For most of us, November means Thanksgiving is coming, but to anglers in Santa Cruz it also means Dungeness crab will soon be on the menu. While the offshore tuna spots have remained mostly inaccessible, the nearshore fishing is still very good for a great variety of species.

Dungeness season opens Saturday, November 5, and will stay open through June 30, 2012. Knowledgeable crabbers have high hopes and are predicting another good year for the crawling crustaceans. Regulations are the same as last year for sport-caught Dungeness. The daily bag limit is 10 crabs per person, and according to the Department of Fish and Game, each must measure "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)." If fishing from a commercial passenger vessel (charter boat), the limit is six per person, and they must measure six inches.

Dungeness can be caught fairly shallow along the San Mateo and San Francisco coastlines, but the best spots in Monterey Bay are deeper. Jim Rubin, from Captain Jimmy Charters will be running "Crab Combo" fishing trips, pulling pots in the morning and finishing off by pursuing limits of rockfish and lingcod. Rubin prefers to set his pots in 180-220 feet of water, between Natural Bridges and the Davenport area. Other productive spots can be found along the edges of Soquel Hole, and in the middle of the bay outside Moss Landing, in 200-300 feet of water.

Everyone enjoyed the lunge-feeding shows put on by humpback whales last week, just outside the Santa Cruz Harbor. A note of caution, please steer clear of feeding whales for safety, as well as legal reasons. It can be considered unlawful to "harass" these giant marine mammals. The humpbacks stuck around all week to feed on abundant anchovy schools. Local baitman Carl Azevedo (Boccie Boy) couldn't set his nets near the whales, but noted baitballs last week estimated at over 100 tons. Azevedo will be on the hunt and expects to fill his receiver on S Dock at the Santa Cruz Harbor within a few days. Because rockfish season stays open through December this year, he plans to keep the bait receiver operating as long as the bait is available.

Anchovies make the best bait for albacore, and Azevedo says the warm water is still waiting for us out there. "Conditions are still good out there, near the 601 buoy. It's just a matter of the weather now." The coming weekend will be decent for fishing locally, but offshore swells are predicted as high as 16 feet. Hopefully later next week, local anglers can make the 30-50 mile trek out to the tuna waters.

To round things out, rockfishing is still very good off the north coast points and reefs, and white sea bass continue to be caught from Lighthouse Point to Capitola in 60-90 feet of water. Halibut reports are slowing, but a number were reported caught last week from the flat sandy areas from Four-Mile Beach to Capitola. An increasing number of starry flounder and sand sole were also reported last week from these same areas.