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