A cold front brought a small swell and some unsettled weather to Monterey Bay this week, but fishing was not greatly affected. Most mornings and even a few afternoons featured calm seas, ideal for bottom fishing and pulling crab pots.

Dungeness crab takes top billing this week. Many sport crabbers returned to port with early limits from Sunday through Wednesday. Commercial crab boats will be allowed to fish crab starting November 15 this year. The commercial season is opening for ocean waters south of Mendocino County, which means all the commercial boats get a fair start on the season. The fair start opening also serves to avoid the number of commercial crabbers in any one area. Previous seasons saw boats from all of Northern California and even Oregon boats crabbing our early-opening region below Pigeon Point.

By all accounts there are plenty of crab out there this year, and reports so far indicate no danger from domoic acid as has occurred in previous seasons. State Health experts still advise we not consume viscera from Dungeness crab, as the internal organs can concentrate domoic acid. So, no crab butter, buddy.

As is usual, the preferred location for good crabbing from Santa Cruz is off the North Coast up towards Davenport. 170-220 feet of water are prodductive depths, though Dungeness can be caught shallower. This week saw good catches closer to Santa Cruz off Natural Bridges, straight out of the harbor, and near the canyon edges of Soquel Hole. Moss Landing boats have the choice of heading north or south from the Harbor. Working the flat mud areas near the canyon edge is a good bet in this area as well. Monterey boats typically head northwest from their harbor, again looking for those flat areas of sand or mud bottom. A few crabbers will drop traps further south towards Carmel, though the ocean conditions are far less predictable outside the protection of Monterey Bay.

It’s well worth it to drop a line once the crab pots are processed. Even in the deep water there are fish to be caught. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine reported on Thursday, “There have been some nice petrale sole and sanddabs caught. There were two halibut caught this last weekend along with some rockfish and lingcod. The Rock fishing is open until the end of the year.” Sanddabs and sole can be fished with #4 sabiki rigs tipped with squid bits. The sole will also bite on a regular halibut rig using small anchovies or cut bait.