Savvy anglers who favor Dungeness crab are prepping for the season opener on November 2. Crab pots, bait boxes, lead-core lines and marker buoys all need attention at this time of year. Sport anglers get a two-week period of crabbing before the commercial season opens up on November 15. It is estimated that 80% of Dungeness crab taken each season are caught before December 31, while the crab are concentrated in certain areas. Wintertime is always the best for crabbing in our area. History shows the best spots to crab across the Monterey Bay are the flat areas of sand or mud bottom in 180-200 feet of water, often along the edges of our marine canyons.

Following the seasonal pattern, rockfishing is best these days on the deeper reefs from 120 to 240 feet of water. Halibut are biting well off the North Coast beaches from Four-Mile to Davenport and in Monterey off DelMonte Beach up to Marina. The halibut are slowly moving towards deeper water, so targeting the 50-70 foot depths will pay off. Anglers continue to find halibut near Capitola and the Cement Ship all the way to the Pajaro area.

Surfcasters are catching more, and bigger perch along all the beaches that ring the Bay. The latest groundswell kicked up some seaweed, but most beaches are clearing nicely at this point. Forays north to the San Mateo County beaches can be very productive right now, as evidenced by Alex Velasco’s recent trip to Tunitas Creek. He caught a nice stringer of red-tail perch and a limit of small stripers. The larger beaches in the Big Sur area such as the north side of Point Sur and Sand Dollar Beach are also fantastic spots to target big perch.

It is with a heavy heart that we report on the passing of a local legendary fishing figure. Roland Robertson from Brookings Oregon, died in an auto accident last week in the Smith River Canyon. He was sixty seven years old. Robertson was an avid Santa Cruz surfer and fisherman who was a fixture at Shamrock Charters in the Santa Cruz Harbor. He moved to Brookings more than ten years ago to enjoy the world-class salmon and steelhead rivers while working at the Chetco Outdoor Store in Brookings.