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Lee fighting a feisty greenling

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Chummers News for Dungeness Opener

November, 2013

Complete combat zone over at Half Moon Bay With Lee and his friend Rob! I scoped out HMB the day before and here was a portent of things to come:

On any other day the RV parking area may have one or two RVs.  Today was packed to the max with many groups gathered up around the barbeque pits.  I drove over to the trailer parking area and there were hardly any spots left and many trailers were empty.  Does that mean that many would be sleeping in the water ready to set pots at a minute past midnight? Craziness lol.  Looks like we will be parking the trailer out on the shoulder of highway 1 tomorrow morning.  

Forecast for the day was minor swells with little wind so it looked like a great day of fishing/crabbing ahead of us.  Heading over 92 it was nice and clear, but as soon as we hit bottom it was foggy - boo.   We get there 15 past 6 and surprisingly the line was only about 6 deep to the ramp - yeah not bad! But we still had to load up the boat and since there are 6 lanes to launch the line moves fast.  We had to park to the side and let others go so we could load up.  While we were launching Rob noticed that someone was already in with limits!

15 before 7 we were in the water! So off these rookie dungeneers we go to drop off the our pots past the green buoy at 70 and 90' of water.  Forecast on the water was great, but there was one big ass problem.  There were so many boats racing through the water that the chop freakin' made us feel like we were in a grinder!  It was tough setting up the pots without chumming the waters lol!  Fingers crossed we went off to our honey hole.

We get to the upwelling and man the chop was worse and coming from all directions!  Mind you this was not swell but chop from boats that at times was so strong that we were getting washed! I got soaked and it was cold enough out there as it was.  Lee wasn't feeling it and chummed and I was not far behind.  Rob was the smart one and had taken dramamine before the trip and he was ok lol.  Despite the elements the schoolies hit us about 20 minutes later and mixed in here and there were keeper greenlings.  Except for one Rob got all the greenlings; the other gave Lee a feisty battle.   Taking a break to quell the stomach I let my pole down and a couple of minutes later it was bouncing.  Up comes a pretty nice cabezon but short.  The hookset was deep so i had to cut the line to the hook and let it go.  I've still yet to catch a keeper cabezon so I'll be out to target that puppy next trip out.  

A rather large boat came drifting by and in my usual customary ways I waved and then continued to fish.  Then they started asking "do you have rock cods?" We shrug and said yes wondering what these guys were up to.  A moment later the follow up question came  "do you want crabs??" Haha Lee and Rob were at a point ignoring these guys I think but my eyes lit up haha.  I immediately said "YES, but we are anchored!"  They set drift next to us and I got a hold of the bow.  It started to move out and I was still hanging on lol. I immediately pushed back to get back balance - close call to dipping it.   The cap graciously handed us a party bucket, Rob gets a hand on it and wonders what to do haha.  Just dump the load on the floor and send em off I say and out came 10 keeper dungeness!  That was really cool of them and that was the easiest crabbing ever right?   They have at the very least saved these noobs from being skunked with dungeness.  It struck me when they mention limiting within 1 hour and my thoughts turned to wanting to know their plan and methods for taking. Couldn't take the time to ask questions because it is not safe having a large boat next us with the bad chop.

Back to the chop, Rob was merrily fishing while me and Lee take long breaks to try and recover from the queasiness.  Taking another break I drop my rig straight down next to me and set it back down on the holder.  A couple of minutes later I notice my line go from next to me to the bow side real quick - oh yeah lol.   I start reeling in and it's heavy so I say get the net ready!  Up comes a piggie ling! Rob tries to net it and it doesn't fit??! and I was pretty sure we were close to losing it.  Luckily it didn't get off and it was just half hanging in the net while I kept the pressure on the hook steering it towards the boat.  Once on the boat we immediately realize it was hooked at the cheek and the hook soon after just slid off.  Keep the lines tight always.  

