Hoop netting for Crab - Aptos, CA 2-23-21

Launched from Santa Cruz again after getting rained out the week before. The target was halibut and crabs. In order to find the halibut I was looking to see if I could find and schools of anchovies. I did however find some signals on the fish finder that kept reoccurring. I think I was marking herring possibly in schools around 75-85 FOW. The only reason I say I think is because I caught one, at least I believe it is a small herring but not sure. The schools looked different on the sonar, like smelt kinda but smaller. Elongated but still somewhat broken up, not like a solid anchovy cloud.

I fished three rods all day. Two halibut rigs, one with squid and one with anchovy. The other rod was a sabiki I let drift over the edge. I would adjust the depth as I marked the bait. I had a good solid bite on the anchovy but it shook free before I could get my rod out of the holder. Water temp was 51F and maxed out around 54F by the end of the day. I worked in front of the cement ship from the deep side of 85 to the shallow side of 65. Marked all the bait in the deeper water. Everything was mid to lower column. Hanging out suspended in about 50-65 FOW.

I hoop netted around and picked up a giant spider crab that looked pretty muddy with a ton of barnacles. Tossed it back but kept a nice rock crab that came with it. I picked up 4 female dungees all undersized and tossed them back. One more rock crab with no claws I sent back as well. One pull felt like I hit the jackpot but it came up with 15 or so giant blue jellies. That was a mess lol.

Middle of the day I had a visit from the game warden who checked my license and catch.

Another very nice day out there on the water. Couldn't have waited much longer just to be out there again.

Видео Hoop netting for Crab - Aptos, CA 2-23-21 канала Foggy Mountain Studios