Pacifica Pier News

The coast: Phoned one of the tackle shops in Pacifica that keeps tabs on the various happenings at the pier, and the news was somewhat less than thrilling. Very few Dungeness and very little of anything else. In terms of fish, there are kingfish and there are bullheads coming up on the shrimp- and pile worm-baited hooks. In fact, the fishing for bullheads is going fairly well, to the extent that many of the horned little fish are kept and brought north and east, to be used as striped bass bait in the delta. And crab … The guy on the phone knew of a guy who landed five Dungies the other morning, all brought in by way of a squid-laced snare rig. Otherwise, the catch is closer to one or none for a day of trying. Worse still, there are crabbers baiting their rings with chicken, which, oddly enough, seems to just beg the sea lions to move in, which more or less shuts down all the other fishing. Nothing else, time on the pier is bound to be interesting.

E-mail Brian Hoffman at bhoffman@sfchronicle.com.

SFGATE

PACIFICA: There have been a lot of crabbers at the pier and results have been fair. The water has been on the rough side but when it’s calm, the crabbing is best. There is a decent perch bite from the beaches on blood and pile worms. (650) 355-8303
Tim Goode/ Contra Costa Times

Recommends Pacifica Pier as the only shore based location from which to catch Dungeness Crab when the season opens November 1st. Link at SFGate.

We made our first venture out crabbing recently. After finding a disappointing amount of information online for sport crabbing in the San Francisco bay area we decided to start this site. It’s kind of a blog, and hopefully it will also kind of be a place for crabbing information. For now it’s just kind of what it is. Anyway, someone on LiveJournal referred us to an online article from 1995 that mentioned a couple piers for Dungeness Crabs which is what we were looking for. I’ve only been rock crabbing in the bay at Fort Baker Pier in the past. One of the ones mentioned by the article was Pacifica Pier in, you guessed it, Pacifica!

Rest of article at Crab Hoop.

Crabs are hideous sea creatures with cold, shifty eyes, twisted, scuttling legs, formidable crushing claws and warty armor. But the flesh of this barbarous beast is a sweetly delicate meat. Local crabbers are presently ambushing the tasty crustaceans that abound in regional waters — Dungeness season began in November, and red crab and rock crab are legal year-round. William “Billy” Weeks is a Pacifica Pier regular.

Q. Hi Billy. When did you first start crabbing?

A. When I was a little boy, I used to go crabbing at the beach in Biloxi, Miss. There are different crabs on the Gulf Coast — blue crabs — and, back then, I used a crab net. Nowadays, I use a crab snare on the rod and reel. Crab snares are more fun for me because there’s more sport to it — and then there’s the thrill of reeling the crabs in successfully.

Q. Do crabs ever get away when you bring ‘em up?

A. Oh, yes. Lots of times, crabs aren’t really snared, so they let go of the bait and they drop themselves back into the water and get away. With nets, they also climb out of the basket on the way up. When that happens, when you lose them, it’s just heartbreaking.

Q. What do you use as bait?

A. I use squid, with a secret little something that I can’t tell you about — my own special ingredient.

Q. You won’t tell me what it is?

A. Nope. Can’t do that.

Q. I hear lots of crabbers use chicken, or salmon heads. Is bait like that effective?

A. Oh, sure. Chicken and salmon — that’s fine. It’s all about the smell. Crabs go to where they smell the bait. That’s why I give my bait a little something extra.

Q. Where do you go crabbing? And how often?

A. Mostly, I go to the Pacifica public pier — quite often, about three to four times a week. Most weekends, and sometimes, during the week, I take off from work early; I’m a carpenter. I head to the ocean, and I do some crabbing before dinner. I often go crabbing with my wife, Naoko, and my 9-year-old son, Justice. They’re big crabbers, too.

Q. What’s the biggest crab you ever caught?

A. Oh, about 8 inches. The legal limit is 5 3/4 inches.

Q. How many crabs have you caught in a day?

A. Ten. That’s the limit.

Q. Do you eat them all?

A. I eat everything I catch. I’ve literally had 100 crabs in my freezer at one time.

Q. What’s your favorite way to cook them?

A. I steam the crabs until they turn bright red. It takes about 15-20 minutes. Then I eat them with ponzu — a Japanese sauce made of soy sauce and citrus. I also just eat crab bland, without anything on it. I like the taste. Its definitely one of my favorite foods.

Q. Do you ever eat crabs with melted butter?

A. No butter. Never. I don’t do that.

Q. Any other recipes you use?

A. Sometimes I make crab cakes. And sometimes I make a seafood gumbo — that’s a Louisiana dish. But usually I just steam them.

