HMB 11-14-09 My First Time Crabbing!

While it was tempting to do another run for the final days of rock fish, I had been dreaming about crabbing all week (and prepping too) and just had to get out and try my luck at finding the crab!  EWB and I meet up at HMBK and got geared up and launched into a windless, but overcast, FLAC conditions out of the harbor mouth and spotted some other yakkers in the distance.   

Quick hail on the VHF showed we were not the only NCKA'ers on the water that day     Meet up with GB2, Sackyak, and SCXfactor and dropped our pots.  I also brought a snare, kind you put on your fishing pole, and before pulling my first pot up I snagged a nice big crab!  However, i laneded it on the front hatch and decided I wanted to take a picture while it was there... it flipped over off its back and scurried away to safty before I could snap a pic! 

Then we started hauling pots after a 30-40 minute soak and started taking on the crab!   

Pics:

Thanx for the intel Al.  I gotta get out and get some crab.

Glad you had a good time out there Al!!!!!!!!!

Nice pics too!!!!!

Thank you for sharing!

Sincerely,

Jim

More pics!!!   

Al

Great going buddy.
I plan on getting out there soon, just wanted one last weekend at SWS for a ling, cabby or verm.



Great job rookie

Stoggie

WTG, Al!  Love the sunrise shot and the first-time-crabber enthusiasm.  Great pics and report.   

Had a blast. Crabbing is a combo of hard work AND total boredom. I managed to pull 4 dungies and 5 big rock crab. All in about 40-45 FOW. The more (fresh) bait the better. Had friends over for the feast last night. For those that wonder if rock crab is good eating. It is! The claws are great. We used the bodies to make a crab stock for a crab and corn chowder.

For next time I think (unless some thinks this is bad idea) I will just pull one of the claws of each rock crab and toss back the crab to let it re grow. I know they do this with stone crab in Florida and I think the are the same (or similar) species.

Oh and the pots we all got fished great!

thsnks for the report and pics, love the sunrise shot, were those shrinp by catch or bait, cameron

Nice work Al / EWB. Super stoked for you guys. Gotta try that!

How long were you out there on the water?

Good job Al and Eric. Al, where are the shrimp cooked up? That got me more excited than the crab. I was supposed to retrieve pots today  north of Bodega but the gimbal bearing went out in the boat yesterday so they pulled all pots and came in.

Great looking water conditions and what a plus to see Scott on the water. he's a first class guy. Craig

Congrats on the crabs Al.  Thanks for the report and pics. Damn - sure looks FAC.

Al and Eric - Good to see you out there and WTG on the crabs. I hooked up with Etienne and Ken at sunrise and headed out under excellent conditions. Swell and wind never showed up which was good. Day started out bad, a power boat ran over one of Etienne's ropes and he lost his hoop.  Worked 3 Promar 102's with 30-45 minute soaks. Ended up with a limit of dungies by 1030. Kept a few reds in honor of Northern Boy. Had an excellent omelette at the Harbor Bar and headed home. Dropped some crabs off at Sandman's house then it was CRAB BOIL!!!!

Scott

Wow nice platter sorry about the loss . you can only hope a chunk of rope will get wrapped around prop and burn up bearing

I like your  thinking Hunter!

Nice set of crabs.  It doesn't matter where the escape rings are installed as long as there are two?