SAN FRANCISCO – The live bait season is over on San Francisco Bay, so charter boat captains have switched to crab./rockfish combos and crab only trips through the end of the rockfish season on December.

“Today we had a crab only charter and it was another fabulous day on the ocean!,” reported Mike Rescino of Lovely Martha Sportfishing on November 21. “We finished up 28 limits of delicious crab.”

On a recent crab/rockfish combo, Rescino said, "Today we had lights out fishing catching 27 limits (270) of crab, 27 limits (270) of rockfish and 9 lingcod!.”

His previous crab/rockfish combo also yielded top-notch results. “Today we had a private combo trip and finished up with 18 limits (180) of tasty crab and limits (180) of rockfish along with 8 lingcod,” Rescino stated.

Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing also reported stellar crab/rockfish combo action outside of the Golden Gate.

“We experienced lights out fishing and crabbing today. Both boats checked in with limits of crab and rockfish,” said Smith on November 21. “The final count aboard the California Dawn 2 was 27 limits of rockfish (270) and 27 limits of crab (270). The final count on the California Dawn 1 was 21 limits of rockfish (210) and 25 limits of Dungeness crab (250).”