By PAUL MCHUGH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The best procedure for inviting a crab to come home with you for dinner can be a wee bit hard to nail down. I discovered this as I simultaneously juggled a hoop net on my knees, tried to maintain balance in a kayak, to keep my grip on a wildly flailing red rock crab, and to hold a measuring stick across his back to see if he was legal.
Meanwhile, that crab focused on one, simple action. He reached below his tummy, grabbed one of my fingers between his claws, then drove a pincer through my skin at the base of the fingernail.
If the morning sky hadn't been sunny and clear, my cusswords could've painted a blue streak straight across it.
"Remember, you drew the first blood!" I snarled, in my best Sly Stallone voice. Then I tossed the crab into my harvest bag.
A crimson stream wound down my hand and dripped into Half Moon Bay _ and I fantasized a shark taking a keen interest in my whereabouts. Ah well. If you thrust yourself into the marine food chain, you must accept that you won't necessarily end up at the top.
But despite that throbbing finger, I was having a fabulous time. After just two hours at sea, I paddled back with a harvest of three exceptionally large Dungeness crabs, as well as four big, red rock crabs.
The sport of kayak fishing has grown in popularity for years. But I'd not heard of anyone using kayaks for crabbing. So, I thought I'd give it a shot.
Everything that I accomplished in a small, "sit-on-top" (open cockpit) kayak could also be achieved in a rowboat, skiff or dinghy _ as long as the angler selects protected areas, does not exceed his or her level of marine skills, and takes sensible precautions such as wearing a life jacket and informing folks about where and when they're going.
Hoop nets or crab rings, commonly tossed off the ends of fishing piers by shore-based fishermen, are lighter than conventional crab traps (which weigh 60 pounds and up) and much easier to handle. Collapsed, they can lie flat and be lashed to a deck. Once on the water, if you deploy more than one, after each trap settles on the bottom, you can tie off its haul rope to an empty bleach bottle or the like, then go a short distance away to set another trap.
A hoop net is formed by a set of concentric metal rings. In the middle is a small wire cage an enterprising crabber crams with bait _ the stinkier, the better. So, bait could be just about anything you find on the bottom shelf of a bachelor's refrigerator. Or it can be stuff like I brought: an aged package of barbecued chicken, and a sack of the spine, skin and other body parts of a salmon who had come to dinner two weeks ago.
I was told Dungeness crab prefer hanging out on sand to rocks, mud or weeds. Results of my roaming to varied bay locations support that notion. Anyway, if you fish around rocks, your traps will haul up much more crap than crab. So sand's better from that perspective, as well.
Carrie Wilson, a California Department of Fish and Game marine biologist who's also public information officer for the Marine Region (all of our 1,100 miles of coast), said Dungeness occupy a huge stretch of Pacific shore, from the Aleutians all the way down to Santa Barbara. They're found from intertidal zones out to depths of 750 feet. Not many go beyond 300 feet.
Some anglers say the best crabbing is done at depths of 40 feet or more. However, I did manage to have a satisfactory result while lowering my traps to just 20 feet. That may be due to making my foray so early in the season, when crabs are most numerous. Dungeness is California's most abundant crab. It's been considered a San Francisco treat ever since the Gold Rush. Commercial landings recently have an annual average of 1.7 million pounds, brought in to every major fishing port north of Monterey.Before I reached shore, I took a cell phone from a watertight case and called my wife.
"Feeling crabby today?" I asked. "Well, you will by dinnertime!"
In a few hours, sitting before the fireplace with a plate of hot, steaming Dungeness, fresh baked sourdough, a bowl of melted garlic butter and a bottle of crisp, chilled white wine, we were both feeling entirely crabby. And very San Franciscan.
