CDFW says,"

CDFW Opens Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery in the Central Management Area Under Trap Reduction and Lifts Recreational Crab Trap Restriction

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will open the commercial Dungeness crab fishery from the Sonoma/Mendocino county line to the U.S./Mexico border (Central Management Area: Fishing Zones 3-6) under a 50 percent trap reduction beginning Jan. 18, 2024, at 12:01 a.m. with a 64-hour pre-soak to begin on Jan. 15, 2024, at 8 a.m. This management decision is a balanced approach that achieves two outcomes. First, this trap reduction will help reduce entanglement risk for humpback whales by reducing the amount of gear and vertical lines in the water. Second, the decision gets the commercial fishery open statewide.

This management decision includes exhaustive coordination with affected fishers, businesses and environmental organizations. CDFW reached this decision after seeking feedback and input from the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, during a meeting on Jan. 10, 2024. The working group expressed broad support for this management decision.

Any commercial Dungeness crab vessel fishing in or transiting Fishing Zones 3-6, regardless of fishing location is subject to the 50 percent reduction. Additionally, they must have at least 50 percent of their valid buoy tags for the current fishing season onboard and available for inspection by CDFW at all times. Commercial Dungeness crab vessels operating in Fishing Zones 3-6 must understand and comply with the restrictions by reviewing the CDFW Declaration, which includes additional information about this gear reduction. The commercial fishery north of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line (Fishing Zones 1 and 2) opened on Jan. 5, 2024, under a fleet advisory and is not subject to any trap reductions.

CDFW is also lifting the temporary recreational crab trap restriction, beginning Jan. 12, 2024, at 8 a.m., from the Sonoma/Mendocino county line to Lopez Point, Monterey County (Fishing Zones 3 and 4). A fleet advisory remains in effect for both the commercial and recreational fishery for all Fishing Zones (1-6).

“This has been an extremely challenging year for California’s commercial fishing industry,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “Today’s action in the Central Management Area strikes a balance. It protects whales and turtles, and it gets people on the water allowing our hardworking commercial fishing fleet to provide fresh sustainable crab to California residents.”

CDFW encourages both the commercial and recreational crab fisheries to implement best practices, as described in the Best Practices Guide and avoid setting any fishing gear in areas were whales or sea turtles are present. In addition, the commercial fishery is encouraged to remain vigilant for lost or abandoned gear throughout the fishing season. Permitted commercial Dungeness crab vessels are allowed to retrieve up to six derelict commercial Dungeness crab traps per fishing trip pursuant to Section 132.2, Title 14, California Code of Regulations. Derelict fishing gear may also be reported through CalTIP." 

    So, tomorrow at 8:00 AM you can splash pots for sport purposes and the commercials get to drop half of their gear on Monday at 8:00 AM. Better late than never, right? So, soak 'em if you got 'em.

     So, the crab report for today? "No crab!" from the one guy that went out. He may have been a little extra angry, as he and his buddy gave up on crab at low tide (as they weren't catching anything) and switched to clams. They dug up 12 clams, put them in a bag, and came in. The warden was waiting and gave them a ticket, as clams need to be kept in separate containers for each clammer. Fair? I decline to comment. But the law was changed recently and does say a single container for each fisherman. Not that it makes it cool, it just makes it illegal. Remember, folks, "fair" and "legal" are different words and terms and spelled and spoken differently for a reason. They often have nothing to do with each other. Now, CDFW finally changed the the ruled to make licenses 365 day ones instead of calendar-year, in order to make fishing more accessible and sell more licenses. The fact that the regulations make legal fishing so complicated obviously couldn't be a reason why why people decline to fish. It's nice that they made an App, and you can click a map to sort of know what's up (not perfect, like the rules) but it's still kind of scary trying to figure out if fishing on a particular body of water on a certain day is legal. It could be simpler. But then again, if everybody did it we'd be overwhelmed. 

   So, on the crab front, it seems that CDFW is going to allow sport pots soon, as well as allowing commercial to open. Good for the commies, except they're limited to only 30% of their allotted gear. Remember, commercial crabbers have individual pot limits, and this year they get less than a third of that. It takes 300 crab pots to make ends meet? Okay, you get 90. Make it work. To be fair, they will. Not because they can so much as they will. Fishermen fish because they want to. They work at other jobs because they have to. Luckily for them, guys that want to work are still in demand, so finding a job outside of fishing isn't too hard. No commercial fisherman is afraid of hard work. They'd just rather fish. I think we can all sympathize. 

