I've been doing a lot of beach fishing for cutthroat recently in the south sound. I'm seeing a lot of crabs in the eel grass on minus tides.
Limits would have been easy if it was open including some barnacle covered mossbacks. Lots of mating activity lately with males wrapped around the females.
I'm also seeing many sub-legal crab.
How long does it generally take a PS crab to reach 6 1/4 legal harvest size?
Thanks for your input.
SF

It takes about 3.5 to 4 years from birth for a crab to reach 6.25 to 7 inches in width. After two years of age they tend to only molt about once a year, gaining roughly 25% in size with each molt. The size increase tapers with age as they reach their later years 6-10 years old.

You can deduce from the crabs you are seeing at the beach how much they will grow the next time they molt, and mind that Males molt in mid to late summer, females in the spring.

A lot of the smaller crabs you are seeing near shore in the S Sound are likely Graceful Crabs. They look nearly identical to Dungeness, and most people incorrectly assume they are young Dungeness. Fully grown they are around 4-5 inches across.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graceful_rock_crab

If you are seeing Red Rock crab, they are not required to be 6 1/4 to harvest. Both sexes are legal at 5 inches. They are much more common in the S Sound than Dungeness crab.

Hope that helps. You didn't say how far S you are tal;king about. The above applies in general to MA 13.

Thanks for the input.
SF