Humboldt Bay Crabbing

Hey y'all!

I haven't caught anything on my yak yet.. still fun going out though!

This past weekend I went crabbing off of the Bonnie Gool guest dock in Eureka chasing dungies.  Unfortunately I didn't snag any dungies; however I did snag some great rock crabs! I probably pulled up a total of 25 crab over the four hours I was out, probably closer to 20 keepers, with the best time being just before the slack.  I only kept three; and thinking back if I had kept the smaller ones they might have been easier to consume rather than the thick shells of the three I did keep.

All three were pretty dang decently sized, just over 5 1/2" a pop.  Used chicken spines as bait, I'm sure if I had saved the one greenling carcass I achieved this summer I would have probably done a bit better.

Didn't pull up a single dungie, however being so far up the bay vs something like the Del Norte pier probably had something to do with it. 

Overall, a great time out.  Weather couldn't have been better for it, listened to a few Ween albums and said hi to a few kayakers, none fishing, headed down the channel. 

One of these days I'll get a wetsuit and a crab trap card, and maybe a slightly more sturdy yak.  Would be a ton of fun setting up a trap or two closer to the mouth of the bay.

Happy fishing y'all!

Dungeness can be hard to catch in the bay once a lot of fresh water is entering from the bay tributaries.  Also, it's been a tough year for Dungeness anyway.

Keep trying, and you'll pull up a jumbo eventually!   

I can imagine the jumbo anticipation.  It's fun to pull a bunch o' dinks with one contrasting beast of a jumbo in the same trap.  It makes me smile sumpin' large...we're all struggling to find a weather window and a pile o' keepers from HMB to Ft. Ross as well.