Crab Skunk MBK but RF 11/16

What a beautiful day to play hookie.  I hit the launch at about 7 and soon thereafter received a call from scubamike1974 that he was running late so I proceeded to launch on the old Monterey Pond to ankle slappers and mirror calm water.  I saw a few traps and proceeded north and west of them and dropped my first one in 30 fow then headed futher west and dropped a second in about 40 fow.  The trap deployment was easy in the flat water.  I still did not see Mike on the beach so I hit the kelp beads and hooked up right away with a C&R Gopher RF.  Next I got a nice sized grass or kelp RF that I kept.  It had been an hour since I dropped my traps so I went over to check them out and met Mike in the way.  Only a small spiny box crab (not sure of the name) and a few snails.  I kept a few snails for bait and we moved my traps to north of the exising ones and added Mike's.

We fish the next few hours all over the kelp beds and out to the yello can with intermitent success.  I ended up with three keepers two nice kelp or grass RF and one Copper RF.  I gave one of the former to Mike.  We went back to retieve the traps and pulled them up easy.  Again a similar crab to the first one and lots of snails.  Mike's trap was also empty.  We were kind of suprized but had heard that this area is picked clean by the otters.

All in all another great day fishing instead of working, we have fish for tacos and I had an easy learning experience dropping the traps the first time.  I think I will try deeper water and or Moss next time.  Or maybe off PG outside the 60 ft preserve.   

Etienne, Sounds like a great information day. How did the Snails work? Trap or fish? Since I'm not getting any response to my Bodega post I may head down your way . One more day of Hooky next week? Randall
 
 
 

I kept checking back to see if you had posted yet. 
Too bad about the crab skunking. Maybe try deeper next time. Who knows...

What type of traps did you and Mike use? I am interested in trying my hoop nets and star trap this wknd out of Del Monte. Will probably paddle northward.
Thanks for being the guinea pig and investigating the terrain!

And good job on the rockies!

Thanks for the report,
PK

Etienne - thanks for the recon report on the crabs Like Randall had mentioned, it's good info. 

I have the square metal box traps and rings. I did not use any rings though because I wanted to go fishing and let the traps just sit there. Rings tend to take up some fishing time. I had a great time out there. Took me three hours to get from Livermore to Monterey, I hate traffic. I am thinking of Bodega Bay next time for crabs. Like Etienne said, the conditions were perfect, felt like a lake. If I can get away from work, I would like to try another AM trip soon.

PK,

I have the collapsable round traps.  The were nice and easy to carry.  I am working on the intel to find out the better placed to go around here for crabs.  Anyone have some spots to recommend in this area?

Randall,

I am already looking at proably Wednesday of next week in order to prep for Thinksgiving.  I may be able to fish Wednesday AM but really need to spend the afternoon getting the house and food ready.  Let me know what you are thinking.  What about after Thursday?

Etienne. I made the drive to Sac last night and by the time I got there My back was killing me. I guess the procerure the Dr. tried on Thurs. didn't do what we wanted to (couple grand down the drain GRRRRR!!!) So I turned around and came home. Hopefully It will get better over the next few days the Dr. said it might take a few days to see the best results. Thanks for the offer brother. Knock em dead Randall