Q. Locally, there are several types of crab to catch. Do you think they all taste the same, or different?

A. I like them all, but I think the red and rock crabs are sweeter than Dungeness. That’s just my opinion.

Q. Is fresh crab tastier than frozen?

A. Nothing’s better than fresh, but fresh frozen is a close second best.

Q. Who goes crabbing at the Pacifica Pier? What kinds of people?

A. All kinds. Filipino, Vietnamese, Hispanic. Every kind of person. There’s a lot of camaraderie down there — lots of regulars.

Q. Do you ever get bored when you’re crabbing?

A. No. I just enjoy being on the ocean, away from the city.

Q. Would you like to be a crab?

A. No. I’m crabby enough as it is.

Q. Have you ever been pinched by a crab?

A. Yeah. A red crab pinched my thumb — they’ve got the strongest pinch. Extremely painful. My thumb turned blue, and I lost all feeling in it for a week. That red crab almost took my thumb off. It definitely did some nerve damage.

Q. Do crabs have any predators, besides people?

A. Sea lions eat crabs. They often steal the crabs right out of the nets. And, with a rod and reel, seals can get the crab while you’re reeling it in. Lots of fish also eat the smaller crabs. But I think this is one of the best places in the world to catch crab.

Q. Do you ever catch anything weird in your crab snare?

A. I caught a leopard shark once. And starfish occasionally crawl in.

Q. Do you think people who crab out of season should be fined? What about people who keep undersize crabs, or catch over the limit?

A. Those people should be punished. Absolutely. There’s an environmental impact when people disregard the laws.

Q. Dungeness season just started. How’s it going? Are you catching a lot?

A. It seems to be slow. I only caught one crab yesterday. I think it is due to commercial fishermen catching their limit offshore. They’re yanking the crabs out of the ocean, where they breed, before they can be washed closer to land. That’s the opinion on the pier, anyway. But it’s early in the season. We think it will start picking up in January.

Hank Pellissier — a.k.a. Hank Hyena — has been a columnist for Salon.com (”Naked World”), SFGate (”Odd Barkings”), the S.F. Metropolitan (”Frisco Utopia”) and the New Mission News (”Civic Stench”). He’s also executive director of the Hyena Comedy Institute and co-director of a preschool called The Children’s Lab. THIS STORY RAN ON SF GATE

LOAD-DATE: January 1, 2005
Copyright 2004 The Chronicle Publishing Co.

The San Francisco Chronicle
DECEMBER 6, 2004, MONDAY, EDITION: SF GATE = EDITION
SECTION: BAY AREA; Pg. NP; URBAN ANIMAL

LENGTH: 894 words

HEADLINE: Happy Crabbing In Pacifica

SOURCE: Special to SF Gate

BYLINE: Hank Pellissier

BODY:

Sometimes, as party boat skippers like to joke, you just have to tell your statistics to shut up.

In the past 14 trips on the New Seeker and C-Gull II out of Emeryville, there have been a total of 205 people catch 1,230 Dungeness crabs and 2,050 rockfish — that works out to limits every trip for all aboard, 6 Dungeness crabs and 10 rockfish per person.

“Despite some of the talk of a down season, there’s plenty of crabs and rockfish out there,” said Craig Stone, owner of Emeryville Sportfishing. “When the commercial crab season opened in mid-November, there were a lot of stories about how the catch was down. But we are measured by different standards and it’s been great.”

A party boat with 10 people aboard, for instance, can catch 60 Dungeness crabs (limits) that total about 125 pounds, a great day. Yet that same catch that would be a disaster for the commercial fisherman, who needs about 1,000 pounds of crab per trip to make his business work.

The numbers are even more revealing when you look at the dollar costs.

To board a party boat on a crab combo, that is, fishing for both Dungeness crabs and rockfish, it costs roughly $65 to $70 out of Emeryville, Berkeley and Bodega Bay. If you catch limits, it equals about 10 to 12 pounds of crabs, and on the average, about 15 pounds of fish fillets. Put that in your cash register: It means you are taking home $50 worth of crabs and $50 worth of fish, the one fishing trip where you actually “make” money.

You also spend a glorious day on the salt, enjoying the open sea, the beauty of the Farallon Islands and the boat ride through the landmark sights of the Bay, and maybe even see a few whales or dolphin.
The crab combo trips have been boosted by good sea conditions for most of the past month.

“Except for some large swells last weekend, we’ve had superb weather,” Stone said. “We’ve only one turnaround trip in a month. That’s pretty amazing for this time of year.”

