The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced commercial Dungeness crab restrictions will be lifted on January 5, 2024 in DFW Zones 1 and 2. Recreational anglers in those zones may use traditional crab traps as well. Zones 3 and 4, which stretch from Point Arena in the north to Point Lopez below Big Sur, are still on lockdown. Commercial crabbing for Dungeness remains closed in our area and recreational crabbers cannot use crab pots. Utilizing hoop nets, crab snares or collecting crab by hand remains legal for recreational anglers in our area. This situation will continue at least until January 11, 2024 when the next scheduled CDFW risk assessment is expected. The temporary crab trap restrictions are in place due to "elevated numbers of humpback whales resulting in increased entanglement risk," according to the DFW.

Using  hoop nets avoids the long-soak aspect of traditional crab traps. While both methods employ a floating buoy with line stretching to the ocean floor, the hoops must be checked within two hours of deployment. Crab pots can soak overnight and are often left unchecked for multiple days in a row, increasing the opportunity for whale entanglement. Hoop nets are more labor intensive, but can be very productive. Santa Cruz six-pack operation Santa Cruz Coastal Charters proved that point last Friday by getting limits of Dungeness for all five anglers aboard the Knot Alone. Skipper Rodney Armstrong reported, "It was a great day with local anglers aboard for the day's charter." Speaking of the New Year's weekend to come, he added, "Well this is the last weekend for rock fish. We had wide open rock fishing today. Only a couple days left. Not sure if the weather will let us get a few more in. But as of January 1 we will be running sand dab and crabs trips." 

The rockfish season will close after December 31, 2023. Currently, anglers are allowed to fish for rock cod and lings in waters past the 20-fathom line, meaning 300 feet or deeper. It's a long way to travel, and a long windup with fish, but the quality and quantity of rock cod remains high. Chris' Fishing Trips out of Monterey posted limit scores every trip last week, as usual, along with a few lingcod caught on the Check Mate. In Santa Cruz, the big charter boats from Stagnaro's Sportfishing reported similar results with their full day trips catching limits of deepwater rockfish, mostly yellows, according to Ken Stagnaro, scion of the venerable Santa Cruz fishing family.