HMB Crabbing 110208

Having checked and rechecked the weather forecast, FindThatFish (Paul) and I decided to hit HMB yesterday for some early-season crabbing. As I descended out of the fog and drove south into Pacifica, I could see that the forecast was a way off. Lumpy, rolling seas and acres of foaming white surf. The Saturday storm had stayed for breakfast. Hmmmmmmm. I rolled into the parking lot and met up with Paul, we discussed the conditions and decided to load up the yaks and “go and take a look”.



As we headed across the harbor, I could see big swells rolling past the mouth. It was quite surreal looking at the swells side-on from within a protected harbor, reminded me of one of these machines;



Hmmmm. We paddled onward. I heard a might boom and crash and turned to see the surf flooding over the top of the north jetty wall. Alright, alright, this isn’t good. I turn to Paul, who grins back “it doesn’t look to bad”. It takes me a couple of seconds to realise he’s not joking. Man he wants Dungeness really bad.

We edge our way out of the harbor mouth and, yep, it’s rolling, double the 6-8ft in the forecast. But bouncing around in the slop we see……a yakker, pulling up a hoop net full of crabs. Alright! I bounce my way over to him for the intel. He pulls his NPR headphones out and tells me plenty of reds but only one dungie. That’ll do me, I prefer the reds anyway.

We drop our gear 50-300 feet from the jetty in ~30FOW and so the crabbing begins. I pull up my first net 20 min later and there’s a huge red in there. Yay! Then I realise I’ve made a schoolboy error. Our original plan was to fish as well, but we ditched that to concentrate on crabbing alone. I was originally going to dump the crabs into my 5 gallon bucket/rod holder, but no fishing= no bucket so…..where am I gonna put these guys? Luckily my drifter takes on so much water………

Your own…..personal……..tide pool…………


I had to keep feeding them little bits of squid to keep them happy. When they were angry, you knew about it. Not good to have this sight so close to the crown jewels.



We stayed out there til ~3pm (we launched ~9). We moved the gear around a lot looking for dungies. We found plenty but all undersized, including loads of babies. Awww. Paul eventually finds a spot where the parents are hiding and we focus on that. I finally get a keeper that just squeaks past 5.75 inches. I plonk him in my “livewell” and can’t help feeling disappointed; doesn’t look like there’s a lot of meat on him. After a while I realise……..no claws. D’oh. Thankfully I get another squeaker-keeper on the next pull and clawless goes back in the drink.

The finally tally for me; one keeper dungie and a billon keeper reds. I had to flip Dungie on his back to keep him calm.


I threw back all the smaller/female reds once we were on calm water inside the harbor and I could look down for 5 seconds without throwing up. Still went home with ~12 good reds. Yum. Paul did better with the Dungies.

Many thanks to Chuck E for the tips on hauling and dropping crab gear, especially the tip about leaving the line in the water as you haul and so keeping your deck free; that’s a real winner. If you've never been yak crabbing, read that article! Some other useful info I guess; all baits worked, but halibut carcass was the winner for me today, especially the part with the guts. I butchered the carcass the night before and wrapped bait-cage sized chunks in cheesecloth then refroze them. The cheesecloth kept the bait together better.

WTG NB. You are inspiring me to get out there and do some crabbing. Thanks for the great report and pics.

-FF

Awesome report, Phil.  Great photos - love the live-well/personal tidepool!     Sounds like a great adventure - so who was the guy with the NPR headphones out there solo?

 

Oh I should have stuck to plan A. Great job. How far did you go for the dungies? Love the live well.

Great report NB! Had me laughing about keeping the crabs fed and happy. Don't want to change gender due to carelessness. Love the impromptu live well. I hope to someday try ocean fishing and crabbing. The reports I read on here are really inspiring. I need to get the right equipment first and practive self-rescue, launching, and landing before I even try. Keep up the great reports as it definitely helps newbies like me arm myself with the right knowledge.

Krazy for Crabs!!.....thanks for the pics Phil.....and you're afraid of what?
if you're going out in those conditions, a little threat of a GWS should be nothing to ya'! 

Soooooo jealous!

Nice Phil! Braving the weather condition paid off with some nice crabs. WTG on the improvise to keep the catch.

Jedmo

As always nice report and pics NB. You guys have some guts but I already knew that having fished with both of you and swam with Paul at BH. I thought my P15 was a wet ride but your yak looks like a submarine. Funny thing is that you don't weigh that much, if you were chunky you would need a periscope. WTG!!!

Scott

Great report and pics, NB.

If you really like those reds then Bodega Bay is the place you should check out. There's millions of 'em INSIDE the harbor. I'm sure you've seen some of my Tides Wharf reports on PFIC where we've casted out and had our bait stripped within five minutes. You can get the occasional dungee out of there, too.

Great report and pics, NB.

If you really like those reds then Bodega Bay is the place you should check out. There's millions of 'em INSIDE the harbor. I'm sure you've seen some of my Tides Wharf reports on PFIC where we've casted out and had our bait stripped within five minutes. You can get the occasional dungee out of there, too.

Oh yes, my first crabbing experience ever was at spud point. I was planning to do a crab/mack trip up there in the summer but rockfish kept getting in the way!

it was great to be out there on the water with a good buddy, NB.

i was so eager for crabbing, i did not care how the water condition was.  i mean i had waited for 5 months for this.  nothing would stop me.

as NB mentioned, we finally found a sweet spot for D's.  it only took us about 4hrs to find that D-spot.

i managed to fish 4 D's, 4 reds and 1 rock.  my family was happy to see me that night. 

That's how you get it done!

Way to make it happen Phil.

Thanks for the report and the pics.

S.