Crabbing with Kids: Teaching the Next Generation

On Monday I got to play fishing guide for a day. My friend James and his family are visiting from out of town, and he asked me to take his kids out fishing so that they could experience Puget Sound. When we picked the date, we didn’t realize it would be the cloudiest day in a month. Furthermore, it was forecast to be a bit blustery in the afternoon near Langley where I wanted to fish. I came up with a contingency plan of fishing near Everett in the afternoon, and decided the trip was a “go”. I had never put four people in my boat before, because it’s really designed for three adults. However, his 10-year old boy and 13-year old girl together weigh about the same as one adult, so when I added it up we were well within the boat’s limits. They could fit together on my front cooler seat.

When I met Elise and Lukas I informed them that on my boat they would be crew members, not passengers, and I put them to work. They held the boat to the dock for me while I launched and drove away with the empty trailer. I showed Lukas how to pull the fenders in, and taught Elise how to tie up the dock lines. They and their Uncle John climbed aboard, we waved goodbye to their parents, and pulled away from the dock. The plan was to meet their father in Langley. During the long, slow “no wake” cruise to the south end of the jetty, I showed the kids how to bait our two crab pots with chicken while their uncle steered the boat. When we got to the Navy base everybody took their seats, I punched the throttle, and turned northwest across the bay at a cruising speed of around 19 knots.

Despite the blustery forecast, it proved to be one of the calmest days I’d ever been on the water. Because it was a Monday, the usual forest of crab pot buoys was quite thin, and the smooth ride felt quite serene despite the droning engine. When we got to Langley, their father was still in line for the ferry in Mukilteo. So, we just crossed over to our planned fishing spot off Camano Island. I showed the kids how to drop the crab pots without tangling lines, and how to attach the big red flag buoy. Then I got out the poles and taught them how to bottomfish for sand dabs. The plan was to catch and release, but within five minutes Elise had already reeled in her first fish of her life, the biggest sand dab of the day. I decided it was big enough to keep, and put it in the bucket. It was easy fishing, and the kids found the activity to be engrossing. Elise counted 17 that she caught throughout the day (including one dogfish shark), and Lukas caught nine. Uncle John had a job, too, which was unhooking and releasing each fish, and re-baiting their rods with bits of squid.

After an hour, we went to check our crab pots. The kids took turns grabbing the flag out of the water as I drove past it. I taught Lukas how to run the electric pot puller, and I taught Elise how to coil the line into a figure 8 so it wouldn’t tangle the next time we drop. They learned quickly. The first pot had just one crab, and the second had three. I moved to deeper water, we dropped the pots again, and resumed fishing. After another hour we retrieved the pots a second time. This time we had quite a few more crabs, and managed to get our first keeper of the day. After we dropped a third time, I let Elise drive us across Saratoga Passage to Langley. Their father was at the dock waiting for us, and she blurted out, “Dad! I got to drive a boat!”

When they returned from lunch in town, the grownups had traded places. Jim decided to ride back in the boat while Uncle John drove home. I let Lukas drive us back to our crab pots, and their father was treated to a show of their crab-pulling prowess. By this time, the kids could confidently do everything themselves with little supervision. I only had to hoist the heavy pots aboard. The next pot earned a lot of oohs and aahs, as it was pretty full of crabs. Between those last two pots, we got three more keepers. My least favorite part of crabbing is sorting out all the crabs, throwing all the females and small males overboard. The little monsters try to grip the pot for dear life, or are determined to get that last snack of chicken, all while trying to kill you or each other. However, the kids were fascinated by this process, and were unafraid of the hostile little creatures. They were happy to do it all themselves. The chance to interact with strange wild animals, plus the game of trying to get them all out of the pot, was endlessly entertaining to them. This was exactly the experience Jim had hoped to give his children.

When our cooler was full of four live crabs, we stowed our gear and I let Elise drive for more than half an hour back to Everett. We stopped at the big anchored wood chip barge to do a little last-minute fishing. The kids each caught one or two more, but by then the tidal current was growing stronger. It was getting hard to keep the boat in one place, and we could no longer drop a weighted fishing line to the bottom vertically. The kids were sad to have to stop fishing, but it had been a fabulous day. I let Lukas drive the last little bit through the choppy area by the Navy base, and into the channel as far as the fuel dock. While we were offloading at the boat ramp and Fish and Wildlife was grilling me about my catch, a seal swam right up to the boat and hung out for a couple of minutes, giving the kids another encounter with wildlife.

It was my first time taking kids on my boat in a long time, and I realized how much fun it was to share my passion with them. They got to live in my world for a day, but I also got to live in theirs, and to experience their sense of wonder at the beauty of nature. To top it all off, they had gained confidence in some interesting new skills. It reminded me a lot of my days as a scoutmaster. Their parents probably had no idea what to do with Elise’s sand dab, but she was very proud of it and wanted to take it home and cook it. When the kids are happy, everybody is happy, and the kids clearly had a very special day.