Are the Dungies still around?

Got these a few days ago in hmb (+ one jacksmelt)

Best trip ever for me over Easter. We camped at Doran and brought my boat.

Put the pots in the water Saturday night. I only went about a half mile out and was in 40 fow. Had four pots out and wanted to test different baits. One had ling and cabezone heads/skin. One had all chicken legs. One had chicken legs and squid. The last one had two duck carcasses. I'd read mixed reviews about ducks but saved them from last season just to try them out.

Pulled them Sunday morning. Each pot had 10-15 crabs, but nearly ALL were females! A fairly even mix of dungies and rock crab. The best bait seemed to be the fish. I ended up with only two male keeper dungies.

Because of weather, I couldn't get out again until Monday evening. First trap (chicken) only had two small rock crabs. They got the bait box open and all the bait was gone, so who knows how long it had soaked with no bait. The second trap was loaded with dungies and more than half were male. This was the ducks. I had 7 or 8 keeper males in this trap alone. The next trap (chicken) also was stuffed. The last trap was the same. I was tossing 6" ers overboard left and right. I ended up with a limit, plus one enormous rock crab.

I was dumb to put my traps back where I'd caught all the females, but it never dawned on me until I was back on shore. That being said, I was lucky it worked out.

And between fish scraps and duck carcasses, I'm done buying bait for crab traps.

So yes....they are still around.

I noticed that only females left out there. I might give it one more try before the official end of season.
But thanks for reporting in.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll give it another go before the season ends myself..

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Just to report back. I was out there yesterday, a very nice day to be out on the water, but very few kayaks out, maybe 4 or 5 total. Lots of females and juveniles, only ended up with 3 keepers, barely legal males. Last year I would have thrown them back. I did have a good time out on the water, calm seas and gentle winds. Better to be out fishing than not.

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