Every time I go out on the boat in the autumn, I think it will be my last trip of the year. In spite of that, the gorgeous fall weather has compelled me to take advantage of it the last three weekends in a row. My wife had plans anyway, so I invited my coworker Todd to go crabbing with me. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get out there one more time before winter.
When we launched at around 8:00 a.m. it was a bit foggy at the Everett boat launch, but it burned off quickly as the sun rose higher in the sky. Todd managed to bait all four pots in the long “no wake” zone before we got to the Navy base and punched the throttle. The sea was unusually smooth, and it was an absolutely beautiful day to be on the water. Hat Island had a pretty little cloudy “hat” of its own. I let Todd drive on the way out to my new favorite crabbing spot off Camano Island, about 15 minutes north on Langley.
When we arrived at our fishing grounds, we soon realized that my electric crab pot puller wasn’t working. I reset the breaker and tried again, to no avail. I keep a Fluke 325 clamp meter aboard, and I used it to verify that there was power to the outlet and there was nothing wrong with the boat’s electrical system. We’d have to make do without the pot puller on this trip. Todd bravely volunteered to pull all the pots by hand. We dropped our four pots in a neat row at about 60 feet down, and then we had an hour to kill.
Typically we bottom fish during the first soak just to pass the time. With a freezer full of quality fish at home, I had decided not to keep any of the small fish we usually catch while doing this. Because of this I had brought two fishing rods and bait, but not a bucket, net, or kill bag. Last week when I was bottom fishing with Viktoria, we couldn’t catch anything. I wondered if all the sand dabs go down deep this time of year. In a few minutes though, Todd had caught and released one dogfish and two sand dabs. I finally latched onto something big and feisty, and assumed it was a dogfish. When I pulled it up, I saw that I had actually caught the biggest starry flounder I had seen so far! I’ve always hoped to catch one of those and see how they taste.
I was unprepared to keep a fish, but decided to do so anyway. We decided to bleed him out over the bilge and stick him in a bag under the ice in the cooler we use for crabs. In the process, I underestimated the sharpness of my new fishing knife and tried to bleed myself out as well. Fortunately I keep a first aid kit on board, and Todd helped me to get a bandaid on my finger. With that, we gave up on fishing and set about pulling pots. The first pot was very full of crab, mostly males. However, many of them were either not quite big enough, or were soft shells. I suspect that the males tend to molt around September, because Fish and Wildlife closes crabbing for that month, and I tend to notice a lot of soft shells in August and October.
Our first set yielded two keepers, and we felt that we were off to a good start. We dropped the pots a second time, and decided to head in to Langley, our usual stop for a lunch and bathroom break. We had to get pretty close to it to make good radio communication with them; I suspected they were using a little 5-Watt handheld. When we were finally able to talk to them, we were told that there was no moorage available whatsoever, a surprise during the off-season. It turns out that some yacht club had booked up the entire marina. Neither of us was desperate for the break, so we decided to postpone lunch and get back to crabbing.
Todd pulled the crab-laden pots up from 60 feet a total of 12 times. By early afternoon we had four crabs in the cooler, as well as the flounder, and we decided to call it a day. We didn’t hurry back, and took the scenic route around the west side of Hat Island just for fun. I took a good look around and savored the moment. Winter will soon put an end to our fun, at least in my little open boat. It’s been a great season though, and we had a very worthwhile outing to top it off.
Most of the fish I catch go into the freezer, but I just had to try that big flounder I caught. It was pretty tasty, with a very light, delicate flavor. I’m slowly getting better at different cooking techniques. This one was simple, just pan seared, breaded, seasoned with a little Old Bay, and baked at 425 for maybe 7-8 minutes. It was big enough for four thick servings. The top fillet had black skin, and the bottom fillet had white. The black part was very rough and abrasive, with no discernable scales. We found no bones in the middle part of the fish like salmon have. It was nice to catch and cook such a relatively unusual and uncommon fish.
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