The trips depart at 5:30 a.m. en route to the Farallones, and will either pick up the crab pots on the way out, or on the return trip. The best crabbing in the past two weeks has been in 100 to 175 feet of water, roughly in a line between the entrance to the Bay and the Farallon Islands. The crab pots are baited with rockfish carcasses and squid; over the course of the season, you will find that squid is the preferred entreaty for Dungeness.

For owners of private boats, one strategy is to launch out of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, then set a series of crab traps outside the breakwater. Early in the season, there has been good crabbing in as little as 30 feet of water here. No more. The crabs have moved to deeper water, at least 100 feet deep, and seems best off of Montara.

The reason the crabs have moved to deeper water is because of a severe inshore surge that started a week ago, the result of large swells rolling in from a storm 300 miles offshore. Anybody who has visited the coast in the past week can tell you about the big waves and the foam line, in some spots even extending out 100 yards.

Yet some of the calmest days on the briny deep are in winter, between storm fronts. That is when owners of boats can get a load of four or five friends, set a half dozen crab traps, and then spend a morning working them.

On private boats and from piers, the limit is 10 crabs per angler with a minimum size per crab of 5 3/4 inches. So a private boat with five people aboard could catch 50 crabs, quite a haul. On party boats, the sport limit is 6 crabs per angler, with a minimum size of 6 inches per crab.

Without a boat, it is possible to catch Dungeness crab at Pacifica Pier (at Sharp Park). But as with a boat, a calm sea is not only helpful, but critical. Pacifica Pier provides direct access to the ocean past the breakers, but when the surf is up, the crabs will head out to quieter water, out of range.

Note that while legal-size Dungeness are almost never caught in the Bay, it is possible to catch rock crab at two San Francisco piers, Fort Point Pier and Muni Pier.

Of course, you could also just show up at the fish market and pay a fortune, $10 to $12 a crab. For a small New Year’s Eve party, 10 crabs for six people, guess what? It would cost you $70, the same price of a fishing trip for one.

Like they say, tell your statistics to shut up.
——————————————Crabbing Getaway:
CRAB SEASON: The season for Dungeness crab runs through June 30, 2001 along the Bay Area and Sonoma coasts. The season continues to July 30, 2001 off Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

LIMITS, PRIVATE BOAT: 10 per person, minimum size 5 3/4 inches. No more than five baited hoop nets per person, not to exceed 10 per vessel.
LIMIT, PARTY BOAT: 6 per person, minimum 6 inches.
COST: Combo trips for Dungeness crab and rockfish cost roughly $65 to $70. A state fishing license ($29.40) is required, which must be displayed above the waistline. Note: No fishing license is required at Pacifica Pier, Fort Point Pier or Muni Pier.
PARTY BOATS: Emeryville Sportfishing, (510) 654-6040; Berkeley Marina, (510) 849-2727; Bodega Bay Sportfishing, (707) 875-3344; Rumblefish, Fort Bragg, (707) 964-3000; All Aboard Fishing Adventures, Fort Bragg, (707) 964- 1881.
PIER: Pacifica Pier, (650) 355-0690.
INFORMATION: Hi’s Tackle Box, S.F., (415) 221-3825.
PHOTO

Crab, Rockfish Taken to Limits
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
December 28, 2000
Author: TOM STIENSTRA
Estimated printed pages: 3

Edition: FINAL
Section: SPORTS
Page: E8
Column: OUTDOORS TOM STIENSTRA
Index Terms: FISHING; SPORTS
Copyright 2000 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
Record Number: 3157652

THANKSGIVING may have been a once-a-year event last week, but the recently opened crab season is providing a daily feast off the Bay Area coast.

The lack of storms and the resulting calm ocean conditions have allowed dungeness and rock crabs to migrate to the fertile inshore grounds, within easy range of fishermen on both boats and piers.

Pacifica Pier, Johnson’s Pier in Half Moon Bay, Princeton jetty and Santa Cruz Wharf are providing an exceptional opportunity right now; a deep-sea party boat out of Bodega Bay and rental skiffs out of Santa Cruz and Capitola offer even better prospects.

In the past few years, the jet stream has shifted south in mid-November, pouring the storm track right through Northern California. That has largely killed crab prospects because ensuing rough ocean conditions have caused a big surf and inshore surge, inspiring the crabs to swim well off shore to deeper and calmer water inaccessible to most fishermen. Although Monday was a bit sloppy, no major storm has attacked the coast and turned the ocean upside down.

