MBK Crabbin 12/20

Left Salinas at 7:30 and it was windy. Arrived at MBK to calm conditions and surprisingly warm temps. This is Monterey in the early AM.


Met mpnelson(Matt) out there and the crabbin started. I only brought 45’ of rope as it was my first trip and I wanted to stay shallow. Dropped my 1 promar at 30’ in front of the shed and let it soak for about an hour. I am aware that in this area the crab are MUCH deeper but I needed to get my feet wet. Pulled it and found nothing inside although I was impressed by how much energy it took to pull the trap. Moved 50 yards north and dropped.

In the down time I fished the sabiki and caught this odd fish that I haven’t I.D.ed yet. Any ideas?

I stuck my ungloved index finger in to the fishes wide open mouth to pop out the hook and the little turd bit me 3 or 4 times and wouldn’t let go. The bite hurt but didn’t draw any blood.

An hour later I go and pull my trap and low and behold it’s a crab in a ghillie suit.


The way normal crabs are measured it was 3 1/4 “ but from head to tail it was longer than that. Again no I.D. on what it was.

Awhile later in about 40 fow I caught about a 2# brown RF on a sabiki. That was a big surprise. It released itself before I could take a pic.

At about 1:00, fishing a hair jig, my brother went bendo on what was probably a sting ray but it came unbuttoned after a short time. He dropped it back down and 5 mins later bam he almost gets pulled out of the boat. He had his drag set a little tight and of course the rod won’t budge in the holder. He eventually worked it free and after about a 10 min fight the bat ray was successfully released and the jig retained.


That's a 2 oz hair jig

So I’m all excited to hook one of the rays and I drop my shark setup in at a little less than 30 fow basically right where the ray was hooked and I catch this.

(This is right in front of the nearest set of condo’s to the launch). I was using an 80# steel leader and a single hook with a whole squid and half of another. This fish was shallow and likely over sand. No stress release though I still felt like a poacher.

Last crab trap pull resulted in this behemoth.     


Overall it was a lot of fun to get back out OTW and drop some lines. I thoroughly enjoyed crabbin and can see buying at least 2 more traps. Water was calm all day except for a little wind at around 10:00. What a day! 

-Tim

Wow...looks like you & your brother caught lots of interesting bycatches.  The fish in the second picture looks like a mud sucker and the next one is a Spider/Sheep crab.  Sorry you didn't catch any Dungies.  Thanks for the report and pictures Tim.

Thanks for the report.Looks like you guys got into some action! WTG

Great report - talk about diversity!   

Great report and pics. Thanks for that!
The 1st fish is a fringehead. Those are badass little mofos! Somebody posted a video of 2 fighting and it was amazing.

The crab in the halloween costume could be a decorator crab. They glue crap onto their backs for camouflage. I always thought that was pretty clever for a lowley crab.

Cool! The little mini-sea-monster kind of looks like a baby Lingcod, very cute, Ill go with Fringehead since Im no expert.

Northern Boy posted a sweet video of 2 fringeheads battling, but it was removed from youtube. But...I found a couple other videos of them fighting. Check it out!

Nice report, I've been out a couple times for crab behind cannery row and haven't been too successful yet. Both times I've set my pots in 150-180' and have only caught one just legal red rock crab, (along with jellyfish, sand dabs, baby rock cod, and starfish). The dungeouness crab grounds are about 5-7 miles or more out in a northern direction from Pt. Pinos. Personally, it's a little out of my comfort range for paddling.

Great report and pics. Thanks for that!
The 1st fish is a fringehead. Those are badass little mofos! Somebody posted a video of 2 fighting and it was amazing.

if you hold them midways down, they turn their body to bite you.  They've got attitude for sure

Nice report Tim looks like I left a little too early. Sounds like you guys had a good time. Your bro couldn't stop talking about that ray. I think we need to soak a little longer next time. Better luck next time.

Thanks for the report and pictures Tim. BTW, what camera were you using?

Jedmo

Nice report and pics.  Andy

Thanks for the replies.

Sailfish/Fishwrapper- looks like the crab could be a sheep crab but there's none with stuff stuck on its shell. Searched decorator crab and it may be a "seaweed decorator crab". No idea. 

Sincoast- definately looks like a fringehead from the video. We would be in serious trouble if lings had the attitude of this little fish. Can you imagine a 10# ling trying to bite your hand. 

Matt- the pull that the crab came up on was a good 3 hour soak so maybe they do need to soak longer. I think we need to try moss landing. 

Jedmo- the camera is a olympus 1030sw and it does the job but has limited setting options. It has lasted one season which is more than I would have guessed from my intial impression.

-Tim   

We should try an over night soak out of moss and see what happens. Let me know, we are super slow at work right now, might have to do some more crabbin/fishing.