Saturday we decided to head south and catch a few crabs. Boat in tow we planned on a 7:00 am launch at Norton Street in Everett. When we arrived, the primary trailer lot was almost full and we figured that the water was going to be a zoo. The launch line went pretty fast and we were motoring down river by 7:00. Out of the river mouth we made a quick run up to the north tower and laid out our first set. We were hanging salmon heads and using leftover frozen sand shrimp (I save most of my leftover sand shrimp in the freezer for crab bait) in the bait containers. We set our first string in 25’-50’ of water. Last pot in we motored up current and set the hook to wait out the next hour or two. The time went quickly and we got ready to pull the first set, but wait…

We couldn’t find the pen anywhere. In Washington the regulations require that you mark your crabs before the pot goes back in the water and with no pen we were screwed. After discussing our options and knowing the crab/crab pot theft problems out of Everett we decided to pull all the pots, load them back onboard and make a run for the ramp to get a pen out of the truck. Each pot we pulled had 10-20 crabs and 1-2 keepers in it but we had to dump them all back in the water. It was kind of hard to take but the rules are rules.

Back on the water and second set in by 11:30 the waiting game resumed. The current had let up a little so we made the set in 35’-70’ of water. As a test we pulled the first pot in the set after about 1 hour and we had crabs so we worked down the line and ended up with a number of nice sized keepers. Having enough bait on board for 3 sets we re-baited and set number three was sent to the bottom. This time all pots were set in 50’ of water. We pulled set three around 2:00 and again ended up with 1-2 keepers per pot. I think that overall we caught 10 crabs for each keeper. Our big crab of the day was almost 8”.

The day was a blast, the weather was perfect and we had crab loui salad for dinner. Although the ramp was busy the crabbing wasn’t crowded and our launch and retrieval was quick and orderly.

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