“Most days we’ve had champagne water, calm and effervescent with life,” said field scout Jim Klinger in Pacifica. “That’s why the crabbing has been so good at Pacifica Pier.”

The crab season started in mid-November and will run through June 30, but the best hopes are always early in the season, when the chances are best for calm sea conditions. Dungeness crabs have the most appeal, being large, meaty and tasty. The size limit is 5-1/2 inches, and the take limit is 10.

The best area for dungeness is in the ocean outside the entrance to the Golden Gate, to the south off Montara and to the north off Point Reyes and Bodega Bay. When driving on Highway 1, it is common to see dozens of little marker buoys for commercial crab traps, especially off Montara.

San Francisco Bay is a breeding ground for dungeness crab, and it is illegal to catch and keep them east of the Golden Gate Bridge. Lt. Game Warden Keith Long’s enforcement sweeps typically uncover illegal dungeness crabbing at Fort Baker Pier, Fort Point Pier and Muni Pier.

Smaller rock crabs are more common and a lot easier to catch than dungeness. Sometimes fishermen will have them clamp on to their baits, and they won’t let go, even after being reeled up from the depths and lifted out of the water. The size limit is 4 inches, and the take limit is 35. They are common in Monterey Bay near Santa Cruz and Capitola, at Muni Pier in San Francisco, and on inshore areas where there are either kelp beds or reefs.

Two kinds of crab traps are popular, the big hoop net and the metal pyramid trap. With hoop nets, fishermen try to pull up the net as fast as possible to keep the wily dungeness from jumping out, an aggravating and inevitable sight. Hoop nets are popular at piers, especially Pacifica Pier, because they can double as a hoist to land large fish, such as halibut, sharks or salmon (in season).

With the metal pyramid crab traps, the doors of the trap fall flat on the ocean floor, then shut when the rope is pulled and the trap is retrieved. It may sound foolproof, but the doors of the trap sometimes do not open, or the trap sometimes does not lie flat on the ocean floor.

Fishermen will tie fish carcasses (available at fish cleaning stations), chicken necks or anything else they can think of to the bottom of the traps, toss them out and retrieve them every 30 minutes or so. Some fishermen with private boats will set a half dozen traps or so, then go deep-sea fishing for rockfish, then bring the traps in on the way back in.

That is how the party boat Dandy out of Bodega Bay is breaking new ground, running combination crab / rockfish trips. On a party boat, which uses commercial-type hoop traps, the limit for dungeness crab is six, and every trip reported this month had limits of dungeness, along with 12 to 15 rockfish per person.

Out of Capitola and Santa Cruz, the only coastal wharfs near the Bay Area where skiff rentals are available, prospects have been better for rock crabs, along with good rockfishing at the inshore reefs.

At Bay Area piers, Pacifica Pier has provided the best prospects for both dungeness and rock crabs, best near the end of the pier, beyond the breaker line. Other chances are at Johnson’s Pier in Half Moon Bay (the smaller of the two piers at Pillar Point Harbor) and the Princeton jetty (snags and getting the trap far enough out can be problems), where rock crabs are more abundant than dungeness.

Information: Pacifica Pier, (415) 355-0690; Hilltop, Half Moon Bay, (415) 726-4950; Bodega Bay Sportfishing, (707) 875-3495; Capitola Wharf, (408) 462-2208; Santa Cruz Wharf, (408) 429-3628; Department of Fish and Game, (707) 944-5500.<

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/e/a/1995/11/28/SPORTS13532.dtl&type=printable
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1995/11/28/SPORTS13532.dtl

Time for the Bay Area to get crabby
TOM STIENSTRA, EXAMINER COLUMNIST
Tuesday, November 28, 1995

Cracked crab and sourdough bread - they fall somewhere between a culinary emblem and a cultural archetype for San Francisco.

They’re the first things that tourists order, and locals love them too. The season’s first landing of Dungeness crab is an event that has both economic and emotional significance for Bay Area residents.
Trouble is, sometimes the economic part inflames the emotional. The current retail price for live crab is around $4.50 a pound. That seems reasonable - until the fact of the crab’s physiognomy is factored into the equation. Crabs are mostly chiton and shell. They don’t contain much meat, which is why major crab fests run into heavy bucks.

Unless you catch the critters yourself, that is. The sea floor along the California coastline teems with several edible species of crab, and they all may be taken with minimal gear. Nor does crabbing require specialized skills that must be honed over time. To catch crabs, the only thing you need to know is how to pull a rope.

