Humboldt Bay and Lost Coast Crabbing - 1/5 and 1/6/17

The ocean flattened out right before this mega-rainstorm hit, so I did a little crabbing.

Thursday afternoon I hit up Humboldt Bay where I had a relaxing time but the crab were not on the chew!  Only bagged one legal Dungeness, but I enjoyed documenting 4 species of crabs in my rings in an hour and a half.  Tipped a couple cold brews and appreciated a sweet sunset before heading home to cleanup gear and BBQ chicken!

Friday I'd planned to get chores done around the homestead before all the rain hit, but damn that ocean was flat!  The Cape buoy was 3 at 13, and I admit that a fantasy about abundant jumbos in a most remote location got me all wrapped up and mesmerized!  I enlisted the company of my good friend David, and we headed over the Wildcat at a nice slow pace due to all the ice and snow that's accumulated around here of late.  We arrived at the Cape to see corduroy to the horizon...  No swell and not many whitecaps, but the south wind was affecting things all the way inshore.

We spent some time looking at it as we worked on extending my crab ropes, and by the time we had 4 rings re-tied and baited I was content with the conditions - it was time to go for it!  I know this spot - been launching and landing here for fishing, diving, crabbing and just paddling since the late 90's.  When both David and I experienced sonar failure I still knew that I could dial us in to the spot based on distance from landmarks.  We worked together to haul the gear to the water's edge and were soon launched on to the choppy but flat ocean - thrilled to be back on the water on the edge of the continent!

As is always the case, the ocean was way different than it had looked from the truck...  We were getting tossed around a bit by confused seas where whitecaps about the size of king size beds were rolling off of steep mixed swells, but they only occurred here and there, randomly every 8 to 10 acres.  Enjoying the ultimate stability of our X-Factors, we were comfortable in the conditions and confident that we could maintain balance should our number come up with a whitecap erupting right under our yaks.  The south breeze was consistent at around 6 to 8 knots with a gust to 10 here and there, and we'd watch it closely - an escalation in wind speed would mean a quick exit for us.

This was David's first time crabbing from kayaks.  He's a very skilled waterman, and we were both dressed for cold water immersion, of course.  I deployed the rings from my yak, and the conditions being what they were, there was no time to let them soak.  I approached the first buoy from downwind, showed David how to gather the rope without creating a hazard or a tangled mess, and we started to systematically run the gear. 

Usually at this spot we'll get a few starfish, lots of welks, a few rock crab, and, once you dial in the right substrate and depth, some quality Dungeness should show up.  The first several pulls had none of the above!  Not even a snail was finding our bait.  Was this a carry over from yesterday's slow bite at Humboldt Bay?  I'd also heard things had been slow at Trinidad...

We stuck with it, and a wind gust here and there had me thinking we should bail.  I was getting a few pics to try to capture the conditions, and then I decided to video David as he pulled a ring from 50 feet down.  Having seen exactly zero living creatures in our pulls to that point, I thought I was just getting a video of how-to...  Then as David gets the ring just below his yak I see color!  It was David's first kayak Dungeness!  This Godsend of a crab was barely legal, but we were stoked!

This inspired us to keep working the gear for awhile, and things did pick up a bit.  We got a few short Dungeness, a starfish and one welk, so at least we knew we were getting my light gear flat on the bottom in the crappy conditions.

After running the gear about 4 times we were again thinking of calling it a day when I scored a jumbo 7 incher - this of course kept us out there another half hour, and we were having a ball!  When we finally wrapped up we headed for shore really enjoying having gone on the adventure.  David was stoked to have learned to crab from the yaks - he took right to it as I knew he would, and I got to show him around at a place I'm so familiar with and where I've had great success over the years.

We hit the beach, got the gear hauled up the hill and back on my truck, and it was time to crack cold brews and to celebrate the success of our trip.  It's not always about the catch.  We were so stoked with those two crabs, but the opportunity to share the experience was why we were there.  We'd challenged ourselves in less than ideal conditions at a remote location, enjoying the beauty of Nature and the exhilaration of the pursuit.  We were content and satiated, and the crab was a bonus - that's how it works in my world.

Thanks for coming along. 

Friday:

Friday...

Awesome write-up!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

absolutely incredible Eric!  Its been a year since I've been up to see friends and the pics you posted made me homesick. Glad to see the weather and sea cooperated for ya.

Hey, I recognize that rock!

Shorts? You are an animal! Nice report, thanks.