The California Dungeness Crab season is doing good this year. Although there have been some recent stormy weather throughout much of the California Coast, both the commercial and the sport fisherman are seeing lots of crab each day. Some of the commercial boats are even making it back to their harbors with over 5000 pounds of freshly caught Dungeness crab that are making their ways into the local and international fish markets.
The commercial crabbing boat above is based out the Monterrey Peninsula. Over the weekend, they were able to catch crab in depths that ranged from 60-500 feet of water. While using over 600 crab pots and crab traps, they were all very satisfied with their catch, and will be making it out again really soon for more once their gear has soaked a bit more.
If you are a going to try to catch the dungeness crab from shore or from a pier, there is an excellent chance that you will find crab that way too. The dungeness crab are not limited to being caught in deep water. If you look at the picture above of the sea otter, you might be able to notice that these two are actually swimming and eating freshly caught crab at the same time. Sea otters are very good crab fishermen, and they eat crab all day long. If you see them near you when you are fishing, don’t be alarmed, it is usually a very good sign that the crab are near you and you should have a good day ahead. Make sure that the dungeness crab you keep are of the legal size which is 6 1/4 inches, but make sure to know the current regulations wherever you are crabbing.