HMB 11-14-09 My First Time Crabbing!

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

29.80. (c)
Crab traps shall have no less than two rigid circular openings of not less than four and one quarter inches inside diameter so constructed that the lowest portion of each opening is no lower than five inches from the top of the trap.

WTG on the crab coastal dudes, 
Wish I lived closer to the coast!
Thanks for the report
 

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

How long were you out there on the water?

Al and I launched a bit after 8am. I had to come back in to move out cars. The harbor master was being an ass about parking next to HMBK. It did my pots a long soak (which was great). We were off the water about 1pm.

Love those Promar traps.  We soaked one over night and a ring and pulled them this afternoon out of Our Lady of Pillar Point.   Promar trap = six crabs - 2 dungies and 4 reds just a mile outside of the outter harbor.  The Ring was attached by sealoins and bait cage bent up = no crabs.    We poured some vino and boiled them up.... yummy, yummy.  Funny how the neighbors and friend pile in when you have crabs. 

Congrats to all. I was on the jetty using snare and all I caught was one star fish. I kept staring at everybody on their yak with envy. I can't wait to
get my truck fixed so I can be on my yak again.

Jedmo

Ben and I launched at the HBMK around 9am.  It's a beautiful morning


Saw a lone Dolphin surfaced within 20ft from my kayak


Caught some big Rock, Red, and Dungeon crabs






Off water by 4pm.  Caught a total of 7 legal Dungies and a dozen of Rock/Red crabs

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.

This is NOT legal! It is also unethnical, the crab will only be half as good at defending itself and finding food. I know its common practice, but its no good for our public image.

 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. 


Were your line weighted down? Your lines/ropes will float. When its calm more line will be on the surface and the risk of being run over increases ALOT. P/B's are used to driving close to bouys because there are so many of them. I'm not sure of the outcome but a few years ago a guy had too much line/rope and it wasn't weighted down. Another P/B came by and ended up getting it wrapped in his props and blew the motor. They ended up in court ;the one guy sueing to get his motor replaced. I know that we can't have the same kind of pots that a P/B can use, but the Crab Tutorial on Coastside has a wealth of info on it. When I had a P/B and got into crabbing I was only getting a few crabs per pot. I changed evrything over to the way the tutorial said and got up to 22 in one pot!

Folloup Food Pics!

WTGs all round. I had a blast crabbing last year, one of my favourite yak fishing trips ever, even in rolling swells.

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.

This is NOT legal! It is also unethnical, the crab will only be half as good at defending itself and finding food. I know its common practice, but its no good for our public image.

It should be clarified that the illegality of pulling off claws arises because the DFG have no way of knowing that the crab you pulled the claws off was of legal size (both rock and red crabs have to be 4"). I thought about doing that as well, since you get very little body meat from the rock crabs. Best to stick with the Reds.

Kept a few reds in honor of Northern Boy.
Scott

I am, indeed, honoured!  Red is best! Unfortunately we don't have them here, but our equivalent of the rock crab gets big enough to give up some body meat in addition to those lovely claws. Gotta get out and get me some soon!

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. 


Were your line weighted down? Your lines/ropes will float. When its calm more line will be on the surface and the risk of being run over increases ALOT.

My ropes are weighted with lead or I use weighted rope. I can't speak for Etienne but your point is well taken. I did paddle by some floats where some rope was floating on the surface. I saw the guy hit the float and I don't think he saw it since he had just left the no wake zone and had just gunned the engines. I think he was more focussed not hitting Etienne and I which I appreciated.

Karen made excellent crab cakes for dinner last night also. Served with Sandman's home grown heirloom tomatoes and chardonnay. Boy it sure made the 2 hours of shelling crab worth it!!!

scott

Great reports guys! ... I will be ready soon!

I figured the claw removal was a no no. I just didn't recall seeing it in the DFG book. Oh well I guess I just have keep them all then.

Thx guys

yeah, i showed up there too, got there late, got off early.  i got two legal dungies and one red rock for my efforts.

pretty expensive crab as eric alluded in the other thread...
my crab ring is somewhere on the bottom of the pacific after somehow falling off its clip.

one of my promars is also down there, as I was just chilling on the kayak near the jetty and decided to bait it up and toss it down.  of course as i was watching it go down, i noticed my buoy wasn't attached to it.  my fault since i had not been paying attention.  oh well.  i'll get more and try it again some other time.  i still want to get out to LM though. 

the rock crab was a bit hit with my wife, she liked it more than the dungy.  my mom came over after dinner and polished off whatever we did not finish.  i'll be looking for another weather window to do it again but not sure if it will be soon - being almost 2 hours from the ocean makes it tough to get out there and back.

the pics of the after math, the cooking, was great! Those were the best looking crab cakes ever!!! I've never crabbed off my yak, only off  aP/B. I usually didn't get any rock crabs, because I'm crabbing out deep in sand/mud. I'll keep a few and try them; I can't imagine anything being better than dunginess. I kept two danielson pots from the sale of my old boat, so I'll be using them. They aren't very light, but they are payed for!!!