The northwest swell that steamed through our area put a damper on rockfish and lingcod for a few days, but those fish are going back on the bite as the swell subsides. Most exciting this week was last weekend's opening of Dungeness crab season. By all accounts the crabbing was very good out of Santa Cruz, with limits of big, meaty Dungies for relatively short soaks.

Captain Jimmy Sportfishing and Reel Sportfishing both offer crab "combo" trips this month, picking up the pots first thing in the morning and topping the day off with bags full of rockfish. Jim Rubin on the Becky Ann knows where to place his pots. A short soak on opening day resulted in 24 "big Dungeness crab for six anglers. It was a beautiful day. We also caught limits of blues, blacks and vermilion rockfish plus four lingcod!" Gerry Brookes runs the Doble and was equally happy with Sunday's results. "Another great year for the start of Dungeness crab season. Today we picked up our pots and had more crab than were allowed to keep. We rebaited and left them for the next trip. Put in limits for 5 customers plus deck hand and captain." Both skippers are concentrating on the area just north of town, in 180-220 feet of water.

Captain Mike Baxter went out with friends on a private boat, and pulled pots closer to the Moss Landing area. Even with the short soak, Baxter and company brought home limits of big, firm Dungeness. He reports the opener was productive all along the northern California Coast.

"The crab opener came with hails of success as boats steamed in with limits of Dungeness.

"All ports from Bodega to Monterey had good early season crab success, with hard shells and medium large male Dungeness crabs. Most crab traps had 15 per trap to the south, while Half Moon Bay and north boasted up to 25 crabs per trap."

Weather conditions will be changing rapidly, and we are likely to see fewer calm days on our local waters, but fishing in general is still very productive. Rockfishing shows no signs of slowing, albacore still inhabit the warm-water currents offshore-especially near the sea mounts off Big Sur and intrepid anglers continue to hook up the giant white sea bass near Pajaro and a few spots up the coast. Anglers fishing the Pajaro area also report increasing numbers of Humboldt squid the "other big game" for wintertime fishing.

Photo:
Jeff Huntze (left) and Richard Schmidt joined forces to capture limits of fresh Monterey Bay Dungeness crabs on opening day! (Contributed by Mike Baxter)