Crabbing results anybody??

[A9]

Hey Sam,

Yea, I always cook my crab live in the Sound water. This trip since I was on my buddy’s boat, we went to his house after the outing and I decided to hang out and help him wash his boat and he cooked them up cleaning them first. Usually when I am a guest on his boat, I take my 5 home and cook them on my front porch in the Sound salt water but this time it was actually nice to just take them home cooked, cleaned and on ice. But I agree with you that they taste better cooking them live. I haven't sampled this limit yet but will tomorrow. It was a long day.

Not that you need any help out there Dave, sounds like you having plenty of success out there, but that "spot" in 8-2 I was let ya in on is kicking out crab pretty good too. I had dinner the other night with my grandpa who only crabs there and I asked him how he's been doing lately, he said he's only gone out once with the opener but the other weekend he and a neighbor dropped a few pots and in their first pull an hour later they had 20 keepers in the pot, needless to say their 10 crab limit was filled real quick, and had to pull their other pots since they were done, and had to dump a few more limits outta those other pots...

[Dave]

I'm always open to suggestions. Thanks to you, we did crab your spot about 3 weeks ago and did well there. I think one of our pots had 4 or 5 keepers in it in under 2 hrs. The other 2 we set their took keepers as well. The spot we have been returning to is kicking out lots of nice 7+ inch crab. There was no one else crabbing this area today although someone obviously was out there crabbing using our pots while we were away. They better not let us catch them doing that or they will loose their freedom or at the least receive a ticket in the mail by yours truly. Jerks!!!

[A9]

The spot we have been returning to is kicking out lots of nice 7+ inch crab.

Why leave then??? Sounds like you found a nice little spot to crab, why waste gas and run any further?

Good work on the crab man, love seeing the pictures, makes a report much better....

Not much beats the summer on the Puget Sound...Crab, salmon, what else can ya ask for?

Anyone else out there dropping pots? I think I might dump mine in this weekend....I'll return back with a report...

[Dave]

We saw no one else crabbing in our spot. I am sure you will do well if you crab this weekend. It's nice to fish and crab during the week. No one out there although there were lots of boats working possession. The Checker at the 10th Street launch in Everett said only 2 salmon were caught when we arrived at the launch at 1:30 pm. There was also a crab checker there this time. He said he had spoken with 8 crabbers and all had limited. So I am sure you will limit this weekend. Anyone crabbing south of Hat will limit if their pots don't get raided. Lots of keepers there for sure. I will watch for your report Sam. Good luck...

[racfish]

Darn it Dave.Im still on the DL.I'm dying to get out but sidelined 1 more week.Leave some there for me.I just need a few Dave.Youre taking all those bigguns.Nice job.Great pics.I'd much rather see a sportsperson get them then the @$%*# commercial crabbers.

[Dave]

Rac,

no worries#-o , there are surprisingly abundant numbers of keepers in this area. You would think it should be fished out by now because of the Saturday pressure coming from Everett but it isn't. PM me if you like for exact location. In talking with the crab checker at the launch, he told me that Tribes did crab in area 8-2 and 8-1 for x-amount (in pounds) of crab. I am here to tell you I thought once again we would have slim picking this year because of the early tribal and commercial season but that is not the case in 8-2. We are taking our limits every time out in just a few hours and man do they taste amazing. So next week feel free to PM me if you like for the loc. Hope you recover well.

Dave

[Dave]

My results from July 24th are on page 2. Here are the two pics I submitted with my report in the salt section, area 8-2. For some reason they didn't appear in the report.

[Rollin with Rolland]

FINALLY!! crabbing is really on in area 7 now. went three days in a row, got 14 nice keeper dungies. funny, one pot i pulled had 23 crab in it, but not one keeper!! here is a pic of a secluded spot overnight set....8 crab, 7 keepers, 3 went back and that was it for that day. It really is pretty good now....

[Dave]

Rolland, Congrats on your catch. Gotta love fresh dungies. Enjoy.

