This blog will tell you my story about crabbing, will show you the technical skill I have learned over the years and share lots of fun I had with you. I catch crab as non-commercial activity, and does not operated a motor boat (a cheap inflatable, to be exact). I fish normally close to San Franciscso bay area, including marine county. The regulation herein is all about people like me. If you are crabbing in other county or for commercial purpose, this is the wrong blog for you.
What law says
All the fishing regulation is here https://www.wildlife.ca.gov. Of course, I know you do not have patience to read through. That is why I am here. I will filter out common sense or anything not related to you, but tell you what you should know. If you do not remember these, you need to expect a hefty fine from a fearful fishing warden.
Dungeness Crab season normally runs from November to next May. You could do crabbing when the season opens, and should not go out to catch crab off season. California Dungeness crab season for the season of 2016–2017 starts on November 5th, 2016, and ends on June 30th, 2017 in most counties in northern California. Commercial season usually starts 2 weeks after, which gives recreasonal crabbers (you and me) more time to get crab before they are wiped out by high tech equiped commercial boats.
When crabbing, you normally get two kinds of crabs in northern california, Dubngess and Rock. Dungeness crab looks similar to Rock crab. Its precise description is at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov. But let me tell you. Without looking at an actual Dungeness crab, you will not be sure even after lots of youtubing. The main difference between these two crabs are the color of the craw and the edge of the shell. Rock crab has black tip on the craw and has saw-like edge on the shell, while Dungeness does not.
Mixing these two is terrible sometimes. For an example, California does not allow Rock crabbing for the entire season of 2015–2016. There is a big fine waiting if you get rock crab from the sea.
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/Invertebrates/Crabs#315201110-updated-recreational-regulations--dungeness-crab-and-rock-crab-emergency-closures-7302016 gives detailed regulatory explanation on Dungeness crab for the season of 2016–2017. Read it closely.
Everyone is allowed to take ten crab per day. Minimum size is Five and three-quarter inches measured by the shortest distance through the body from edge of shell to edge of shell directly in front of and excluding the points (lateral spines). Following photos show you what it means.
You should not include the pointy edge. It is better to have a $1.50 plastic measure. I have two. Believe me, you will keep losing it.
And last, but the most important item you must have is a fishing license. You could get it at Big 5 sports store. If you fish on the public pier, or you are 16 year or younger, you are lucky, license is exempted.
Crab Trap/Pot
I normally use 3 crab traps.
Walmart:https://www.walmart.com/ip/Beau-Mac-Rubber-Wrapped-Crabtrap-30-x-10/50819796
This one is very well designed and built. This is my favorite. The problem is that build quality varies, and you need to wish you will be shipped a good one. It is around 20 lb.
Northwest Crab: https://nwcrabpots.com/product/29-2-3-or-4-tunnel-red-coated-pvc-crab-pot/
This pot is truly heavy duty. It is very heavy, at around 30 lb, very well built in Oregon and expensive. I let seller customize it by wrapping over the red paint all over by a double layer rubber strip.
Lander: http://www.lfsmarineoutdoor.com/ladner-30-stainless-steel-crab-pot.html
This pot is lighter at 12 lb, made of stainless steel by our old buddy in Canada.
What you are looking for a good pot is:
No rust: all of these 3 are either stainless steel or coated in a layer of PVC. It will be super annoying if it rusts and drops rusty water all over your trunck.
Weight: You need to have a weight at 20 lb. If too lighter, pot will be washed away by ocean current or even lifted up by buoy. If too heavy, you will have hard time to pull it up by your arm.
Size: 30 inch across is an ideal size. It provides enough space for holding several crabs, while not too big to handle.
Fishery Supply: 978 Story Rd, San Jose, CA 95122
This is a small fishery supply store in San Jose. It stocks lots of supplies and carries lowest price. However, it is small, and jammed. There is no price tag on any item. You need to ask about price. This is my favorite place. You could find virtually anything about fishing there with very good price.
Pot Regulation
Not any pot is allowed in California. For 2016, laws can be found here https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=132266&inline.
