Crabbing with Captain Mike

Yesterday Oliver and I went crabbing with Captain Mike. It's easy to do; the first time we tried to do this two years ago- to our amazement, we pulled up some crabs. So this type of fishing is for me. The experience does carry some fishing zen; waiting if only ten minutes before retrieving the net (the kids prefer five minutes). Also standing on a pier enveloped in fog and above us are seagulls, and below may be a big sea lion that when the spot is full of fisherman, knows that an easy meal is on someone's line. We have had memorable experiences watching leopard sharks and jellyfish, and a couple of times a sea star (star fish) wandered into our net. It can be very cold or as yesterday, very pleasant with minimal wind.

Preparation requires crabbing attire and crabbing state of mind.

Disclosure: we toss back any crabs we catch. You need a net/basket similar to what we have here with a pouch that can hold some chicken or turkey meat. Also a long rope or tie that does not become waterlogged which we have wrapped onto the basket in several places. A good toss in the bay and the basket will soon settle approximately 20 feet down. Crabs will hopefully be attracted to the bait, able to pick out pieces of it, and become distracted about sitting in the basket- even when the basket is being pulled up and out of the water.
such form! keep your feet free from the rope...


Success! Joy! Or just Oliver jumping up and down...Dexter baked in the sun earlier in the day during baseball camp (but secretly wanted to watch Eureka with Maria) so he stayed home although he's always been the #1 assistant. And yes, this can be a little gross.


Red Claw an Rock Crab that has a shell of at least 4" long (maybe it's 6"- but since we never take 'em, i forget the size) can be taken if you have a license or if a young person is crabbing! Dungeness can not be taken in this area for this is where they breed. Always careful as the sides of the pier are very low. Keep an eye on the kids. Have them sit or kneeling when anywhere near the edge.

It's fun looking at other people's buckets- one guy had an eel but accidentally poured it back. The photo of the multiple crabs is from the people who were crabbing across from us. Honestly catching this many would have creeped me out. We caught four today. Four doesn't creep me out.
Part of the fun is trying to pick these guys up from the back- because they can reach back in so many ways and pinch you. Half the time you're just wanting to untangle them from the net. Once they realize that it's generally in their best interest to let go of the bait at this point, they are real grumpy creatures.


I think this is a dungeness. The other photo above is a red claw. No, haven't done much research except prior to our first attempt. Best thing from my research is to use chicken or turkey with bones, and nothing fancy. When we are done, we try to throw the bait into the water for the crabs but the seagulls usually pick off some of the offerings.


Michael got into tossing the guys back. Oliver avoided any possibility of getting pinched. I may try to attach RZradio transmitter tracking devices in the future. The likelihood of my actually doing this is absolutely zero but I did sound scientific for a sentence. Simply it's fun to throw stuff in the water, sit and relax, pull the thing out of the bay to find new residents (hopefully) each time.
Work crew at rest. Pretty satisfied with the way the day has turned out. Oliver is ready to pack up and play catch away from the water on a grassy field. Captain Mike is ready to see Barbara. I'm ready for exercise.