Netarts Report
My wife and I hit Netarts Bay Wed & Thu. It was the first trip for the drift boat in salt, and our first trip to Netarts. There were probably 5-15 boats on the bay both days.
Wed.
We first went down bay (towards the ocean), dropped some pots, but hauled up only a few dungeness females and no males. We also tried the immediate area for clams, but despite low tide, came up empty. We returned to the boat ramp and met another couple that reported pulling 60 females and 4 males (all keepers). Remembering a post from here, we hit the sand bar just out from the ramp, and had a limit of cockles via raking in no time. We then dropped 2 pots and 4 rings in the area between the ramp and RV park, east channel, and managed many females, 4 keeper males, and some rock crabs. Chicken was the biggest producer, soft shell clams (from a prior trip) started strong but tapered off quickly, and fish leftovers that someone graciously gave us at the ramp was just a notch behind the chicken and did well. We did notice that we kept catching crabs on the *outside* of one pot, and then my wife discovered we didn't remove the rubber bands from the trap doors ;-) Most of the crab action was in the 2 hours before high tide. Just as the tide shifted, the crabbing died. With sunset upon us, we pulled out for dinner and hotel.
Thu.
We visited the RV park just up-bay from the public ramp, and had our crabs from day before boiled. Had an excellent chat with the dock hand there, and he really helped us understand more about crabbing, clamming, and where to go. We were back on the water 1-hour before low tide, dropped the 4 rings in the upper west channel, but only pulled in a few females. We hit some adjacent sand bars (per other ifish tips) and started raking cockles, but then my wife got the gaper itch, and when she dug down to her first gaper, I joined in. We pulled 4 gapers (18-24" down) before wanting to get back to crabbing. We trip the ramp to RV-Park section again, but action was slower, and no males. Everyone we talked to was also giving a thumbs down.
--tg
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Thomas Gilg
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