It's Crabbing Time

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

One of the things I love about the PNW is the summer crabbing season.
There's something about cracking crab fresh out of the Salish on a summer evening with a group of friends or family that's hard to beat.
I think the true beauty of crabbing is that it's passive 'fishing'. You get to head out whenever you want, set your pot, and then go on with your day until your ready to go back and haul the pot up. That could be an hour (if that's all you have), or you can set your pot and spend the day fishing for SRC, or Coho or pinks. Hard to beat a day of fishing on the sound capped off with a fresh haul of tasty Dungeness.

Anyway, if there's any crabbers out there - feel free to post away. Strategy, tips, tricks, pics, recipes, etc

From my favorite spot:

 

[DimeBrite]

I like hunting Dungeness on foot in the shallows eelgrass flats. It reminds me of pheasant hunting in the fall.

 

[Pink Nighty]

I like hunting Dungeness on foot in the shallows eelgrass flats. It reminds me of pheasant hunting in the fall.

This is the only way I crab anymore. A metal rake and rubber fishing net is easy limits if you got the spot.

 

[Pink Nighty]

One of the things I love about the PNW is the summer crabbing season.
There's something about cracking crab fresh out of the Salish on a summer evening with a group of friends or family that's hard to beat.
I think the true beauty of crabbing is that it's passive 'fishing'. You get to head out whenever you want, set your pot, and then go on with your day until your ready to go back and haul the pot up. That could be an hour (if that's all you have), or you can set your pot and spend the day fishing for SRC, or Coho or pinks. Hard to beat a day of fishing on the sound capped off with a fresh haul of tasty Dungeness.

Anyway, if there's any crabbers out there - feel free to post away. Strategy, tips, tricks, pics, recipes, etc

From my favorite spot:
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As a kid we'd go out to hood canal to my godfathers cabin. Head out in the morning, dropping crab and shrimp pots. Go troll some chinook, pull the pots, grown ups start cleaning while the kids go scrape up oysters and mussels and clams. All time favorite memories.

 

[Scudley Do Right]

The funnest way was when I was a kid around mother's day. My dad would row along in shallow water and I would spot them. Then he would scoop them with a net.

 

[Stonedfish]

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

As a kid we'd go out to hood canal to my godfathers cabin. Head out in the morning, dropping crab and shrimp pots. Go troll some chinook, pull the pots, grown ups start cleaning while the kids go scrape up oysters and mussels and clams. All time favorite memories.

Ditto man. Grandma and grandpa had a spot up on Whitney (Lagoon Point). Such great memories.

 

[Pink Nighty]

Ditto man. Grandma and grandpa had a spot up on Whitney (Lagoon Point). Such great memories.

Once while going over the pictures from one of those trips, my wife asked me why we dont do it anymore. I told her between run collapses, shortened seasons, red tides and other various restrictions I'm not sure it's legal or possible to do this anymore.

 

[VMP]

Crab opening day is one of the highlights of each year. This year we crabbed a new to me area, to take advantage of an earlier opening and be able to share with out-of-town visitors leaving on opening day of my favorite grounds. We did OK on a short soak while we chased coho (a mix of trolling and sight-casting to surface fish with flies and spin gear), a great day! At home we are all pickers (we pick crab meat and eat it at the same time), however while grandma is also a picker, grandpa is a piler (he picks and piles the crab meat before eating it, unless grandma poaches it first…). Whatever survives from the opening day “just crab” feast gets turned into crabcakes usually paired with avocado, arugula, lemon and some beer or white wine…so good! Some pics from opening day this year.

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

Crab opening day is one of the highlights of each year. This year we crabbed a new to me area, to take advantage of an earlier opening and be able to share with out-of-town visitors leaving on opening day of my favorite grounds. We did OK on a short soak while we chased coho (a mix of trolling and sight-casting to surface fish with flies and spin gear), a great day! At home we are all pickers (we pick crab meat and eat it at the same time), however while grandma is also a picker, grandpa is a piler (he picks and piles the crab meat before eating it, unless grandma poaches it first…). Whatever survives from the opening day “just crab” feast gets turned into crabcakes usually paired with avocado, arugula, lemon and some beer or white wine…so good! Some pics from opening day this year.

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Oh heck yeah!!
You bring up a good point, re: picking vs piling. I pick. But I always admire the restraint it takes to pile.

 

[Gary Knowels]

Crab opening day is one of the highlights of each year. This year we crabbed a new to me area, to take advantage of an earlier opening and be able to share with out-of-town visitors leaving on opening day of my favorite grounds. We did OK on a short soak while we chased coho (a mix of trolling and sight-casting to surface fish with flies and spin gear), a great day! At home we are all pickers (we pick crab meat and eat it at the same time), however while grandma is also a picker, grandpa is a piler (he picks and piles the crab meat before eating it, unless grandma poaches it first…). Whatever survives from the opening day “just crab” feast gets turned into crabcakes usually paired with avocado, arugula, lemon and some beer or white wine…so good! Some pics from opening day this year.

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Hellbent, nice choice. I used to live walking distance to the brewery, I miss it.

 

[Nick Clayton]

Up until fairly recently I never really liked to eat crab, and as such I never spent much time crabbing. A little bit as a youngster on the canal when we'd go out at night and wade around with pitchforks and shovels or whatever we could find, but that was about it.

Fast forward to 2019 when I figured out that my charter license covered crabbing. I bought a couple pots and offered it as an option for people on my Salmon trips. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I probably did 12-15 trips where we dropped pots and we got limits every time. What really surprised me was just how much fun it was! I highly enjoyed pulling the pots, leaning over the boat watching for that first sight of it and wondering how full it may be. Such a good time!

Now days I'm a crab eating mofo! One thing I really miss about not being in Westport right now is our fresh crab boil dinners!

 

[RRSmith]

Here's a few images from our local Oregon Coast estuary.... it's game on here as well!

 

[Yardus]

Here's a triple header from 2018. Kings, Crabs and a M's game. Love the PNW! Good Times!

 

[Paige]

Crabing absolutely sucked up in the north sound today, its about a 40 minute run out of Everett. This spot usually produces decent results for use, not today

4 pots soaking for 2-3 hr intervals from 100 to 150 feet(tried going deeper this year) Close to 40 femals and only 3 males, 2 where legal and one of those was missing both claws.


We left them out to soak overnight and will see how it goes tomorrow morning.