Welcome to Half Moon BaySportfishing
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December Shop Update
IT'S DUNGENESS CRAB TIME!!: The recreational dungeness crab season continues to be open. Anglers can harvest
Dungeness using hoop nets and/or snares, but crab POTS are not permitted due to the large number of whales that have been off the coastline this year. Unfortunately the commercial crab season has been postponed once again to avoid whale entanglement in the crab gear, so there is no local crab for sale at this time. Recreational rock crab is open year-round, and folks do pretty darn well at times getting good numbers of rock crab around this harbor. The Queen of Hearts is running "Dungeness Crab-Only" OR "Deep Water Rockfish" trips daily, weather and interest permitting, There are no "combo" trips this month due to change in regulations that makes it virtually impossible to do both legally and productively off our coastline. Looking for Christmas crab?..there are a few "Crab Only" trips scheduled for around the holidays. Grab your spot(s) and come on out!!
ROCKFISH: The creative 2024 rockfishing season is still open through the end of the year. Rockfishing along our Northern California coastline is open in deep water (outside 300 feet) during December. Why? To protect a rockfish called a quillback, but also attempt to give anglers an opportunity to fish either coastal or deep water. Pending any emergency actions, we anticipate the seasons will be the same in 2025 and 2026, but we'll have to wait and see what's decided at the upcoming PFMC meetings. The last day for rockfishing is December 31, and then the season will be closed January, February and March.
SALMON: No ocean salmon fishing anywhere in California for 2024 as the season has been closed for the second year in a row. As long as all goes as planned, salmon fishing will hopefully open next year on Saturday, April 5, 2025 with a 24" minimum two fish limit off our coastline. We should find out whether this will happen or not by mid-February. It all depends on the number of salmon that are counted returning up the rivers to spawn. Fingers crossed!
AROUND THE HARBOR: Perch have shown up along the coastline, and there's still some bait around the harbor at times. Lots of folks are enjoying catching both rock and dungeness crab off the fishing pier inside the harbor as well as on the jetty. If you're interested in monkeyface eel, there's loads of them available for poke-pole anglers hidden in the jetty rocks.
Welcome to Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle, located on the coast about 20 miles south of San Francisco, the only stop you have to make for the fishing adventure of a lifetime! We have the supplies you need for a fantastic day on the water onboard the charterboats that book through our shop as well as all the basic gear, bait, and tackle you need for a great trip on your own boat or from the shore. You can also purchase day and annual fishing licenses as well as commercial fishing and hunting licenses at our shop. Our staff has unsurpased knowledge of gear and techniques for salmon, rockfishing, surf fishing, Dungeness crab and other various species of ocean dwellers that live in our part of the ocean.
Got Bait?
We've always had a complete array of the best bait that's available for sale in our shop that is constantly rotated to be as fresh as possible. But now we've gone one step further...Half Moon Bay Sportfishing is one of the first bait and tackle shops in California to own its own frozen bait vending machine available outside our front door 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Even when the shop is closed or we're crazy busy getting our charterboat customers out first thing in the morning, you can purchase your frozen bait from the machine using either cash or credit cards and get on out to the water quickly and easily.
Charterboat Trips
Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle is proud to be the booking agent for the vessel Queen of Hearts, which has taken more people fishing out of Half Moon Bay than any other boat, hands down, since 1990. The Queen of Hearts is Coast Guard licensed and inspected, insured, well maintained, and has an impeccable safety record. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020 when the stay at home orders were established, we discontinued booking any other vessels other than the Queen of Hearts through our shop.
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