No!!!!! Not the VD. Seriously though, my wife would really like to go crabbing and when your woman expresses interest in this sort of thing you don't dismiss it. I was wondering if anyone knows of some good pier/dock access for this sort of thing perhaps on hood canal or anywhere else that is open right now for crabbing. As you can probably guess I don't own a boat so that is why I am asking about shore access. Thanks in advance for the help folks.

sorry about the duplicate post feel free to remove this one

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the Hood Canal floating bridge has a lower level for crabbing.

I should have added this before, are there any health concerns with these crabs? Thanks again

I don't know if its open now, but you can always do pretty well in the Westport boat basin. Then you can also fish the jetty, or keep your wife from getting board by the small shops around.

Westport is usually a decent bet, but it does get hammered. Up side like posted by PS'n Cboy is that the wife can stay interested with alternative venues. Good bet is to take the beach highway south to Tokeland, get a room at the Tokeland Hotel, and enjoy the weekend. Cool place, funky turn of the century inn that is not foofy or pretentious (we have our DU banquets there) more like a lodge. Good food not pricey and sits right where the Willapa dumps into the Pacific at Cape Shoalwater. Beautifull area and you can go crabbing off the Tokeland pier. If crabbing sucks in Westport or thier, buy sone off the local crab boats for a reasonable price.

The crabs in the canal are probobly the cleanest in the area, no worries there. Places to go include the lower leval on the Hood Canal bridge, access on the East side, I think they get quite a few Rock Crab here, but I imagine the occasional Dungie is possible. Seabeck marina has a few crab available too. South end of the canal at Hoodsport and at Twanah (sp) State Park are usually decent opptions, try hitting these at a higer tide. I think you will find that all these get fairly heavily harvested, but definately worth a try. I have been doing better with Turkey then Salmon lately, but i'm in a boat in the north end.

NEN

I've noticed over the years that I do better with turkey legs for crab during and just after all the salmon are gone. I think they really welcome the turkey after so much fish.
I have found a commercial geoduck bed and I crab just off the ledge from it. My kid and I get our limit in about 2 hours and not one is less than 7".
Good luck.

Interesting. I haven't used turkey in my crab pots before. The primary bait I have been using is mink, and it has worked like a charm.

This was in Yaquina Bay near Newport, mind you. Does anyone up here in Washington use mink?

where do you get these so called "mink"? white meat seems to be better than red meat for crabbing, maybe its due to differant oils released?im gonna try to hit the hood canal bridge this weekend for crab, how deep is the water thru there? alot of current?

Try one of these crab catching nets while you're at it.



http://www.crabhawk.com/

I can vouch that they really do work well for crab. If you crab the Westport basin your odds of getting a keeper will go up quite a bit. The crabs around the docks get hit hard but if you can cast out 40-50 feet you'll find some keepers.

Turkey meat is definitely a good stuff for them. I tried both legs and wings, and it seems like the wings work a little better.

These "so called" mink are real mink, an aquatic rodent. They are farmed in Oregon for a variety of products, including hypoallergenic soaps and the like. Their furs are used in the fur industry, and the farmers typically sell the carcasses as crab bait. Mink have a strong scent gland, making them an ideal bait.

http://www.furcommission.com/farming/role.htm

I purchased my bait at Sawyer's Landing, a small dock/launch crane/store about 5 miles upbay from Newport.

I used fish carcasses for a while until the sea lions began tearing my crabpots apart. I switched to chicken for a while, but the amount of crab caught dropped significantly. This last time out I used mink, and it worked as well as the fish did.

i was sure they were farmed but i know i wouldnt touch one of them stinky things..

Three words: Disposable Rubber Gloves

Got 4 crabs friday and 6 saturday using old freezer burned salmon heads. On a couple of pulls the pots were so full of crab they were hard to lift.

Horse Clams or butter Clams work very well. Squid is also great for the scent box, that I attach to the top of the pot along with that commercial scent.
Salmon backs and heads are my favorite then turkey legs have also been known to use mergansers every once in awhile.

This has also worked, and I really do not no why but we did some expermenting this past season with it. We put empty alluminum cans inside of the pots (3-4) and for some reason those pots out fished the ones with out cans.

BTW, the pier at the end of Blaine Harbor can yield ya some excellent crabbing. I am not sure if the north part of area 7 is still open for sport crabbing?

duroboat, were the dungy's or red rock, and was it out in hood canal off a boat or dock?

BB,

All were dungys 4 of them 7"+. Using pots in Hood canal.
Out of my boat.

anybody got any reports from hood canal, do they get many good dungy's off the docks under the bridge? or is a red rock show only?

Berkely Boy,
Most of the crab I've seen come off the docks in the north end of the canal (up by the bridge) have been Red Rocks with a few dungy mixed in. At the south end of the canal you get more dungy than the red rocks.

I was out last weekend and did real well, But Unfortunately right now it seems a lot of the crabs are coming off a molt... so you'll get a lot of soft shells that need to go back.

Gotta agree with the freezer burnt salmon heads as best bait. Especially if you let them sit in the sun for a day or two. Have tried turkey legs, but they tend to fall off the bait hook a little too easy. Also, the biggest problem last year crabbing at area 8-2 were pot robbers. Several neighbors of ours at Camano had the same problem. And I am talking human robbers, not seals.

How deep is it off that Hood Canal bridge? I was there last weekend just driving by, stopped and walked down to the fishing area, and it was empty, nobody was there.

Take a sharp hatchet and split the frozen salmon heads down the middle. Twice as much bait and it exposes the oils in the head. Works really well.