After two hours we are talking about calling it the day.  It was miserably cold and the quesiness just wasn't making the trip worth it so off we go to tend to the pots.  Lee had marked the GPS locations of the pots so it wasn't too difficult to find them.  Rob pulls up the first one and up surfaces the pot and I notice 2 large crabs in there but they weren't dungeness?? WTH??  The pots were in sandy/buddy bottom with reefs not seemingly nearby.  We find the second pot and same thing - 2 large red rock crabs.  These are nice maxing out at 7" but what the  heck??  What are we missing?   Surely those gracious guys saved our day with the dungeness haha.  

Back at the dock lots of boats are already in and DFG was in full force.  We saw the rangers throwing back crabs into the water and some were ticketed.   Our turn and me and Rob immediately produce our licenses and the kind ranger checks our catch. He took one look at the ling and didn't bother to measure haha.  They did measure all of the greenlings so think twice about not measuring your catches - fines are not cheap.  Guy in front of us had a tough time looking for his license and luckily he did.  I did ask him how he did and picked his brain.  They limited on the crabs and dropped in 170' of water!  Wha? He proceeds to mention that at this time they are in deeper water and will come in closer as the season goes by.  I wonder if that means that they come more inshore for mating season?  As I look around the boats had pots in them with long bundles of lead core rope for deep water.    Lots of the pots were heavy professionals but many were also the cheap Danielsons that we have.  Much too learn I suppose. 

Vampire Fish

Crab Fest Bounty

Heavy Mofo!

Fish Bounty

Bigger than the cooler!

Scurry Face

Cooked some of the blacks and one greenling asian style:

Cooking time approximately 30 minutes

1/4 vegetable oil

1/4 Maggie seasoning

1/4 cup of sliced ginger 

1/4 cup of green onion about 2" in length each

1/4 cup of cilantro

Jalapeno optional

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Pautzke Crab and Shrimp Fuel - initial take

October 30, 2013

Play before work so off I go to the tiny fishing pier at Pillar Point Harbor.  Arrived around 5:30 - a little later than I wanted but oh well not too worry too much because I usually take some rock crabs home from this pier.  Two nights ago I chopped up some anchovies and soaked it in this scent called Pautzke Crab and Shrimp Fuel.  I was interested to see if it might give an advantage for the upcoming dungeness opener this weekend.  It'll be a mad house I'm sure and me and Lee will get out there for a Sunday brawl.  It's gonna be crazy and pots and potheads will be all over the water.  So we'll see if this juice will have the bungees choosing our pots instead of all the others. 

So what's the verdict?  Not clear but I will say that for the first two pulls I hauled in the two largest reds to date for me.  The first one was 6.5" and I was stoked!  I pulled up my second hoop and in came a bigger red weighing in at a stunning 7" - woohoo.  So there might be something to this juice then?  Succeeding pulls hauled in a good number of juvenile dungeness and rock crabs with keepers here and there.  On some pulls there were quite a number of smaller keepers of which I threw back.  The 5 inchers and up I kept for a take home total of 7 reds and 1 brown.  One keeper dungeness at 6 inches decided to show up too early.... damnit!  All in all I would say that the juice works but I'd like to have more experience with it to give a real verdict.  Will I use it this coming weekend - sure!

Conditions: Crabbed from 5:30 - 7:45AM Swell Forecast ~ 3 ft but there was absolutely no swell in the harbor Water - glass pure glass Wind - none whatsoever Low Tide  1:47AM @ 1.24' High Tide 8:18 @5.1' Sky Clear Water Clarity Good

Rat from the air about to get pinched!

One crab almost filling up the cooler!

