New to Kayaking-Looking for places to crab that have easy access.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Transplanted to SoCal. I recently began Kayaking, After watching a few you tube videos on kayak crabbing it sparked my interests. I take a few vacations up North every year and I am trying to figure good places to crab that I already frequent. My best Kayak Crabbing experience was at Doran beach, and I loved staying at the Porto Bodega Marina and RV park. I crabbed at Pillar Point for my first experience, I chickened out and did not go out past the break wall. Did not get much there except some rock crabs. Next time I go I won't chicken out. I camp at Morro Bay every year, I know that you can not crab in the harbor, but has anyone on this forum crabbed just past the break-wall, on the DFG map it shows that area is open and OK to crab?

Welcome to NCKA  KayakCrabber    Doran beach crabbing is kinda slow this year.  HMB might be a better place for crabbing.  Don't need to go to far from the mouth,  just hang left parallel to the rock wall and drop traps in 30 - 40 fow.  Make sure your traps are not in the traffic route and too close to the mouth entrance.

Thanks For the info.

Welcome!

Next time you go post something in the hook ups so you don't go out alone. 2 there is no such thing as chicken IMHO, its called living to do it again.  We all have our own limits, with expierence we can push them further out.  I have turned back, I have been with others when conditions weren't right and we all turned back.  Crabbing is a ton of fun, but always be safe, because no wants to see the crabs win.

Next time you go post something in the hook ups so you don't go out alone. 2 there is no such thing as chicken IMHO, its called living to do it again.  We all have our own limits, with expierence we can push them further out.  I have turned back, I have been with others when conditions weren't right and we all turned back.  Crabbing is a ton of fun, but always be safe, because no wants to see the crabs win.

+1  and Welcome!  There's no shame in staying within your comfort zone.

You have to go really deep for dungeness near Morro (like 200ft). But you can probably get rock crabs outside the jetty...they have a harder shell, less meat, and a sweeter taste but some people prefer them over dungies. I'd say give it a try some time--maybe just use 1 trap the first exploratory trip to see how it goes...then come back with 2 or 3 traps if successful.
Looking at the map of the Morro Bay SMRMA, it appears to extend out to the tip of the entrance, so you'd have to go outside of that area because you can't take crabs inside it (only hook & line finfish). http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/pdfs/mpamaps/morrobay.pdf

I bet the guys at centralcoastkayakfishing have some experience with crabbing outside Morro--check it out.

Thank You everyone for all the great information and support. I have been Browsing the Safety first forum to lock in everything I need to be safe out there.

Welcome KayakCrabber.

HMB was my first yak crabbing experience and I've had decent luck there on my first two trips. Definitely know where the boating lanes are though because it reflects poorly on the whole yak fishing community when we don't follow the rules. Id say it's a place that's best experienced for the first time with people who know. There are few dicey places where waves break unexpectedly when the swell/tides are right. If you ever want to hit HMB let me know. My wife has been asking when I'm gonna bring home some crab.

-FF

Welcome! I'm pretty much a newbie myself but did get out kayak crabbing  about a month back in Tomales. It was pretty slow, we got a few barely legal dungie and a lot more rock crabs. I was told the overnight camp/soak is a better plan. Be safe out of HMB- if you go out and turn R, you can get some big swell coming around the corner. I check swellinfo.com, but there are other sites too that use the same NOAA ocean data. Good luck! Warren

Hey brother, thanks for the warm welcome and warning about Mavericks. I'm familiar with that area as I used to surf Waaaay back in the day.  I'm getting together two Danielson traps because I've been wanting to get in on some crab action. Just waiting for perfect day to go out. 

There's no shame whatsoever in "chickening out" when it comes to kayaking. Knowing when NOT to proceed is incredibly important.