But, the headline story has to be crab.

Dungeness crab season is off to a fantastic start up and down the coast. Since the sport season opener on November 2, anglers from Moneterey to Bodega bay have been reporting limits. Locally the best crabbing areas are deep, starting at about 180 feet of water, and on out to 240 feet. The same goes for boats crabbing from Moss Landing and Monterey. Further north though, fresh firm Dungies can be collected in water that is much more shallow.

Last weekend a few of our kayak fishing friends launched out of Princeton Harbor in Half Moon Bay, and set their traps in 30 feet of water, inside the green buoy that marks the dangerous reef area closer to Maverick's. Allen Sansano, Joe Flores, and Harry Pali all retrieved limits of big Dungeness crab in a relatively short time period. "My first soak was only 45 minutes," said Sansano. "I had three traps out with 16 crab in one, and 8-10 in the others." Sansano added a few red rock crabs were in the traps as well. He kept the largest Dungeness for his limit of 10, releasing the remainder. Further north, David Hurley from The Hurley Chronicles in Santa Rosa checked in with a Bodega Bay report. "Dungeness crab action has been fantastic for those setting their pots at depths from 90 feet and below."

Out of Santa Cruz, Captain Jimmy Charters has resumed his yearly crab "combo" trips. Running the six-pack boat Becky Ann, Jim Rubin is racking up scores as usual. "Absolutely another great day of fishing and crabbing. We got limits of 36 crab for six anglers and two crew limits of crabs and cod. Working the area just north of Santa Cruz," Rubin reported full boat limits on Saturday of blues, blacks, vermilion and three lingcod. Sunday's report was a carbon copy but only two big lings for the boat that day.

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine happily reported "Anglers found some good action on lingcod and rock fish up the coast from Natural Bridges to Davenport." Surprisingly for this time of year, Fraser notes a surge of halibut catches, also from the North Coast areas. "There have been more halibut coming in this weekend. The halibut are being caught from Natural Bridges up to Davenport in 45-75 feet of water. The anglers are catching the halibut on squid, herring and live anchovies."

Pictured Above: Just outside of Princeton Harbor, Harry Pali pulls up another nice haul of Dungeness crab as Joe Flores looks on.