WOW...just ...WOW..Will there be crabs left??

[cobrar543]

Took the Grand kids out for a day of bottom fishing off Camano State Park yesterday.. When I pulled into the Boat ramp area..noticed right away a LOT of big trailers and Old trucks sitting off the side. Some boats I have never seen before..big flat bottoms with HUGE crab pot pullers.... Finally went out to the Eldger bay area... and WOW..You could walked from Lowell point thru Eldger bay and back without getting your feet wet :pale: ..their were LITTERALLY hundreds of traps floats there. I felt like I had slipped into the Dangerous Catch show.. It was hard setting up a drift for the boat thru them...

Is this Normal??? I have never done a season here before..but cant belive there will be many left after this blitzkrieg attack[-o<

[The Quadfather]

[quote="cobrar543"]Took the Grand kids out for a day of bottom fishing off Camano State Park yesterday.. When I pulled into the Boat ramp area..noticed right away a LOT of big trailers and Old trucks sitting off the side. Some boats I have never seen before..big flat bottoms with HUGE crab pot pullers.... Finally went out to the Eldger bay area... and WOW..You could walked from Lowell point thru Eldger bay and back without getting your feet wet :pale: ..their were LITTERALLY hundreds of traps floats there. I felt like I had slipped into the Dangerous Catch show.. It was hard setting up a drift for the boat thru them...

Is this Normal??? I have never done a season here before..but cant belive there will be many left after this blitzkrieg attack[-o&lt]


Dave..... where you at??

[Dave]

Yep its normal and has been going on like you saw today for the last 4 years now. So, about three four ago the State of Washington decided to allow the Tulalip Tribes to commercial crab for one month before the season opens to the public. The result??? The tribes will take the majority of keepers off the sea floor. Thanks to this decision by our fine State, it now takes an all day soak to maybe get a limit of crab unless you know a spot that isn't heavily crabbed. No kidding, ALL DAY and there is no guarantee you will get 5 keepers let alone a couple limits. It sucks big time!!! I tell you this based on 11 years crabbing this area.

Before this decision was made to allow the tribe to fish for crab early, the crab season opened up at the same time for EVERYONE, and it was first come first serve meaning it took about 2 hours tops for everyone on board a boat to limit on nice big crab. There is a spot across from Camano Island State Park where the eel grass is thick and so are the crab numbers. It's a spot that wasn't known to many and you could soak 2 pots for about an hour and both would be full of big male keepers. I say big as in 8” across the back on many of them. I have the pictures. It was amazing!

Now, in the Camano Island area, it is likely that you will soak your pots all day and get lots of females and undersized males and maybe a few keepers which for the most part will be barely legal in size. It's absolutely terrible!!!

Now, this isn't to say you can’t find a spot off of Camano Island to catch some crab. I hear from some of the guys at the city public works department every year that they set their pots and allow them to soak overnight, and they do well for the first few weeks. Because the Camano Island area is so popular for crabbing, there will literally be hundreds of pots set on opening day all around Camano Island for the first two or so weeks, so be prepared for a ZOO. It's a major bummer. Last season we found some great crabbing in area 8-2 so I made the drive every weekend and did well. I am just hoping that area 8-2 isn't crabbed in June before the opener.

So every year I ask the WALakes.com members to write our Governor which I have done every year with obviously no results. If we all wrote her and complained about how unfair this is, (allowing pre-season crabbing) maybe she would reconsider allowing the tribes to have first dibs on the crab. Or if we had a member who had a connection with the news media to file a complaint, that would be even better. It’s fair to allow all of us to crab at the same time. It is not fair to allow any group to have unlimited access before the general public opener. Just my opinion and I believe I am not alone.

I’m not saying any one group (in this case tribal) doesn’t deserve an allotted amount of crab each year, I just don’t think it’s right to let any one group fish for crab a month before the season opens to the public.

[cobrar543]

will be writing that letter TODAY!:batman:

[Adam B.]

During Ling Cod season, I was out in area 8-2 and there were quite a few pots set out by the tribal fisherman. Not as heavy as you mentioned by Camano Island or farther down south, but they were out. I haven't been out to see lately, but like everyone else I am hoping they haven't hammered all the spots before the open for us. I won't be able to go out till either Friday or Thursday if I get off work early enough. I will post reports after I get back with or without full pots. Good luck everyone and at least the weather will be good.

[swedefish4life1]

POW WOW Crab, shrimp and more punished 24-7:-$

[cobrar543]

Hit up 8.2 Yesterday and after 4 hours nothing but small or females and I worked the area hard trying to find a pattern ... Today heading up to Cama Beach 8.1 and try again.

[Pradeep]

God, this day can not go by fast enough. 1 hr 50 min left to go!! Headed to boom city after work and then headed out first thing in the am. Dying for some delicious crab!! Wooohooo!!

Good luck to everyone else who's headed out!

Pradeep.

PS - Have a safe 4th!!

[Dave]

Follow-Up: I posted a reply in the “2009 crab season” topic regarding my experience in area 8-2 this morning. Based on today's trip to 8-2 (in a spot where we had absolutely fantastic results every time out last summer) I feel I can honestly and safely say that the tribe crabbed the tar out of area 8-2 around Hat Island leaving few legal keepers behind. Keepers were far and few between this morning and none were very big. There were lots of females and undersized males which is exactly how it has been in area 8-1 the last 4 years now, after the tribe has fished it out.

On a slightly more positive note, and one that may bring a bit of hope; I was told by a friend of mine who lives on Camano Island overlooking Utsalady Bay (north end of Camano Island, area 8-1) that during the month of June he noticed that the tribe set their gear from about the middle of Utsalady Bay, over to Whidbey Island which means they may not have set their gear along the Camano Island shoreline in area 8-1. NOTE: I have not confirmed this by crabbing this area myself so I can't say for sure based on my own experience that the pre-season crabbing didn't affect area 8-1 on Camano’s north and west shores until I set my own gear and give them a few hours to soak.

I read that a few folks crabbed area 8-1 and did poorly. I am curious to know if anyone crabbed Utsalady Bay area, or near Camano Island State Park or the waters along Camano’s west shoreline from the north tip, south to Camano Island State Park.

[richardvw]

My dad and four others went out wednesday off of comano and got all 5 limits withing two hours. Then went out this morning with 6 people total and got all 6 limits and 6 limits worth of clams.

[someguyseattle]

Quadfather and I went out today with limited success. Dropped a couple pots north of Golden Gardens and a couple more over by Bainbridge. About a four hour soak or so. The Golden Gardens produced one barely undersized male while the Bainbridge ones produced about six or seven total rock crabs with three being keepers (one huge!). Tons and tons of pots within a mile or so of Shilshole. You could dang near walk across the water on 'em.

[Dave]

Good to hear Richardvw. Sounds like there is hope for the Camano Area.