Crab Fishing In Santa Cruz, California

Click photos to enlarge*


We reached the Santa Cruz Fishing Wharf today at past 4 PM. The day was bright and sunny but wasn't a very good day to go fishing or crab fishing. We saw many people fishing but majority were disappointed and chorused that it wasn't really a good day to fish~ as no one seemed to be lucky enough to take home some real good catch- mamamia! With this in mind, we were not expecting a miracle but were hoping despite the warning to bring home a bucket full of crabs! Entrance fee is $21.00 for a whole day's stay and this basically covers the cost of parking space at the wharf. Being Memorial Day today, the place was packed with people of different colors, age and sizes. From the wharf, we could see the Santa Cruz beach. In there, lots of people were in the area enjoying the sun, water plus the amusement center nearby. At the wharf, we paid $9.00 for 4 hour’s parking fee; had calamari snacks then drove back to Mariott Hotel in Campbell, San Jose, CA where we are booked for the week.


AT THE WHARF

As soon as we were parked and settled in our space, husband threw his crab net into the ocean at 50 feet deep and after an hour of waiting time, he found his sea blesssings! There was a fairly big "rock crab," a star fish and 51 pieces of snails!


PHOTOS BELOW: Taken at the landing of the wharf where sea lions were resting, howling and sleeping. It was chilly down there and quite breezy, too!




Cooking Inside Our Hotel Room

Typical of all Mariott Hotels in the USA, they have a complete kitchen facilities (inclusive of dishes, cutlery, China and dishwasher) so husband took advantage of this. He cooked the snails a' la French "Escargot." Oddly enough, at first- it tasted ok he said (I didn't eat nor tasted it, ayayay) but after taking off the meat from the shell (and after sautéing the second time around~in butter, garlic and cheese), they tasted bitter he said. So I told him to stop eating ASAP! OMG! OMG! As there is no such thing as bitter-tasting snail. Que horror!!! Even if it has been overcooked, I know it should not taste bitter! So what did I do? Gosh,(*panting*), I gave him an emergency Fast-Acting Chewable Imodium (*sigh* )to save him from any form of food poisoning later (*deep breath*). Anyhow, I couldn't blame him as he had cravings for Escargot!

The Frenchman At the Wharf

We met this French guy with an Asian male friend who stopped by to see what was in our bucket at the wharf. And with us conversing I said I have been to south of France. Our conversation got extended quite a bit until I was relating to him the time when my French friend Olivier Fernandez was in town with us (last October 2005). I bragged and said,

"Mella moi dolla bush!"

He aptly smiled and turned crimson after hearing it~ you know, it was automatic, he was just red all over. Hahaha! I had a good laugh!

"Do you know what you just said?" He asked me timidly.

I replied, "Yes. Of course-it meant to say, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH!"

Moments later, husband and moi were laughing and gasping for oxygen. Why? Because Olivier was strong in not teaching us the nasty words in French but compromised later when we were at the San Francisco International Airport that evening in October last year. He gave in and made us happy~ha!

Anyhow, today it all came back vividly to me as I told this young Frenchman at the wharf,

"And I know how to reply with this in French," I continued on.

" Se sanz le poisson!" (TRANSLATION: "Smells like fish!")

What followed was a crack of laughter. Were we thinking in the same context? Seemingly.

**wink**wink**




BTW, the archaic looking crab that husband catched looked horribly pathetic so I hesitated to eat it. I steamed it but decided to dump it in the trash bin tomorrow. Ngeek! What a crabbing experience! Better luck next time!