Despite the delay of commercial Dungeness crab season, and the temporary prohibition against using”long soak” rigid crab pots, plenty of Monterey Bay residents enjoyed their traditional Thanksgiving Dungeness crab feast this week.

 

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife along with other federal alphabet agencies deemed it too dangerous to migrating and feeding whales to allow crab pot use at the beginning of our scheduled season. Harvesting Dungeness using hoop nets or crab snares remains legal, as neither of the techniques includes overnight or multi-day soaks that can cause whale entanglements. WE have no hard information on when crab pot restrictions may be lifted this year, but some rumors suggest this might occur sometime in December 2023.

 

Deep water rockfishing will remain open through December 31. This is a boon, as the populations of chilipeppers, vermilion, canaries and green-spot rockfish remains robust. Limits are still the rule, even this late in the season. And those fish typically are significantly larger than their inshore counterparts. We are allowed to fish for bottomfish only past the 50-fathom line. That legal line does not precisely follow the 50-fathom topography of the bay, but rather is a series of straight lines connecting specific GPS points in that 300-foot depth area. It’s critical that fishermen use the DFW regulation map to ensure they are outside of this boundary, lest they incur a citation and fine.

 

In Monterey Bay, most Dungeness crabbing is best between 120-240 feet of water. So, hoop netters can set their nets down, and shoot out for rockfish, making sure they return to pull the nets within two hours which is the maximum soak time allowed for hoops. There’s a long list of specifics in the DFW regulations regarding design and use of hoop nets. All are advised to be very familiar with the intricacies before going out for crab. The DFW is working to accommodate concerns caused by the in season changes forbidding nearshore rockfishing months prior to the scheduled season closure. Recently, DFW amended the emergency closure regulations to allow possession of rockfish onboard a vessel that is within the 300-foot boundary for anglers pulling their hoop nets. All fishing rods must be stowed when using this practice.

 

Remember, there’s some pretty delicious fish in some good abundance that we can still pursue in the shallower water. Drop your hoop nets in 160-180 feet of water on the edge of the Soquel or Pajaro Hole, or the main Monterey Canyon near Moss, and then fish the sandy bottoms for sand dabs or Petrale sole. All perfectly legal.