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[Ambassador]

I've done about a dozen days crab fishing - and always wondering if I'm in a decent place to drop the trap. I have a fish finder and usually try to drop between 35-70 feet - but never really know if in a decent place.

I bring something up about 80% of the time - but wonder if I've just been lucky - or my bait is so awesome they are drawn to it from far away . Dropped my Gopro down near Barnet last year and it was hard to tell why there were a bunch in one area and none in others that looked to be a very similar environment.

Wonder how far away crabs can detect your bait?

Came back to an empty trap after an hour soak yesterday near Belcarra after some Kayaking. Not sure if it was a poor choice of spots or if I got my crabs ganked. Someone did take off with my line weight - so guessing they got my dinner also

[TimL]

From what I know dungeness crab prefer a sandy bottom- even better still if you can locate eelgrass beds nearby.
Could be a seal that was raiding your trap or people stealing crabs. There are quite a few seals off the Belcarra area that have grown quite fond of chicken and other offerings crabbers put down on the sea floor. As for the 2nd point, yes it has happened recently- there was thread posted about an incident a few months ago.
Commercial crabbing started 2 weeks ago too..combined with the heavy recreational fishing pressure in the Lower Mainland, you'll be hard pressed to find a legal crab now.

[Ambassador]

Thanks Tim,

Yeah I was thinking possibly a seal (for my crab at least) as my lady saw a couple swimming around, but forgot about the commercial opening. That undoubtedly has had an effect on the numbers. First day out with my new Jolly Good crab trap (highly recommended by a fellow kayak fisherman at work), and was thinking it may be easier for seals and Octopuses to raid it compared to more conventional traps.
What really like about it so far is that this is easily collapsible and much lighter than my other traps - making it much easier to bring to the surface, and also work with/store on my limited deck space.

Sure was nice being out on the water on such a beautiful day. Fish finder was going off with massive schools of fish swimming underneath us. Very cool to see on the finder - then look down into the water and see hundreds and hundreds of fish right below us.

[TimL]

Thanks Tim,

Yeah I was thinking possibly a seal (for my crab at least) as my lady saw a couple swimming around, but forgot about the commercial opening. That undoubtedly has had an effect on the numbers. First day out with my new Jolly Good crab trap (highly recommended by a fellow kayak fisherman at work), and was thinking it may be easier for seals and Octopuses to raid it compared to more conventional traps.
What really like about it so far is that this is easily collapsible and much lighter than my other traps - making it much easier to bring to the surface, and also work with/store on my limited deck space.

Sure was nice being out on the water on such a beautiful day. Fish finder was going off with massMy ive schools of fish swimming underneath us. Very cool to see on the finder - then look down into the water and see hundreds and hundreds of fish right below us.

Oh yes! Did you have any idea what those fish were? Me and a couple of my buds saw those schools of fish swimming past while bottom fishing off the rocks at Belcarra. Seals and cormorants were having a feast for sure. We called them 'dimes' as their heads were so shiny! Really cool to watch. 

[pwn50m3 f15h3r]

I saw those at white rock last year. I caught one on a herring jig and am 95% sure they are anchovies

[firstlight]

Im hoping anchovies.
There were so many at one time that they commercial fished for them in the Inlet.
They wiped them out and there went the Salmon.
Maybe if we can get the Anchovies back the Salmon will return.

[Ambassador]

Not sure exactly - my first guess was nice big schools of Chum smolts, but anchovies are a good bet. I've seen the "dime" head ones around Ambleside a couple times - and they are amazing!! These were a little too deep to get a good look with my GoPro. We paddled over three of these schools that really lit up my finder - plus one huge thing that was possibly a seal chasing them. Seeing such massive schools going down thick from the surface down to about 40 feet was really incredible.