Source: San Francisco Chronicle (by Paul McHugh)
Crab-fishing in kayak calls for judgment and tough fingers. The best procedure for inviting a crab to come home with you for dinner can be a wee bit hard to nail down. I discovered this as I simultaneously juggled a hoop net on my knees, tried to maintain balance in a kayak, to keep my grip on a wildly flailing red rock crab, and to hold a measuring stick across his back to see if he was legal.
Meanwhile, that crab focused on one, simple action. He reached below his tummy, grabbed one of my fingers between his claws, then drove a pincer through my skin at the base of the fingernail.
If Sunday’s morning sky hadn’t been sunny and clear, my cusswords could’ve painted a blue streak straight across it.
“Remember, you drew the first blood!” I snarled, in my best Sly Stallone voice. Then I tossed the crab into my harvest bag.
A crimson stream wound down my hand and dripped into Half Moon Bay – and I fantasized a shark taking a keen interest in my whereabouts. Ah well. If you thrust yourself into the marine food chain, you must accept that you won’t necessarily end up at the top.
But despite that throbbing finger, I was having a fabulous time. After just two hours at sea, I paddled back with a harvest of three exceptionally large Dungeness crabs, as well as four big, red rock crabs.
The sport of kayak fishing has grown in popularity for years. But I’d not heard of anyone using kayaks for crabbing. So, on the second day of the sport season for Dungeness crab, I thought I’d give it a shot. Actually, I’d even considered going out on opening day, but cold rain, stiff winds and high seas hammering the coast Saturday persuaded me otherwise. That big “lump” (swell) continued Sunday. But it had a northerly angle, so it was relatively easy for me to find coves sheltered by bulges of coastline. Look at a chart or map, and you can do the same: Bodega Head, Point Reyes, Pillar Point all can provide shelter from prevailing northwesterlies.
Everything that I accomplished in a small, “sit-on-top” (open cockpit) kayak could also be achieved in a rowboat, skiff or dinghy – as long as the angler selects protected areas, does not exceed his or her level of marine skills, and takes sensible precautions such as wearing a life jacket and informing folks about where and when they’re going.
Hoop nets or crab rings, commonly tossed off the ends of fishing piers by shore-based fishermen, are lighter than conventional crab traps (which weigh 60 pounds and up) and much easier to handle. Collapsed, they can lie flat and be lashed to a deck. Once on the water, if you deploy more than one, after each trap settles on the bottom, you can tie off its haul rope to an empty bleach bottle or the like, then go a short distance away to set another trap.
A hoop net is formed by a set of concentric metal rings. In the middle is a small wire cage an enterprising crabber crams with bait – the stinkier, the better. So, bait could be just about anything you find on the bottom shelf of a bachelor’s refrigerator. Or it can be stuff like I brought: an aged package of barbecued chicken, and a sack of the spine, skin and other body parts of a salmon who had come to dinner two weeks ago. The result of Sunday’s marginally scientific survey is: discriminating crabs of Half Moon Bay prefer old salmon parts to barbecued chicken at a ratio of two-to-one.
I was told Dungeness crab prefer hanging out on sand to rocks, mud or weeds. Results of my roaming to varied bay locations support that notion. Anyway, if you fish around rocks, your traps will haul up much more crap than crab. So sand’s better from that perspective, as well.
Carrie Wilson, a Department of Fish and Game marine biologist who’s also public information officer for the Marine Region (all of our 1,100 miles of coast), said Dungeness occupy a huge stretch of Pacific shore, from the Aleutians all the way down to Santa Barbara. They’re found from intertidal zones out to depths of 750 feet. Not many go beyond 300 feet.
Some anglers say the best crabbing is done at depths of 40 feet or more. However, I did manage to have a satisfactory result while lowering my traps to just 20 feet. That may be due to making my foray so early in the season, when crabs are most numerous.
Dungeness is California’s most abundant crab. It’s been considered a San Francisco treat ever since the Gold Rush. Commercial landings recently have an annual average of 1.7 million pounds, brought in to every major fishing port north of Monterey. Although Department of Fish and Game biologists say 80-90 percent of the large Dungeness male crabs get taken each season, the population and the harvest remain stable primarily due to the incredible fecundity of the female crabs. They carry 500,000 to 2 million eggs apiece. Research indicates most females are serviced, even when male numbers get reduced. Commercial anglers are allowed to keep only large males.
The big Dungeness questions are: Who’s catching most of these crabs, when and where do they go ashore? Most Dungeness that boil in kettles along Fisherman’s Wharf come in on local boats that carry 200-250 crab traps each. But local fishermen resent the early-season intrusion by huge boats from Oregon that can bring well over 1,000 traps into California waters – although those boats are limited to a maximum of 500 traps in their own state.
A bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, that would have restricted trap numbers to 250 in the waters between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino passed the Legislature for the second time, but was vetoed once more by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who says the state Fish and Game Commission should regulate this fishery, not the Legislature. However, Department of Fish and Game representatives say the commission can’t legally regulate it because the Legislature has kept laws on the crab fishery under its own purview. Leno says the commission should at least pass a resolution, urging the Legislature to restrict trap numbers.
“We want to level the playing field,” Leno said. “Those big boats can manage the ocean and get down here to rip off our resource for the first weeks of the season, while the smaller boats of our family concerns can’t reciprocate by going north for the first part of the Oregon season. We feel that if they want to come down and fish in our waters, they should at least play by our rules.”
There matters sit.
The stronger the effort and the faster the harvest after the commercial season that opened Wednesday, the slimmer the pickings as we move toward June, when it closes. The upshot, as far as recreational anglers are concerned, is that the start of the season, when crabs are still plentiful, is the best time to get busy. Biologists predict that this Dungeness season could be the third best on record.
Before I reached shore on Sunday, I took a cell phone from a watertight case and called my wife.
“Feeling crabby today?” I asked. “Well, you will by dinnertime!”
In a few hours, sitting before the fireplace with a plate of hot, steaming Dungeness, fresh baked sourdough, a bowl of melted garlic butter and a bottle of crisp, chilled white wine, we were both feeling entirely crabby. And very San Franciscan.
Open seasonThe sport season for Dungeness crab opened Saturday and runs to the end of June, from Sonoma to Monterey counties. You need a license, and take is permitted only in the ocean, not in San Francisco Bay.
Anglers aboard a commercial party boat can set a maximum of six traps, take a maximum of six Dungeness per day, and these must be at least 6 inches across – excluding the points on the shell. Recreational anglers in their own vessels can set unlimited traps (though it’s smart to not go hog-wild on this), can take 10 Dungeness per day (while having only 10 in possession, including in your fridge or freezer or ice chest) and these can be a minimum of 53/4 inches across.
To be sporting, if you catch a female barely above the size limit (females have a proportionally larger abdominal flap), throw her back to perpetuate her kind.
The season for yellow, rock (red) and slender crabs is year round, the bag limit is 35, and the minimum size is 4 inches.
