Today’s summer crabbing opener was crazy but strangely festive. Accompanying me today was my good friend Dave. Knowing that slack tide would be around 10:00 a.m., I asked him to arrive about 8:00. When we got there, we found the vast parking lot at the Port of Everett 10th Street Boat Launch to be completely full. Rows and rows of trucks with empty boat trailers filled every available space. I had never seen it this crowded. We decided to pull over next to the parking fee machine and set up our boat there. There was a group of volunteers there from the Snohomish County Marine Resources Committee and the WSU Beach Watchers. They were handing out kits to people which included an extra crab gauge, and were trying to educate people about how to prevent lost pots. Did you know that 12,000 crab and shrimp pots are lost each year in Puget Sound? Each one of them could be a hazard to crabs for a long time to come, although frankly I think they probably lose their appeal once the bait is gone. We launched without much wait, but then I had to drive all over looking for parking with David and my boat sitting at the dock. I finally found a spot down by the Weyerhaeuser Building, and then had to hike all the way back to the boat launch. I clearly wasn’t the only one in this predicament.
When we finally got underway, it was almost 9:00. We had to navigate through the expected forest of crab pot buoys on the way out of the channel; a lot of people like to drop their pots right there close to the Navy base. I like to beat the crowd, so we headed to the north end of Hat Island, a well-known productive area. David got to learn all about crabbing. I let him bait and set all the pots. My new “figure 8” rope coiling technique was a winner; we didn’t have a single serious tangle in our lines the whole day. When all four pots were down, we got out the fishing rods and started fishing for sand dabs. I had told David that I didn’t have time to deal with all those fish this weekend, so if he wanted to catch them then he’d have to take them home. He had heard they were good and wanted to try them. The next hour was a turkey shoot; We were often getting bites within seconds of our line hitting the bottom. We were spending more time killing the fish and re-baiting than we were actually fishing. A couple of fish had little chomps taken out of them by some other animal; I decided that sand dabs are the potato chips of the sea.
After an hour we decided to check our pots. Each one was full of crabs; some had 12 or 15. Keepers were few and far between though. You can only keep males which are at least 6-1/4″ across their carapace. The first two pots yielded one keeper each, which was encouraging. The next two had none. Each pot was reset, and we decided to run over to Langley, ten minutes away, to see if we could eat our sack lunches by the dock. However, when we got there the small marina was full. They did allow us to dock in a reserved berth for a quick bathroom break. We returned to our pots and ate our lunch while bobbing on the sea. It was a beautiful day, and fairly calm except for the multitude of boat wakes. Afterwards, we pulled our pots again. Alas, despite an abundance of female crabs and occasional small males, we had no more keepers.
I was concerned about strong winds which were forecast for later in the afternoon. We decided to fish for another half hour and then return. By the end, we had 12 sand dabs in the kill bag, not including a half a dozen small ones which we threw back. The limit is generous, 15 per person per day. Dave really enjoyed driving on the way back. Except for a few huge wakes we hit which knocked our crabs pots all ajar, it was a perfect day to be on the water. As we approached Everett the water got quite rough; I’ve always noticed that that spot by the Navy base is often a washing machine when all else is calm. At our fuel stop Dave insisted on buying the gas, but I had only burned 3.2 gallons. The attendant there said that I was the third smallest bill of the day. Fuel efficiency is one of the many advantages of having such a small boat. Right as we approached the boat launch the winds picked up quite suddenly and abruptly; our timing was perfect. Although there were many boats lined up at docks waiting to be towed up the ramp, everybody was pretty patient and self-organizing. Nobody was supervising the circus, but the show went off pretty well. It was a fun day.
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