Does tidal range difference affect kayak crabbing?

Does larger tidal change between high and low tides greatly affect kayak crabbing? I imagine loop nets are harder to stay in place but wondering if crabs also tend to be inactive during the faster current? please share your experience, thanks.

It seems like they crawl best at the slack tide or mild tides. But they can be caught during moving tides, as long as your hoops can stay down and buoys not get pulled under by current. In addition to Tomales Bay, I've also had this issue at Doran if you are roughly in line with the harbor entrance, even a decent ways away.

In places with strong tidal currents like Tomales I do much better at slack tide or on days with low tidal exchange. You also run the risk of your gear moving or your buoys being pulled under when the current is strong. I run with two buoys for this reason. In the open ocean like Pacifica I haven't noticed much of an effect and the current never gets really strong like in bays or the mouth of bays.

It seems like they crawl best at the slack tide or mild tides. But they can be caught during moving tides, as long as your hoops can stay down and buoys not get pulled under by current. In addition to Tomales Bay, I've also had this issue at Doran if you are roughly in line with the harbor entrance, even a decent ways away.

Make sense, I was thinking Doran near the jetty. This weekend has 7-8' of tide range in the afternoon I will probably wait for another day.

I've found that crabs tend to hunker down in the sand during massive tide swing and don't really feed so I tend to avoid them. Not too mention, doing the actual crabbing during these huge swings can be a real pain in the ass. Gear moves or gets buried, and the amount of kelp and eelgrass moving along the bottom really junks everything up.

I run with two buoys for this reason.

Heads-up to everyone that there are new regulations for hoop net buoys: running a single buoy is fine, but it must be less than 6”x14”, and if you want to run a trailer buoy, it has to be orange and marked with an H on each side.

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/Invertebrates/Crabs#recreational

Totally depends on where you're crabbing.  As mentioned by others, if you're in a bay or channel where tide flow gets strong, you're pushing your luck with your gear and the crabs may not be actively feeding.  I do well in parts of Humboldt Bay when the tide's running strong, but I choose my spots carefully with the current in mind.

Good heads up by KPD regarding the new rule.  I think it's lame.  They're putting a lot of gear modification requirements on the most basic level of crabber - the hoop netter.  Especially for people like me who mostly crab in the bay or in the river mouth where I'll never cross paths with a whale.  If they'd reclassify the ambush traps as traps instead of hoops, I don't think that using hoops (I call them rings) would be made into such a hassle.  Rant over.

This makes me want to go crabbing!   

I run with two buoys for this reason.

Heads-up to everyone that there are new regulations for hoop net buoys: running a single buoy is fine, but it must be less than 6”x14”, and if you want to run a trailer buoy, it has to be orange and marked with an H on each side.

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/Invertebrates/Crabs#recreational

Yeh, I saw this rule and painted over my second buoy with orange acrylic paint. Very Weird rule about orange and the H letter.  This is only for loop net on open water, Buoy rule for trap stays the same.