuse tolerance). The rockfish bite is so-so, as Gage and I caught only 9 fish today (I missed his ling with the gaff; should have been 10) in two hours of fishing what should have been a premiere area (Ten Mile). Nice sized fish, 2 to 5 pounds, but still, you could see schools on the meter and they mostly wouldn't bite. We threw a pretty good variety at them for just a few takers. As I said, disappointing, but damned tasty. One other thing, I have heard that trophies have been prepared for the opener. Awards like "Most Dangerous Crabber" and "Voted Most Likely To Foul A Prop" will be attached to some of the longer floating crab pot lines that will inevitably appear tomorrow. The anonymous awardsman's intent is to educate and entertain. I'm sure that nobody that reads this blog would win such an award, but if you see someone else "winning", make sure they they know how to be a submerged-rope-loser like the rest of us.