Read closely. It says everything. Rotten rope should be single strand, and single looped. Two 4-1/4" Escape openings should be at top or upper level. What I am not sure is this sentence: “Other regulations that remain in place for crab traps include that every crab trap be outfitted with two rigid circular escape openings that are a minimum of 4-1⁄4 inches in diameter and located so that the lowest portion is at the most 5 inches from the top of the trap.” If the ring is 4-1/4 inches, and lowest portion is 5 inches from the top, it means top of the ring is within 3/4 inches from the top. This is too tight for a heavy pot. I appreciate if anyone could clarify to me this puzzle.
When escape ring falls out, the opening should be at least 5 inches in diameter. The famous Danielson Trap actually does not meet his requirement. The opening stays 4-1/4 inches after 4-1/4 inch ring falls off.
Put all together. It should look like this:
Many times single buoy is enough. But I always tie my expensive pot with two buoys. The line is preferred to be lead line, so it does not float and jam the propeller of a pass boat.
5/16" of thickness is perfect for me. As a matter of fact, all of my crabbing line is 5/16".
If you are concerned of lead poisoning, you could use polyester line with a weight. Polyester is perferred over nylon since it does not stretch in the water. This Beau Mac Line Snap Weight from Walmart is what I use.
As to buoy, there is no difference bweteen expensive one or cheap one. Just remember to write GO ID of your license on it.
Location
Lawson’s Landing
Lawson’s landing is pretty good spot for crabbing.
The only place you could drop the pot is the narrow channel right next to little white marking of “Lawson’s Landing”. Anything away is not good. The current is too strong, and your inflable boat will be washed out to open sea before you realize it.
http://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=18643 tells you the water depth:
So our crabbing area is at depth of 16 feet. Then we could check tide information at http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/2782.html.
The maximum tide is at 5 feet. Total depth is the sum of 16 and 5, which is 21 feet. The crab rope is 1.5 times of the water depth, which is 32 feet.
When I droped trap in that area, I just let rope go and give it a little bit of leeway. After measuring it, it turned out to be 30 feet, which matched with the value from my theoretical calculation perfectly.
Bodega Bay
Bodega bay is also an ideal location for crabbing.
The crabbing place is east to the Doran Beach. It is at the location with “Doran” mark. The depth of this area is shown as following http://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=18643:
The depth of ocean in this area is at 21 feet. The tidal wave is at 5 feet at maximum as follows http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/648.html.
The maximum water depth is at 21+5=25 feet. With 1.5 times 25, we could conclude that a 40-foot rope is good enough for crabbing in this area.
Boat
We use regular inflatable boat going out to the sea to drop pot. The water should be calm without much current. There is no way to beat up the current with hand rowing. In the Lawson’s landing, the boat will be washed into open ocean if we stay in the main shipping channel. Once out in the open ocean, there is no other way to row back to shore.
Following boat is what we use for crabbing:
Do not forget bring life jackets along.
As to boat, it is necessary to carry an anchor along. The tide is very swift in the bay, and an anchor could help to stablize the boat.
This is the two anchors that I have.
The one on the left is heavily galvanized 5 lb, while the other is a stainless 5.5 lb one. You need to attach a 5-foot 5/16 inch chain to it before you secure it with a 5/6 inch nylon rope. The nylon rope (called anchor rope) should be 5–10 times of depth of sea water, with 7 times as standard. This type of anchor is called Flute, the most popular one. Roughly select the one with weight in lb matches the lenght in foot of your boat. i.e. if your boat is 10 feet long, use the one with 10 lb. Normally it is an over kill. I am pretty sure that a 2 lb anchor is good enough for a 5-foot inflatable. The drawback of this type of anchor is that it gets stuck easily if the sea bottom is rocky. If it is stuck, you have no choice but cut the rope. There is some way to make it more recoverable. One way is attach another rope to its base, so you could pull this rope instead if stuck. Other anchors are not preferred for our little inflatable either because of excessive weight (mushroom anchor), or too expensive (plow anchor).
Stainless one could be 8 times more expensive than the galvanized one. However, it might worth the price. Just look at following 5 galvanized links.
The left two links are new ones. The right three links are used only once at salty water. After 5 hours in sea water, they get rusty just after one day. The saltwater eats off surface zinc after just few hours.
After learning this lesson, all of my crabbing equipments are either stainless or PVC coated. I do not like the rusty water dripping in my car.