[Dave]

Five if us soaked 7 pots for 3 hours south of Hat Island this morning and killed em again. No egsaduration, we counted every keeper and there were 50 total, kept 25 all around 7 inches across, released the other 5 limits which blows my mind along with maybe 50+ others that were either females or just under legal sized males. Crabbing was again absolutely phenomenal. Just a few other buoys out there. One of the 7 pots we fished was again picked (I know this because it was all but empty and only 1 piece of chicken was left with almost no meat on it) but, it had 5 lonely keepers in it. The other 6 pots were full. I can’t remember when the last time I handled 50 keepers in just 3 hours. Absolutely amazing!

[A9]

3 sure isn't a lot, but I'll take 3 crab over 0 crab any day...

[Dave]

Sam, you are the Salmon Master ! Nice fish......

[Dave]

I haven't been out crabbing this week yet. My buddy went yesterday and took 3 limits, and returned 16 other keepers. He said there were several other boats crabbing which we haven't seen during the week in 8-2 until now. I hope to go in the next 2 days, will also fish for hatchery salmon.

Correction on my PM to AdamB, they kept 3 limits- 15, not 4 for 20. There were 4 on board but one was his 5 year old boy so they only kept 3 limits since he is not yet quite ready to pull pots himself although he makes the effort.

[The Quadfather]

Well... after reading Dave's reports I feel kinda week with my report. But I guess I will just mention if there is anybody in the N. Seattle area who is wondering what's up I with crabs, I pulled 3 nice crab out of Meadow point, specificly just off of the area called North Beach, between Carkeek park and Shilshoe marinea. about 60' of water.
It is all dungies in this area, kinda weird. My pots were 3/4 full, and I admit the majority were not the largest (of course the females were!)
But it's really my first night out since the wicked tides of opening week. If you live in the area,, I'm not to upset to give up the info. go have fun.

[Dave]

Q,

Good job. My good crabbing fortune was pure luck. I had never really crabbed in 8-2 so when we set our gear the first time out and found the best spot I have crabbed in, in years, it was a total fluke. It's been great to hear others are out there catchin crab. I have eaten more crab this season than I can remember. Anyway, nice work and by the way, good post topic, lots of replies.

Dave

[A9]

Last weekend = best weekend of the season thus far.... Our overnight soaks yielded on average a limit in every pot, depths ranging from 35 to 65 feet, salmon carcasses as bait.....Ended up giving away a bunch of crab, and its always funny. First two or three weeks in August are the best times for crabbing at our spot. I hope it continues....

[Rollin with Rolland]

Nice work sam K. I have never used salmon guts, but a few weeks ago my friend threw down his king carcass overnight, and man....8 crab...7 keepers. I'M SOLD on fresh salmon....quick and very effective. Good job again...

TONS of commercial gear up in area 7 now....a buddy of mine and his gf got 7 on Friday, but sounds like it may take a turn for the worse....

[Cantcatchnuthin']

First post.

My girlfriends brother and I usually do very well just south of the Mukeltio ferry dock about 2 miles. About 100yds off the shore. We only have 2 pots and we usually let them soak about 1 1/2 hours. Can usually get about 6-9 every time except the last time we went out it was all females.

We are using frozen turkey legs. Tie a big one in and then stab it about 5 or 6 times. Had better luck with that than the left over salmon parts.

[A9]

I'M SOLD on fresh salmon....quick and very effective.

Some folks say crab don't have a picky appetite. I'm don't believe entirely in that. I'm a big believer that the fresher, the better when it comes to bait. No freezer burned fillets or anything like that, nice, fresh carcasses are great crab producers....I freeze all my carcasses when its crab season and save them for my next crabbing adventures...

[Dave]

I completely agree Sam. I always use fresh chicken legs and this year we have limited more times than the last three years combined. I am sure finding a great spot with plenty of keepers is a big part of doing well crabbing, but fresh bait is in my opinion a very important piece of the puzzle. Fresh or even frozen salmon, is also a great choice.