So, after pointing me to this link a couple of days ago, Diana and I (along with our friend Autumn and one of her co-workers) decided to give crabbing a shot. We borrowed some crab nets from her uncle and had some fun in a fisherman’s warehouse (bait-cages, new ropes, fancy harnesses that we ended up not bothering with…). I’d brought a pole out from Georgia with me, so I asked the guy at the store what sort of rig was best for pier-fishing. I also got Diana a little kiddy pole so she could try to catch some little bait fishies. My line, it turns out, rotted over the winter (it’s been awhile). That’s probably for the best, anyway, because I’m pretty sure it was 10-lb. test and the guy at the shop recommended 15 or 20. So my rig was kapoot before the first cast. Diana didn’t quite have the patience for bait fishing, though we saw an elderly Chinese gentleman with the exact same rig catch three or four over the course of an hour.

As for crabbing… I was entertained. We were at the pier right under the Golden Gate Bridge, so you couldn’t really ask for a more picturesque spot. It was cold and gloomy and windy, and I don’t think the two girls were quite as amused as the guys (even though we were the ones getting wet by hauling the nets up). We used chicken wings in our bait cages–but I think the crabs (or maybe something else?) were able to kind of suck those through the grate. Next time we’ll use some bigger hunks of meat. Something made off with one of our bait cages altogether–along with ripping a hole in one of the two nets. We had an extra cage, though, so we patched the net with cord-ties and tossed it back in.

All in all, our catch was pretty meager–three crabs total. The first one was a tiny little crab–too small to keep. The second one, we learned from the guys next to us, was “short.” Which meant it was short a claw. We tossed him back, too. Our final crab of the day was the most impressive–a rock crab with some pretty humongous claws and a nasty temperament. He had a fishing hook stuck in him and some line wrapped around him, so we pulled that out and disentangled the poor fellow. Not worth it to lug back just one little crab, we were going to toss him back. We ended up giving him to the cute old couple next to us, though, so his hook-and-line freedom will be short-lived. Diana and Autumn, being Asian and female, both took a ton of pictures. I’ll post them somewhere when I get them.