HMB Report 2/3/18

Beautiful warm conditions for Saturday's launch.  Went towards the south end of the crabbing grounds with a couple others and saw a handful of other kayakers along the way.  Gear hadn't been dropped for but about 30 minutes or so when some major (unforecasted) winds suddenly cranked up.  They were off-shore and we quickly had good sized wind-waves and whitecaps.  Peddling as best we could for about 30 minutes, we couldn't make any decent progress back towards our gear and so we and a few others from the larger crew abandoned what we had out there and headed in while we could.

The wind persisted until early to mid afternoon.  We relaunched about 3 PM, collected our gear, averaging about 3 keepers of various sizes per trap.  Lucky us, the wind started to pick up again this time from the harbor to give us another workout... With traffic back over 92 and all, made it back to San Mateo at around 7 in time to clean, cook and consume some of the bounty before crashing.

This trip turned out to be a good one overall, but a reminder that it can get hairy out on the ocean at most unexpectedly.

Thanks for the report and reminder Don.

I too got caught in this storm. 

Met up with MooMoo and rnrgeek at hmb. We headed out around 8 to what seemed like an awesome day ahead of us. Then, Mother Nature flipped the switch, and gave me front tickets to the shit show. 5-10 mins after dropping my 2nd trap. We all were headed back in and met Camodon and his group. I left my traps to soak over night and pray for good weather the next day.
 

Report:  2/4/18

Went back this morning and launched around 7:30 AM, beautiful day. Pulled my traps and picked up 5 keeper dungies and 2 rock crab. Biggest dungie was 8". Also, met another ncka member, Cal. Chatted with Cal for a few and exchange infos for future hook ups.

This community is awesome! good people!

Yeap. Launch at about 10am and the wind was picking up even before I dropped my first pot. Contemplated on wether to ride it out or pay the price.
Other kayakers hit the B line and headed back to shore. I decided to stick it out.
It turned out to be a great day after all. Once the tumble cycle passed, it was smooth and calm thereafter.
Bagged me 6 keeper dunggies, 4 of which were at least 7 inches. 6 red crabs to add along, too.

Well, here's another cold brew after and exciting crabbing trip.

And, as a bonus. I met another ncka member right before I launched.
I think we left it at "DINO?"

Danggit!!! Pix is sideways again...and I only had one glass. 

Nice looking crabs. :

great job guys. Yup the wind can kick up anytime. I was checking it on Sat and it show 3-5 however at the airport it was 18-19 gusting to 23-24, Ouch!

Glad the dungie are still there...

Super Bowl is done and so are my crabs.

These reds came home for dinner too.

Yeap. Launch at about 10am and the wind was picking up even before I dropped my first pot. Contemplated on wether to ride it out or pay the price.
Other kayakers hit the B line and headed back to shore. I decided to stick it out.
It turned out to be a great day after all. Once the tumble cycle passed, it was smooth and calm thereafter.
Bagged me 6 keeper dunggies, 4 of which were at least 7 inches. 6 red crabs to add along, too.

Well, here's another cold brew after and exciting crabbing trip.

And, as a bonus. I met another ncka member right before I launched.
I think we left it at "DINO?"

Yep, that was me. I've been after them around Montezuma and Sherman island with no success. One day, I'm hoping to land one in my yak.

Yeap. Launch at about 10am and the wind was picking up even before I dropped my first pot. Contemplated on wether to ride it out or pay the price.
Other kayakers hit the B line and headed back to shore. I decided to stick it out.
It turned out to be a great day after all. Once the tumble cycle passed, it was smooth and calm thereafter.
Bagged me 6 keeper dunggies, 4 of which were at least 7 inches. 6 red crabs to add along, too.

Well, here's another cold brew after and exciting crabbing trip.

And, as a bonus. I met another ncka member right before I launched.
I think we left it at "DINO?"

Yep, that was me. I've been after them around Montezuma and Sherman island with no success. One day, I'm hoping to land one in my yak.

Talk about a sleigh ride.

Still need to cross it off my bucket list.

My son and I got caught out in that wind blast too. First hour was very calm but then the wind picked up really fast. Started pulling our pots so we could head home. Got 2 on the boats but then we couldn't make headway to get to the rest. My son was looking at the GPS and said we weren't getting anywhere. Heck, even if we got to them we wouldn't have been able to pull them with the waves. Decided to head in without the rest of our gear. The ride back was a little hairy and we had a hard time going where we wanted and not where the wind wanted to blow us. I was running different (bad) scenarios in my mind about two week soaks until I could get out there again Hung out for awhile on shore hoping it would calm down. At about 2 I told my son lets go back out and get the rest of our pots. He thought I was clear nuts. When we got back out there it was very calm again. Our last pot was almost a mile from the jaws. It was our best pot with 4 keeper dungies so the paddle was worth it. Wound up with 8 nice hard dungies and 33 rock crabs. All in all a very interesting day.

I too got caught in this storm. 

Met up with MooMoo and rnrgeek at hmb. We headed out around 8 to what seemed like an awesome day ahead of us. Then, Mother Nature flipped the switch, and gave me front tickets to the shit show. 5-10 mins after dropping my 2nd trap. We all were headed back in and met Camodon and his group. I left my traps to soak over night and pray for good weather the next day.
 

Report:  2/4/18

Went back this morning and launched around 7:30 AM, beautiful day. Pulled my traps and picked up 5 keeper dungies and 2 rock crab. Biggest dungie was 8". Also, met another ncka member, Cal. Chatted with Cal for a few and exchange infos for future hook ups.

This community is awesome! good people!

Good to meet you Shaun! Looking forward to future trips