Crabbing at Dawn -- and a Walk to Chetco Point

This morning the tides were right for some early-morning crabbing and I was on the dock by 6am. Not surprisingly, the scenery was lovely in the dawn light. Pelicans and seagulls cruised in packs, searching for and occasionally diving for breakfast. I was more interested in this than in the crabbing, but of course, I tossed the trap out first, then played with the camera.


All those reflections are so lovely...

I caught two about this size, both female and thus illegal to keep even if it was the right size, which they were not. As I was trying to free the second one from the net, my bait splashed into the water and sank -- the crab took quite a bit longer to free. The bait holder on this net is small, and the fish head too large to allow it to close, so I knew I was taking a chance. With no more crabbing to be done, I hopped into the car and ended up by happenstance to be near the Chetco Point park area, so thought I might as well go for a walk.

The sun was just coming over the hills. This park is right in town, is in fact behind the sewage plant. I'd visited briefly on my first trip here, but today I walked all the way out to the point and down to a rocky beach where one lone surf fisherman was at work. I didn't disturb him -- decided I'd rather go up on the point.

This lovely dawn view was just to the left of the previous photo, on the other side of the narrow neck of land. The views from the point itself are expansive and lovely, but not very interesting photographically.

So - no crabs for dinner today, and not another good combination of time/tide for a couple of weeks, but that's OK. I thoroughly enjoyed being on the water that early, and also the unplanned walk on the point.