Rockfish and crab report. Happy Hooker sportfishing Berkeley, California.

Decided it was time for some rockfish and some crab. Put the trip with some of my family and friends on the happy hooker out of Berkeley Marina in the bay area California San Francisco Bay.

The sportfishing regulations at this time have been updated as of I believe November 20. Please check your regulations before going out rock Fishing, The regulations state that there are no Fishing near shore. Only fishing in a 50 fathom RCA boundary line. Please check your regulations. 50 fathoms is 300 feet.

That's a long way to crank up a double hook up but we did it.. in order to fish in the 50 fathom boundary we ended up driving the boat about 10 miles west of the Farlon Islands. We were out there. We were all able to limit on rockfish, which was as 10 fish each. I believe out of 24 anglers there were two lingcod caught that were legal size and were kept. I would venture to say that most of the bags of rockfish after cleaning probably weighed about 20 pounds. That's 20 pounds of fillets. . The conditions were not too bad light wind. There was a swell, but not too bad. A few times the boat got caught rocking in between a couple swells while we were on a drift fishing. The only drawback well one of the draw backs to fishing that deep 300 feet is as the boat drifts and currents underneath in that deep water. It is easy to get tangled up with other angler's. The crew on the boat was very busy untangling lines, some lines, getting tangled up with anglers on the other side of the boat but I do have to say the crew was excellent very patient very good at managing the mayhem.

For the crabbing. The crabbing regulations at this time or that you cannot use the large crab pots, commercial type crab pots to catch the crab you must use what's called a hoop net.

Hoop nets are very easily handled by a person probably weigh 20 pounds with bait inside, this regulation is due to the presence of whales in the area. Fish and game has deemed that the use of crab pots while whales are in the area they can become entangled in the buoy lines connected to the crab pots. To my knowledge and many people I have talked to this has never happened, but it's a regulation. This does make the crabbing a little bit tougher being that the crab are able to crawl in and out of the nets. You don't wanna let them soak too long for that reason. But guess what. We had limits of crab for everyone. All were able to get their ten crab limit. It took approximately 30 hoop to achieve this, and most of the crab were very nice sized larger than normal. If you decide to book the happy Hooker, I will include a link to their website and reservations. Please let them know that you saw this on Fishing food and brew report. Also, please be sure to tip the crew. The cruise is tips only. They encourages them to work very hard and be very nice.

The fish cleaning for a limit of rockcod was $20. There ia a crab cooking station on the way out to the parking lot.

Ladies there that will cook your crab for you takes about 20 minutes.

They will also clean the crab for you for an additional $10. I believe the cooking was 25 and the cooking and cleaning was 35. I will be posting a photo that has a picture of the sign and the prices.

parking was easy there was no charge for parking Parking lot. Their website is very well organized easily to book a trip. I believe rental of Rod, reel and bait was $25. Trip cost was $225.00.

Bring layers of clothing the weather is unpredictable. Also bring your own food and drinks. Coffee is available on the boat but that it. And yes there is a bathroom.

Hope you can get out and do some fishing and get some. Once again, please let them know where you saw this Fishing food and brews report as I plan on returning and would love to know that some of you took a ride on the happy hooker.

Fish on.

Link to Happy Hooker Sportfishing.

https://www.happyhookersportfishing.com