Some nice crabs came in last week, including the largest dungeness I've ever seen caught from the pier. It was well over 7" wide. The numbers of crabs dropped off toward the end of the week but they should rebound with the numbers of crabbers dropping off. Still a few perch coming in.

It's the same story, crabbing from the pier is averaging OK with a couple of people limiting out (10 crabs) in a few hours to some people not catching any. The average is 1 to 3 dungeness per group. Boating is better with catches ranging from 3 to 30. Working the gear regularly and adding fresh bait between pulls is definitely affecting the numbers. Last week there were a few rubberlip perch caught by a boater drifting near the kelp across the bay from the Landing. No trophies, but good eating.

The crabbing was slower in the bay this weekend. Several boats had limits of dungeness but most had less. The pier was slower yet, but most of that was due to more crabbers than crabs. That should change in the next few weeks, notably after Thanksgiving week. Outside of the bay the crabbing was even better, especially down on Ten Mile Beach. Unfortunately the weather forecast for this week will prevent the sport fishermen from going there. Next week, then.

The crabbing in the bay is still good. One group with 8 traps caught 27 legal dungeness on the pier on an overnight set. Most of the pier crabbers did not do as well but still caught dinner. Crabbing by boat was, as usual, more productive. Leopard shark fishing was good near Marshall on live sardines and the surf fishermen are still catching perch on the incoming tide.

The boaters definitely had a better average than the pier crabbers. All the boats brought back some crab and a few boats had limits. Dave Alexander and crew used ring nets to catch five limits of dungeness crab in about five hours. If I find out what he was using for bait I'll let you know.

It is not a good day to be a crab, at least, not near the pier. The open ocean is a bit safer for the crabs due to the 14'+ swell. There are a fair amount of crabs coming in, just not very many per person. Some boats are out on the bay and hopefully I'll get a count from them later.

13 to 15 foot seas are forecast for Friday and Saturday so crabbing outside the bay is out. If you are planning on going to Ten Mile for the opener please go to Bodega Bay. If you want to try for crabs here inside the bay, where we have been seeing good numbers of dungeness, come on out.

The last day for rockfish was Saturday with one boat catching limits and others with none. McClure Beach gave up four more halibut on Saturday. No giant fish, but Halloween halibut are pretty rare around here. It sounds like there is some rain predicted for the dungeness opener, but if the crabs stay in the bay for next week it should still be worth the effort no matter what the weather does. Keep your fingers crossed.

River Test - Grayling

This was the one I'd been waiting for...the chance to target Grayling on a southern chalkstream and the destination was the famous River Test.

Three of us made the long journey south and a finer day you couldn't wish for, no rain, no wind and extremely mild for the time of year.

The river was running low but looked everything like I'd imagined having read all the many articles written about this legend of chalkstreams...manicured banks, fishing huts, quaint little foot bridges spanning across the crystal clear waters...you get the picture.

The walk down river was enough to get the juices well and truly flowing with shoals of Grayling easily spotted amongst the weed beds also the river was full of some monster trout which had obviously been stocked for the privileged few who were able to fish here during the trout season.

The day started slow with only the smaller specimens coming to hand, in between the Grayling the inevitable capture of some of the 'out of season' trout certainly got the heart pumping a little and any caught were carefully returned.

It gets quite frustrated when you can see these large Grayling in front of you but they don't even flinch when you carefully pass one of your 'killer' bugs passed their noses. Fortunately towards the end of the day as the light began to fade these fish became less wary and succumbed to my fly pattern.

The day ended all too soon and on the drive back we all reflected on our 'chalkstream' experience...the overall verdict was how soon we could book our next one!