Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3625 Nov 24- Dec8 2017 | Page 28
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SALTWATER
Nov. 24 - Dec. 8, 2017
VOL.36 • ISS. 25
SALTWATER REPORTS
BERKELEY
Full Crab Pots Make
Golden Gate Anglers
Smile
BERKELEY - The sport fishing
season for East Bay charter boat
enthusiasts generally starts with
halibut fishing in mid spring and
the season progresses throughout
the summer and early fall.
As the days get shorter and
December looms the charter boat
season comes to an exciting end
with crab and rockfish combo
fishing. Crabbing always creates
excitement for anglers, but this
year the buzz has been even
more intense than normal with
huge numbers of huge crabs
being rounded up daily.
Once the commercial crab
season gets underway the super
easy crabbing is likely to dry
up, but limit sport catches are
expected to extend to the end of
December and beyond.
Captains Chris and Jonathan
Smith are now running Berkeley’s
Happy Hooker full time and are
experiencing red hot crab and
bottomfish action.
“It’s as good as it gets right
now,” exclaimed Capt. Chris. “We
are smacking limits of crab and
big rockfish every trip and if you
concentrate on lings there are
some big boys in the mix.”
Captain James Smith of the
California Dawn is enjoying the
same type of wide-open action. A
typical trip on the California Dawn
right now produces full limits of
crab and rockfish and about one
lingcod per angler. The biggest
lings are breaking 20 pounds.
Captain Quang Vo is also
putting his clients on lights =-out
combo action, targeting deep
water for lings and rocks before
pulling up limits of crabs on the
way back to Berkeley .
BODEGA BAY
Dungeness Crab
Opener ‘Good As It
Gets
BODEGA BAY - The
Dungeness crab opener was as
advertised with private skiffs and
kayaks lining the Outer Bay with
crab pots while shore fishermen
lined the North and South Jetty
to cast out traps and snares. The
opening of the crab season has
all of the campgrounds filled with
happy anglers and their families.
Captain Rick Powers of Bodega
Bay Sport Fishing said, “Crabbing
has been phenomenal, and it is
just about as good as it gets right
now. We have taken over 3000
jumbo crab in the first six days of
the season, and they are loaded
with meat.”
“Right now is the time to go
as we also put in 109 ling cod in
two trips this week, and that was
only within a couple of hours of
fishing. At the end of the week,
the big swell put down the ling cod
bite, but we came back with 50 to
60-pound limits of rockfish south
at Point Reyes along with limits
of crab. The lings will bite again
once the swell backs off. We have
some space available as we are
running close to full every day,”
said Powers.
Captain Eric Holthouse of North
Bay Charters is also running crab/
rockfish combination trips on the
Coastal rockfish, lingcod and crabs were the target aboard the Bass
Tub on November 5.
Photo courtesy of BASS TUB SPORTFISHING, San Francisco.
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This happy angler headed out on a combo
bottomfish and crab trip aboard the Happy
Hooker on November 5 and rounded up several
fish including this massive boccacio rockfish.
Photo courtesy of HAPPY HOOKER
SPORTFISHING, Berkeley.
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he has been loading his
clients up with limits of
Dungeness crab, rockfish,
and lingcod. Second
captain Josh Stevens
runs the boat during the
week.
He said, “We have
been getting easy limits
of crab and lingcod, and
even on a rough day
resulting in a shorter-
than-normal trip, Captain
Josh put in 4 limits of
lings and crab north at
Timber Cove.”
Dave Mitchell of
Natomas put in 6 limits
of quality crab out of
his private boat on the
opener while camping at
Doran Park.
The popular
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Landing at Dillon Beach
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