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Snaring for Rock Crabs at Pillar Point Jetty

October 25, 2013

Was itching to wet the line for some Friday after work session so off I went to my usual spot at Pillar Point.  Walking a long ways for the North Jetty didn't sound to enticing but in the end walking the South Jetty is no short jaunt anyway.  I prefer the North Jetty because it seems to be more productive.  Maybe it has some deeper holes in general or maybe it is out closer to the productive reefs.  Whatever the reason it produces.  Still tough work but it can produce under the right conditions.  Flat water is best, maybe about 1 foot swells and not much more.  Otherwise, the pounding surf creates too much action on the rocks and the fish just would rather stay away and not spend the energy in that zone.  Clear water does help too otherwise you'll need some scent or soak bait.  Difficult to go weedless soaking bait though so you're at risk snagging on the rocks and kelp. 

When conditions fail I turn towards the harbor and that was the case today.  For the harbor side you might chance on some perch, smaller RF, MFEs, or rock crabs.  I enjoy snaring for rock crabs so I rigged up a snare with leftover anchovies, squid, and shrimp.  If you have mackerel these oily fish also do well.  Rock hopping to midway up the jetty I go and settled around marker 34 with the idea of moving backwards.   The hard part of snaring for rock crabs is that most of the time they are not snared and just simply refuse to let go of their bite and hang on.  Often times I pull up a crab only to lose it shortly after taking it out of the water.   Pretty frustrating really.  First on the agenda is to look for a rock to perch on and a nearby flat ledge to land the crabs onto.  Not many of these spots but they are essential. When crabs are just hanging on it is best to have them land on the flat rock rather than back into the crevices.   Look for a ledge that opens up to a sandy area.  Placing the snare in between rocks can result in snagging and losing your snare.  Your first soak of the snare should be around 2 minutes.  When you haul up reel in some of the slack all the way to the water where the tip of your rod is in the water.  This way when you haul the snare and hopefully crab, the line length will be as short as possible and will be easier to navigate back to your flat rock.  When you set, don't jerk set. Gently with smooth action set the snare and steadily lift it up out of the water. 

When soaking you might feel the crabs feed if your pole tip is sensitive enough.  Just be sure it is not some salad playing with your line swaying with the wave action.  Your initial soak will broadcast the bait scent and the crabs in the area will come in and they may come in droves!  The succeeding soaks should be about 40 seconds in length and if after 5-6 tries with no results move on to another spot.  If you hit the honey hole you will be hauling a crab in on each retrieve and that was the case on a spot I found on markers 32 and 27.  I worked 32 for about an hour for perhaps 15 crabs.  Most were keepers on the small side and I kept the larger ones.  Fun with the steady action, but the frustrating part is landing them and getting them into the bag.  I would say bagging success rate is 50% or less.  I gotta come up with an answer for this.  

Conditions: Fished from 3:30 to 6:30PM Swell ~3ft Water - wind chopped Wind 10 mph NW Low Tide  10AM @ 3.16' High Tide 3:05 @4.5' Sky Clear Water Clarity Good

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Perching Santa Cruz with Roel

October 14, 2013

Thanks to my bruddah Sam for the hook up on the location for some great perching action.  Picked up Roel at o'dark:30 and off we went to Bayside Marine to stock up on bait and tackle and a bottle of water that I reminded Roel not to forget and here I am forgetting.   We get at the spot nearing 7AM and check the water - its smooth and very calm looking until we look down to the spot.  It didn't look bad but sure didn't reflect the 1ft swells of the open water.  As soon as we get back to the car to unload, here comes a pack of ladies parking next too us so me and Roel are thinking let's get going before they hijack our spot.  So off we went.  The ladies ended up staying mostly on the beach side and we go on over to the prime perching spot on the flatbed rock jutting out into the sea.

 I brought my new Shakespear combo to hopefully play around and get used to a bait casting reel. I set it down on top of the new bottle of water safely back away from the water.  So we set up and get going and Roel gets the first take down - a smaller calico.  Soon enough I get a nice sized calico myself and what a nice start i say.  Sam's honey hole sure is for real!  

