Freshwater Focus

The early part of winter is a great time to be up in the Marin County Watershed lakes. As the water cools down from the late fall heat waves, trout will begin to move up into the shallower waters, making it much easier to cast to them.

Also, the scheduled trout plants from the Department of Fish & Game look to be significant this winter - so sometime around November 15, we expect a good-sized truckload of larger fish to be dropped into the lake.

We've stocked up on the larger sized (1/2 - 3/8 ounce) Kastmasters which tend to be productive, as well as the key colors of Power Bait. If you are looking for an upgraded rod and reel setup, we have a sale going on for the Daiwa freshwater rod/reel combos - $25 "out the door" including mono line.

Winter bass can be great in these lakes as well, slowly working larger baits such as 6 and 7" senkos, or even the big Castaic lures produces strong strikes at this time of year.

For those folks already thinking about next year, DFG has told us that the 2012 fishing licenses should be available on November 15 through our sales terminals. We'll announce that here when they are ready to sell, but just in case you want to fish on New Year's Day, you can get ready soon!

Haulin' Crabs!

Yep - for most folks, the opening day of the Sport Dungeness Crab season was a good day out. We headed out the gate and dropped 8 traps in 65 to 75 feet of water, drifted back to the beginning of our string and started pulling - normally, we like to soak for a minimum of 2 - 3 hours - as we were trying to get a sense of how many crab were in the area. Plus, we hoped to limit before the rains hit in the afternoon.

The short story is "WOW!" Looks like it should be a good start to the season - we pulled the string twice with very short soaks and ended up with limits for all four on board. Only a few in the 6" range (minimum size for sport dungeness is 5 3/4"). This one was pretty much the average size -



After only managing a few late-season trips last year, it was nice to come back with plenty of crabs for the pot -


The crabs baited with herring and mackerel seemed to do the best - although it was pretty even throughout the day.

Reports seemed good out of Bodega as well, with Richard B. reporting full limits of healthy crab from their trip today.

Looks like a great start to the crab season! If you want to get in on the action, come on down to the shop and we'll get you set up. The season-start promotion on our Commercial Grade traps is still on, so it's the perfect time to get outfitted for the season!

Heading Out Saturday Morning

Heading Out Saturday Morning, originally uploaded by Western Sport Shop.

2011 Dungeness Crab Sport Season Opener

Crab Traps are HERE! Sport Season Opens Saturday!

Our newest batch of Commercial Quality crab traps have arrived - just about ready to soak. But, the key question is "Are you ready?"

For some reason, it seems as though a significant number of customers are not aware that the sport fishing season for delectable Dungeness crabs opens this Saturday, November 5 for most counties. Early season crabbing is often the best - before the commercial boats begin dropping their larger traps.

So, if you have wanted to give this a try, come by the shop and get one of our custom-made, heavy gauge crab traps. These have been made even better this year with thicker ring material and heavier rubber wraps. Plus, we have this batch rigged with 150 feet of quality rope, so if you need to soak your pots deeper, you won't run short.

These pots come ready to drop, with a large main float and 150' of 3/8" rope. As before, these have rounded edges for a more consistent drop, and are weighted to the bottom, so they should not invert. With the increased thickness of ring, they are approximately 30 pounds. You'll need to have some method of baiting the trap - we recommend zip-tying a bait jar to the roof and pinning in a fish head or mackerel to the floor.

After that, you just need to head out and let them soak - some anglers prefer an overnight, while others go bottom fishing or look for striper outside the surf zone. Early season, a 3-4 hour soak is a good minimum rule. More is generally better.

If you had pre-ordered from this shipment of heavy duty crab traps, you should have received a phone call notifying you they had arrived - just bring your receipt to the shop to pick up your traps. We do have a few still available - so, if you want to get set up, we're offering our Dungeness Season Opener Special - These rigged and ready traps are normally $179.99, but if you buy three, we'll take $10 off for each trap, making them $169.99. If you need six or more, we'll knock off $20 each trap, for $159.99 each. Quantities are limited, so if you are interested and want to reserve traps with your credit card, please call the shop at 415-456-5454.

See you out there and enjoy the crab!