Crabbing in Bay Area, Chili crab at Banyan Tree

One night, over dinner, H's friend, HH, suggested we should all go crabbing. Since the Bay Area is well known for its tasty Dungeness crab and this is crab season (the commercial Dungeness Crab season open officially on Nov 15th 2008), H and I happily agreed.

Given this is the first time I have gone crabbing, I looked up the web for some resources. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much good information. All I could find were the following:
Jeff's guide to Crabbing, a Noe Valley Voice story and this SF Gate article.

Armed with this information, I went to Sportmen's Supply and bought a crab trap. The sales staff recommended a bait cage which I bought as well.

Meanwhile, HH bought a pack of chicken drumstick, which he left out in the sun to stink. We would be using those for crab bait.

On Sunday, H and I, HH and his wife and father gathered our crabbing gear, camping chairs, warm jackets and snack before set off. I was concerned about pollution in the Bay water and convinced everyone we should do our fishing off the coast. Since we did not want to pay for fishing license, we had to fish from public pier.

Base on location mentioned in Tom Stienstra's article, we decided to try Princeton jetty on Half Moon Bay. When we arrived, the gates to the jetty were closed, but we were able to get onto the jetty by looping around a nearby building. The jetty was deserted and, at about 2:30pm, the sea water level seemed too shallow for crabbing. We decided not to try fish here.

As we were leaving, we saw a father and son walked onto the jetty with crab traps! We immediately asked about fishing in the area. Turned out, this was their first trip too. We wished them good luck and decided to try another location mentioned in Tom's article, Pacifica pier.

We were much more encouraged when we reach Pacifica Pier. There were many crab trappers on the pier. Figuring we found a good spot, we unloaded our gear, stick chicken drum stick into the crab trap, and slowly lowered the trap from the pier into the water.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, we tried pulling the trap up. It felt heavy! Excited H came and help, but the line just would not moved! Someone fishing nearby commented, "Your cage is stuck! $40 down the drain!"

We were of course quite discourage. H and I tried pulling the rope, and finally the trap became free. There was no crab:( The fisherman then told us to fling the trap far out to avoid the trap getting tangled up with the pillar under the pier. We tried this technique and at least had no problem with tangled traps. Crabs were another issue. We casted the trap 3 to 4 times and nothing was biting.

H went around the pier and started asking others casting crab trap. While there were many crab trapper, no one had caught anything in the past 4-5 hours. Dejected, we huddled up and decided what to do next. Given it was only 3pm, we wanted to try our luck some where else. It was decided we would go to San Francisco.

Our destination was Crissy Field pier, just off warming hut. This pier was located near Golden Gate Bridge, near the mouth of the Bay. We figured pollution would be less compared to other locations in the bay.

Given we had all up given up hope, we decided to use all our bait this time. We stuffed all 6 chicken drum stick into the net and swung it into the ocean. Almost immediately, we saw a seal stick its head out of the water and then dive towards our trap. H told us me and HH to quickly pulled our trap in, since the seals would steal the bait. But, despite our best effort to quickly reel in the trap, it was too late. Only 3 drum stick remained in the trap. We decided to use bait cage for this location.

We secured the bait cage to the bottom of the trap with our only 3 chicken drum stick in them, cast the trap and waited. After about 5 minutes, we decided to pull the trap in. Amazingly, there were 2 small crabs in the trap!

We were overjoy, despite the fact the crabs were too small to keep(The legal limit is at least 4 inches). The location made a big difference and soak time made a big difference. We cast our trap a few more times and let the trap soaked for a good 10 minutes each time. We caught a total of 6 crabs, including one about 5 inches wide. These were all rock crabs. Dungeness crabs fishing is illegal inside the bay:)

We fished for about 2 hours, until the sky started getting dark and it got really cold. Our last 2 cast did not yield any more crabs and we decided to call it a day.

But everyone in our party had crab meat on their mind. We decided to head towards Banyan Tree restaurant in Union City to try their chili crab. The chili crab here was a little too sweet and not spicy enough. I also find the sauce too watery.

All in all though, we had a lot of fun crabbing. We did a quick calculation and decided our bounty did not justify the cost of the trap, bait and gas, but it does make a great fish story.

Kayak Elkhorn Slough

I talked H into kayaking with me in Elkhorn Slough with promises of calm water paddling and abundance of wild life to observe. She agreed.

Our day started like most kayaking trip: early in the morning. We drove to UC Santa Cruz where we met up with my favorite kayak guide, Dave Johnston and the rest of the tour group. From there, we were transported by van to Elkhorn Slough boat launch at Kirby road.

When we arrived, I was surprised to see the pier which we used for launching kayaks last year was in ruins! Apparently, Dave was surprised too. Without a pier, we were forced to do beach launch on the small, gravel filled edge "beach" on the side of the pier.

H and I had some paddling experience, so we launched quickly. Also, I still remembered the paddling route from last year and quickly made our way out of the delta, towards the sea, leaving the rest of the group behind.

The early morning was filled with birds. The majestic white Pelicans was making a rare appearance in Elkhorn slough! These white Pelican would fly close to the ocean surface, then suddenly land in the sea water and make a quick turn. It was amazing to watch. Some were flying so close to our kayak that I was concerned we would be knocked over.

As we paddled closer to the mouth of the river, we started seeing my favorite animal: sea otters. Most of the otters I had seen at Elkhorn slough are quite shy. As soon as they detected us, the otter would dive into the ocean. On this trip, we were lucky to see an otter having a meal. It was trying to break open a shell and we had quite a show:)

The trip to the mouth of the river took about 2 hours. There, we shored for lunch and rested on a sandy beach on the left of the river mouth.

After lunch, we paddled under Highway 1 bridge to see the seals. After that, we paddled back to the launching point.

Due to the date, the falling tides were in effect for our paddle back, so Dave suggested we kayaked back near the edge of the delta, away from the middle of the channel. This eddy current would help us along as we were paddling against the tide.

To further help us along, Dave had a special equipment for this trip: Kayak sail. There was a nice breeze blowing inland. H placed the sail behind her and, with a wind blowing, created a nice back rest for her.

The return trip was rather uneventful. We saw more seals, sea lions and otters. Since we paddle were closer to the edge, the water became really shallow and we were almost stuck a few times. Luckily, we were able to push our way out without having to get out of our kayaks.

Base on gmap.com, this is a 8 mile paddling trip, which took us about 4 hours of easy paddling to complete. It was an enjoyable time on the water.