Crabbing at Fort Baker Pier
Yesterday was my first crabbing adventure!
I took Jeff’s advice from this website Jeff’s Captivating Guide to Crabbing. When collecting supplies for the trip, I found an old crab net that my aunt saved from my Grandma’s place. My mom says that she doesn’t remember anyone ever using the crab trap, so it felt good to use the family crab trap! Anyhow, I did buy a new crab trap from Big 5 along with some bait cages. Mine glows in the dark! We bought 100 ft of rope to lower the traps, but I would guess we only needed 50 to get to the bay floor.
After some climbing at the beach we headed toward San Francisco to Fort Baker Pier.
The pier has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge- maybe even better than some of the piers in San Francisco.
We figured we would cut the rope and tie at three anchors on the big net, but a passerby on the pier swooped in and took control. She reminded me of my other Grandma who can’t stand to watch people struggling with something that she can do. For example if you’re cutting vegetables too slowly or not what she sees as the best way, she would whip the knife out of your hands and go ninja on the veggies. Anyway, this lady came in all guns blazing and shooed our hands out of the way so she could tie all the knots on our net. Here she is unwinding our rope.
For bait, I tried to get chicken necks from the grocery store. I had watched some videos on Youtube that swore by chicken necks as the best bait. Since this was our first crabbing adventure, I thought we could use all the help we could get. I called up Safeway and Ranch 99, neither of which claimed to have leftover chicken necks. Safeway probably doesn’t actually get chicken necks, but I’m pretty sure Ranch 99 does and just couldn’t understand my English. I ended up buying some chicken bones at Ranch 99 for $3.
We threw our net into the brink and eagerly waited to reel it in. The recommended time to leave the net in was 5-15 min. We couldn’t wait for 15 min… I think we pulled the first net in just after 8 minutes. To our surprise we caught two red rock crabs!!
After staying for about 40 minutes- we had to leave for other commitments- we had caught 5 red rock crabs. Half of the bait didn’t get used so we gave it to some of the other fishermen. I kept my crab in an open cooler on top of a sea water soaked towel over some ice packs. He stayed alive for hours in the car until I got home when he made his last stand, snapping wildly at my fingers while I tried to pull him out from his lair. He ended up being pretty tasty!