   Also, on a darker note, a petition to declare white sturgeon as endangered has been accepted by CDFW. Does any body want to bet on their decision? My guess is things will go bad. The legal things. Don't worry, they guys thinking dark things will be right, too. Nothing good comes from an endangered listing. I mean, not for fishermen, generally, as they are blamed for the failures of the fish, not the guys regulating the water the fish need to successfully spawn.  "That's different." Or not. Some fish require a fresh water river to spawn. Salmon, sturgeon, striper. Two out of three down.  If I was a striper (and read this report(small percentage of stripers)) I'd be worried. Just know that the powers that be have decided that agriculture is more important, especially the part that gets exported. Almonds, yeah! Salmon, f- off. It appears that sturgeon are also salmon, in the water wars. Gat ready, emotionally.

 Happy New Year, y'all. May your fishing adventures this year be almost as successful as you imagine them (Unfortunately, reality probably can't support all of our dreams all at once. But maybe almost?). Winter ocean weather has arrived with seas ranging in size from not bad to holy crap! Water temps offshore are still really warm but the next few days of offshore high pressure and spring-style winds may finally cool the water and send the anchovies, pelicans and whales to the south. If the forecast comes true, you may be using traps before the end of the month, and commercial crabbers may finally get a shot here. The huge seas we just experienced may have sent a good portion of the nearshore crab scurrying offshore to avoid the surge. The most recent reports that I have heard from nearshore have been bad. I'm sure that there's a few pockets of happiness out there and people will find them, but there's more water without crab than with. Good luck. The weather mostly sucks lately, so if you want to take your life in your hands to go try to catch crab that mostly aren't there, cool. You do you. Inside the bay, where the Cost Benefit Analysis is on your side (Hint: The benefit is minimal. Less chance of dying, though. Not no chance of dying, people do it successfully here pretty regular, but crossing the bar and even just being out on the ocean can be dangerous this year. I saw wave break in places that I hadn't seen break in a few years (I missed last year's big swell, but Gage told me it was HUGE.. This year I saw the swell. It may not have been bigger than last year, but it coincided with a king tide, and Damn! It was big and scary. I tasted my mortality just looking at them from the hill). That said, people are still catching in the bay, and a heard a few good stories about Dungeness off of the ocean front beach (at least pre-giant surf) from some fellows using a non-standard technique. As I haven't been cleared to say how they're doing it, just know that a couple of guys were getting limits off of the ocean front beach. The crab are there (or they were...) and snarers could catch them if they're still there. Or not. It's fishing.

 Big winds yesterday and huge swells today made crabbing difficult from a boat on this end of the bay. One large wave set broke all the way down the bar in the middle of the bay, about five feet high. Awesome. A bit scary if you were in one of the small boats crabbing very near there. Nor enough to make them quit, but enough to get their attention for sure. They may have had to unpucker their undergarments. I would have needed it. Breakers down the middle of a "protected" bay mean bad things are running amok. Pucker time. We ended up with a little water in the store (a gallon? Maybe?) because I didn't close the door fast enough when a surge came in. I figured it out for the next ones. Here's a slightly after photo of the beach:

   About an hour's work with rakes and a tractor cleared it up. Ready for tomorrow's tide! Blank canvas prepared. After watching the evening news, I have to say, not much here to see. We  got off easy. This has happened here since well before I was born and it will continue. Life at the beach. Get ready for change. 

   I was sent some video of a tiny boat with two guys aboard sinking while crabbing off of Doran Beach. A guy in a tiny inflatable saved them. I couldn't get the video to load, unfortunately, or I'd show you, too. Thank you, Steve Humphrey, but I couldn't get Blogger to load it. It was good, and I'm sorry for all of us. If you read this and you were one of the guys, lawsonslanding@gmail.com, please and let us know what happened. Anonymity is part of the package, especially if your info can help other people to make better decisions. Kudos, in that case.

   So, the weather has been rough. The crabbing, better, when you can actually crab. Shore snare guys were catching today. Not many, but some short action among the seaweed. And there was a lot of seaweed. I should bold "a lot" but I won't because I'm lazy. 

   In other news, crabbing inside Tomales Bay has been mostly meh. Outside, better, but Ten Mile has been better and outer bay, not so much.  There's more happiness near Point Reyes, but the outer bay has had some quick limits for the lucky and good.. 

  The big tides here now, the bad ones around the full moon, are making crabbing difficult. As the tides have increased the catch has decreased, for most. The ones that work their gear smartly around the tide changes (inside the bay) have done very well, but everyone around mid-tide have had a hard time. Getting out of the bay has been even harder with the big swell. Breakers suck.

    Also, Merry Christmas! Or, happy whatever solstice holiday you prefer. May you all get the fishing gear that you've wished for, and may the fish act the way you dream of them while you use that new gear. Except that I catch one more.