Where and how to get crabs . . .

. . . and you know what I mean. :-)

My father is here from Nevada visiting for the next few weeks, and brought his 19' Gregor with him. He just picked up a couple of new crab traps this weekend, and is anxious to use them.

He's staying with me and I live in north Seattle, where the Shilshole ramp is easily accessible. He could/would go north, too, as far as, say, Kayak.

I have never been crabbing, and I have no clue where to go or any insight to give him as far as good tides, good bait, how long to leave out his traps, depth of water, preferred bottoms for crabbing, etc.

Any advice and input you could provide will be extremely appreciated! We'll speak highly of you and toast you as we're dining on Puget Sound crabs . . .

Thanks again!

P.S. He's also absolutely slobbering to go salmon fishing, and has boxes of new tackle he's bought for this trip. I'm thinking of pointing in the direction of Jeff Head. Other thoughts about local spots in north Puget Sound? He and I are talking about maybe heading to Neah Bay for a few days this coming weekend.

Cheers!

I'd avoid anyplace around Shilshole for crab and head north. All the beaches in King County are closed to clamming due to pollution, so if the filter feeders are tainted, I'd think the scavengers would be as well.

Try the launch at Camano Island State Park. It's about an hour and twenty minutes from Seattle, no ferry required. You can drop pots and then troll for silvers.

Delbert

Head up to Everett and try between the Everett launch and Mukilteo. We crabbed in front of the Navy Base in Everett on Saturday,and had 3 limits in just over two hours. There are a ton of crab out there now,and their weren't many pots out there.

Each time we'd pull a pot we'd have 30-40 crabs with 3-4 keepers in each one. We we're only soaking the pots for 30-45 minutes between pulls.

We used chicken thighs in a couple pots,steelhead carcasses in a couple,and then some frozen mackeral in the last pot. All 5 pots caught crab,with no real difference in what was used for bait.

We had the pots in 20-65' of water.

There are a bunch of softshell crabs out there right now so make sure the ones you keep have a hard shell.

You thought wrong, delbert. PSP and/or eating critters with PSP does not effect our crabes.

The crabes are fine. The only word of caution I'd tell anyone who eats crabes would be to rinse and wash the snot out of them (externally) and don't cook or eat the guts. IE, don't cook whole crabs. Clean them first by removing the guts and gills *than* cook them.

If you go to 8-1 or 8-2 make sure you crab only Friday-Monday.

Launch out of Everett, then go to one of these places:

1. between Mukilteo and Everett
2. SE end of Gedney
3. N end of Gedney
4. S end of Camano

Bait with chicken thighs/leg quarters, turkey drumsticks, or salmon heads/spines. Drop in 30-60' of water where you think the bottom is muddy, sandy, and/or grassy. Avoid rocky bottom. Use plenty of weighted line -- 150% of water depth. Pull after 1 hour. If you find sea stars or no Dungeness crabs, move the traps. Otherwise, clear out the traps (retaining keepers of course :-) ) and put the traps right back in. Leave in another hour (or 2 or 3) and repeat until you have enough crab. Don't keep the soft shelled ones (squeeze the segment of a leg closest to the body and if it gives, it is soft) as it is illegal and there isn't much meat in there anyway.

Closest and easiest would be to launch at Shilshoe go south around West Pt and drop pots along shoreline to the south. You'll get an idea where when you see the other pots. Then go back to West Point or head to Meadow Point (the point at north end of Shilshoe Bay) and try for silvers.

Parker, you goob. I wasn't talking about PSP (redtide), I'm talking about our good friend fecal coliform. Too much sh*t in the water. PSP only builds up in filter feeders, but scavengers pick up most everything.

Delbert

Wash the outside of the crabe and don't cook or eat the guts, and you will be fine. Fecal coliform doesn't collect in muscle tissue (if I recall correctly). Just guts and other ickers.

Maybe hold back on that "Crabe Juice Cocktail". Ugh.

Oh yeah, only a looney would even consider eating a Puget Sound shellfish. Even the oysters in Hood Canal are not safe to eat raw these days. Ick.

Oh great. Now I get all the credit for polluting the Puget Sound and Hood Canal!

(All you waterfront property owners should just look the other way now....)

Damn, I'm good!

I'm still wondering what a goob is. Or is that a raw oyster?

B.S. UW School of Fisheries, 1991.

One of my favorite courses was the shellfish bio class taught by Dr. Ken Chew. To pass his class, you had to eat everything he put in front of you - either in the lab, or on one of his beaches. I swear, if it crawled, oozed, slimed, or hunkered on a beach, I ate it raw. Ugh.

So yeah, a "background" in shellfish. Not an expert, by any means, but knowledgeable enough.

Raw is bad. Cooked is OK. Sorry if I forgot to leave out the cooked bit for them slimy oysters.

Not too sure I'd eat any Puget Sound shellfish, raw or cooked.

There, is that any better?

Oh please, pick on me! It brightens up my day!

FYI - goob is just the short form of goober.

In an effort not to be black listed on future fishing trips, I'll refrain from listing most of the nicknames Parker had around our fraternity house.

I've eaten a lot of things Parker turned his nose up at (well actually he laughed). Asian steamed sculpin, anyone?

I'll eat clams and mussels from Camano and points north, but the pollution levels around west point and Seattle non-point source pollution in general has me leary about eating any resident dwellers. Transitory species, like salmon, will be happily consumed.

I also wonder about heavy metals and how they accumulate in crabs.

delbert,

If you have any questions about the "heavy metals", I'd ask H20...he's definitely the expert on this board...



Fish on...

Todd

delbert, I know what a goober is. You should get used to looking for things like smile faces That means it was a joke....

Have a nice day :p

Marsha you know I was not refering to you or Parker right? Ya know my sence of humor is just a little different.

Just for the record I've known Parker since he was a snot nosed freshman at the UW. That kid didn't say three words his entire first quarter in the house.

Delbert

posted by AuntyM:

"I have it on good authority that he has a greatsense of humor and can take it like a grown up. "

I swear, Michael, she didn't hear it from me...I never would have told Aunty such a bold faced lie! I was brought up better than that...to always respect my elders!

Fish on...

Todd

Thanks for all of the input! This should be able to keep my pop busy for a few days!

Richard