 You know to expect a nice big set of waves to come in, but considering the swell was nearly non-existent I really didn't expect anything significant.  Wouldn't you know within the first 10 minutes I get soaked!   Wham bam a sneaker almost takes me out.  I look back and my pole and water bottle  are no where to be found.  Roel is scrambling back to look for his tackle box and luckily it is still there. After a few moments Roel locates my combo far from where it was and the bottle damn I'm gonna go thirtsy for this trip I thought.  OK lesson learned - reel fast and retreat when the big sets come in.  Turns out that was the biggest wave of the day.  

 Bait for the day was crack in camo and red colors and boy the addicts came out to play.  Action was very consistent with cooperation from BSPs, calicos, a few walleyes, and one little silver perch.  Rigs were high low or double dropper loops using 1 ounce of weight on size 4 or 8 hooks.  Some of the salad was robbing us of tackle so I switched over to carolina and rigged the crack texas style.  I'll be damned I still got snagged a couple of times and had to re-spool my reel since my back up Shakespear was inoperable due to the water/sand it got bathed in.  So it's a good thing that I tend to pack more than I should lol otherwise it would have been the end of the day early for me.  

  Since switching to the carolina i was able to control the cast better and get farther out.  When I say further out I meant to say throw out farther while still parallel to the beach from or perching ledge.  I threw the rig out there and did a slow retrieve then bam!! the pole goes nuts and the line goes berzerk.  I say man this is not a perch!  My little trout reel's drag was set to it's tightest and here it was taking drag off here and there.  Finally I get it down below my feet about 12 feet below the ledge we were fishing on and I'll be damn it was a BSP.  Now I thought it better be hooked real good or I'm gonna lose it trying to haul it's piggie ass up from below. Got it up and over and looked at the hook set - it was solid! Yeah baby. It measured 12.5". Little miss piggie is in the bag! I proceeded to spot cast the same area and got another big hit, got it near me then limp.  Damn piggie #2 got loose.  I proceeded to clean out that hole and started to release the smaller ones since we were near limit already.  Not soon after I hook up again to what seemed like piggie #2.  Pole and line goes crazy and I'll be it was piggie number 2 alright and I was able to safely haul it up and over out of the water.  2 hours after high tide the bite just shuts down and we only got a couple more afterwards. Being that we were at limit early we decided to call it a great day of fishing!

  Conditions: Swell 1-2 ft (glass conditions if you were on a boat) Wind 1mph ENE Low Tide  1:08AM @0'2" High Tide 7:52AM @4'8" Low Tide 1:38PM @1'8"

Roel's FB Cover Photo:

Calico with Roel

Piggie Barred Surf Perch #1

Piggie Barred Surf Perch #2

Large Calico

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Crabbing @ Pillar Point Pier

October 10, 2013

It's a work day but who's to say you can't go crabbing before work?  Jerry gave me an old hoop crab trap that needed some work with zip ties and it was good to go.  Got to the pier with my 1000 lumen cree head lamp ready to light things up and proceeded to load up the bait mesh with some mack, squid, and fish guts from previous fish.   Interval I decided on was 15-20 minutes with the first pull resulting in 2 nicely sized rock crabs around 6".  A few short dungeness decided to tag along.  These rock crabs are feisty and more than one occasion it took me 5 minutes to dislodge them from the net.  They hang on for dear life!   

I used the headlamp to see if there was anything down on the boat side of the jetty next to the pier.  Lo and behold suspended in the water were a bunch of perch, RF, and even flatfish on topwater. I rigged up the pole carolina style and texas rigged crack so while soaking the trap I threw out the rig out.  I kept getting snagged on the on the tiny rocks and crevices and ended up with only one baby RF pictured below.  At least I got the skunk off my back.  The carolina rig with texas crack is almost flawless out on the outer jetties where the structure is all large rocks, but these small little boulders have too many holes where the sinker easily drops into.  Maybe a floating set up will be the trick next time for this area.  

 Final take home was around six 6" keepers and  threw back some of the smaller keepers for another day.