I've been invited to go on a crab and dab trip out of Emeryville this month. I have no idea what kind of tackle to use for the dabs. Can anyone help me out? How deep do they usually fish for them and how big do they get?

Last time I went (it's been a while and only happened once), we dropped generic Sabihki(Sp?) rigs with tiny pieces of squid, or Pro-cure Butter in 200-300+ft of water, wait for 10 minutes or until it feels like theres a small bath towel on the other end then reel in all that line and try to be excited about catching 3-6 fish per drop with an average length of 9" and 12" being a monster. I wasn't very successful at being excited since there wasn't any paint I could watch drying while I did this.
The fish are delicious, as are the crabs, but the whole thing was about half as exciting a style of fishing as walking into a supermarket and buying some. JMO

Tight lines(on something else that trys to get away),
Wade

never done this kinda combo trip, but if its anything like winter rockcod fishing (minus the rockcod) you'll want a 30# rod and a 500# size reel, normally i would say a 40# and a 4/0 size reel, but sandabs don't weigh too much. your meat fishing, so there's no point bringing light tackle. i know a few deckhands that use Calstar 765Ls (easily a 50# rod) for winter rockfishing since its makes life a whole lot easier.

There is an excellent sand dab article at the following URL.

http://www.fishinghotpage.com/sanddab.htm

When are we going to hit the water together?

How's it? Good to hear from ya.

You know, at this time last year, I was fishing every friday out of New Brighton trying to imitate the day you and Nico had on the WSB and hali's that one time.

But with the strict regs on rockfish, cabbies, lings, etc. it just killed my spirit for saltwater kayaking. Any suggestions for alternatives?

I might hit Del Valle with a buddy in a week or two. I'll cast you an invite when things get certain.

Thanks for all the information. Having read it all, I think I'll pass on the trip. I'm not sure the old ticker could handle all the excitment!

I lived in Berkeley the last 6 years and on several occassions met guys from the charter boats out of Emeryville and Berkeley. They always got so excited talking about getting crabs and fishing.

But what I heard from other people is that those trips waste at least three hours of your fishing time, spending at least an hour on the way out to pull up the crab traps, and then an hour on the way back in to check them again. My impression was that this was kind of a sketchy operation, a way for the boats to load up on crabs for themselves while all the paying customers waste their time waiting.

My overall impression of the charter boats out of the East Bay was that they were all sketchy operations. My idea of sport fishing is to get the adreneline pumping. I wasn't impressed at all in these meat trips and thus, not having a boat myself, I stopped ocean fishing for those 6 years that I lived up there. I'm glad to be back in SoCal now!