Bodega (Doran) crabbin Fri 11/7

Made it out early Friday morning near the jetty at Doran.  Dropped the first pot about 1/2 mile out from the jetty and another about 1/4 past that.  Fog was thick, so I had to be on the lookout for the hordes of PB's flying out of the harbor in the thick fog to set their pots.  Within an hour, there were small PB's all over the area dropping pots close to the mouth as well.  Tried to stay close to keep watch on my pots after Jack being hiested in the general area the day before, but could only see my buoys when I was within 300 feet or so due to the fog.  scouted around looking for bait balls and halibut type bottom, but no takers.  After about 3 1/2 hours of soaking, pulled the pots.  The closer pot had some large red crabs and 3 or 4 smaller dungies.  The outer pot had about 5 of each with three of the dungies being within 1/4 inch of legal. 

The pics show the frustrating details.  And then, of course, the fog bagan to lift as I paddled back to the beach to head for home...... 

I was only soaking them in 30 to 40 feet, so perhaps a bit deaper may have done the trick as the dungies seemed to get bigger as you moved away from the harbor.

Norm

PS - should have gone to Sonoma with Mike.......

And the pics before I hit Post this time....

Cant say that you didn't try. The crabbing this year seems to be slow all over. Especially around The Bodega area. We wre in a boat on Saturday and set 7 pots loaded with bait and only pulled 11 legal dungeness after a 5-6 hour soak. The swell was starting to biuld when we were coming back to Bodega. We were hit by a sudden squall. I mean coming in through the jetties it was 2-3ft wind waves and blowing around 25 with hard rain.I think I saw Ptrick at Ft. Ross but didn't hail him. There were also 6 kayakers at Stillwater. After a bouncy boat ride and Being kind of ill all day I realised how much I just like being on the kayak. Norm, are you still thinking of going up to horseshoe weather permitting on the 15th?

thanks for the report. i talked to a powerboater who did real well outside the bay and north.

Great report w/ action shots, Nawm.  I'm getting tons of just-short crabs here too and heard that from others here.  It looks like a tough crab year.

Craig - it could have been that same squall that hit up here yesterday at about 2PM to around 3PM.  25 knots from the west and raining like hell.  Then it was calmer than you'd believe and a mirror on the water about an hour later - I love that.

 

That sounds about right Eric.

Thanks for the report and pictures Nawm. I am still in the process of gathering
all sorts of information of how and where to set crab traps from everybody.
I hope to get out there and try the crabbing on the yak someday.

Jedmo

Norm, are you still thinking of going up to horseshoe weather permitting on the 15th?

Hey Craig,

I'm hoping to be able to.  I need to check with the wife on availability again, she mentioned something in passing yesterday about maybe needing to work all weekend.  I'll PM you mid-week to let you know for sure.  Thanks for the reminder!!

Norm