To bag these tasty crustaceans, go to any pier or jetty in the Bay Area. Among the good choices are the Presidio and Muni piers in San Francisco, but the Pacifica Pier, the Moss Landing breakwater and the Bodega Bay breakwater are even better.

Take a crab ring - a kind of throw net consisting of collapsible metal hoops supported by webbing - and tie a big fish head, some squid or several chicken backs to the mesh floor woven around the bottom hoop. (Crab rings may be bought at any tackle shop.) Tie short ropes to the top ring at three points, so that the net is level when lifted from the knot where the three ropes are joined. Tie a long rope to this junction. Toss the net off the pier. Drink beer or soda and read magazines for the rest of the day, pulling the net up every 20 or 30 minutes. Remove crabs and recharge bait as necessary.

There are a couple of variations on this theme. Some people prefer to employ hand lines for crabs on jetties. They tie a large chunk of bait to a weighted line, sink it between the rocks of the jetty and wait for the appropriate period of time. The bait is then retrieved slowly, and crabs glomming on to it are netted with a long-handled dip-net. “Crab rings tangle on jetties and breakwaters,” explains Jonah Li of Hi’s Tackle Shop in San Francisco.

Some people prefer the relatively high-tech “star traps,” which are composed of collapsible metal frames - but Li disparages them.

“Star traps don’t work that well if the bottom isn’t smooth - the crab rings are old-fashioned, but they really work the best.”

Four species of crab are commonly caught by sport crabbers in Northern California: Dungeness, rock, red and yellow. Dungeness, of course, is the premier market crab, the one San Francisco is famous for. It also is the largest and meatiest. The other three species usually are lumped together generically as rock crabs.

While Dungeness crabs generally prefer deep, offshore water, they do venture close to the coastline in the winter and spring - so close that they are vulnerable to sportsmen crabbing from piers and jetties.
“It was really good at the pier a few days ago,” says Basco Fernandez, the owner of Coastline No. 2 Bait and Tackle in Pacifica. “A lot of big Dungeness were caught, because we had calm weather after several days of rough seas. When the water’s rough, the crabs bury themselves in the sand. Afterwards, they’re ready to feed.” Most crabbers prefer to crab on a rising tide, as it generally is thought the crustaceans come in with the water.

While Dungeness are the crab of first choice, they can’t be taken in state estuaries - and that includes San Francisco Bay. All Dungeness caught in the Bay must be returned immediately to the water.
The limit on Dungeness is 10 crabs a day. Each must measure 5 3/4 inches across the narrow part of the carapace, and only males may be taken. Males have a “v” formation on the bottom-side flap that covers the lower portion of their anatomy. Females lack the “v.” Ask other crabbers for clarification if in doubt. The season for Dungeness runs from the second Tuesday of November through June 30.
Given that Dungeness are protected in estuaries, rock crabs are the staple for San Francisco Bay. They also outnumber Dungeness on the open coast.

Some locales that are heavily crabbed may have depressed populations of large specimens, but it’s usually possible to land a good catch of rock crabs anywhere along the coastline. The bag limits reflect this: 35 may be taken daily. Rock crabs must be four inches across the narrow part of the carapace, and as with Dungeness, only males may be caught. Rock crabs may be taken year-round.

No fishing license is required for crabs, provided they’re caught from a public pier or any structure built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (that probably covers most of the breakwaters in the state). Remember to keep your eye on the sea anytime you’re fishing or crabbing off exposed headlands or breakwaters. So-called “sleeper” waves account for a number of fatalities each year on the North Coast.

When’s the best time to catch crabs? Right now, evidently. “This is the first year that dredging has been seriously curtailed in the bay,” says Li. “The water clarity’s great. People are catching a lot of crabs, and spawning conditions have been excellent. It’s good now, but it’ll be really fantastic in a couple of years - the important thing is to keep tight controls on the dredging.”

Caption:
(1) Rock crab: most prevalent in the state, (2) Fisherman uses a crab ring at Pacifica pier, one of the best spots to catch crab in the Bay Area / BY VINCE MAGGIORA/THE CHRONICLE
Caption:
PHOTO (2)

FISHING / Now’s the Time to Catch Crab
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
January 28, 1991
Author: GLEN MARTIN, CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Estimated printed pages: 4
Edition: FINAL
Section: SPORTS
Page: E1
Index Terms: FISHING; CRABS; SPORTS; FISH; FISHING
Correction: An article on crabbing specified that only maleDungeness and rock crabs may be caught; current regulations allow for taking of both male and female crabs. (2/04/91, P. E1)
Copyright 1991 San Francisco Chronicle
Record Number: 1264346