Yesterday I got a phone call from a young man purporting to be working for an agency in Bellevue doing a research poll for WDFW.

Questions he asked:

Have you fished for and caught Dungeness crab (Ithink he said area 8-1 8-2) since Ap. 14?

Have you fished for and caught halibut since Ap 14 (can't remember if he specified an area)

Have you caught halibut incidentally fishing for rockfish since Ap 14??

Anybody know what's up with this ??

peri,
I know this isn't part of your post but i gotta ask anyways. My dad and i wanna go crabbin out of nehalem but I want to know the best time of the year to go.
I heard a rumor that months with "r" are the best times to go.
plz help ty

I got a call Thursday night. Actually it was for my 8 year-old daughter so I took the call. Asked about dungeness crab. My daughter hasn't caught anything so there wasn't much info to relay.

What is up with this survey?

The called me quite a while back with the same questions (I live in Idaho). I asked the surveryor why this new survey and she said it was because so many do not turn in their punchcards and they are wondering if the decrease in crab numbers is due to sport creels or commercials..... I replied "c'mon, now what do you folks think?"
Seemed surprised by my response and asked me what I meant by that and I replied that when they allow the big commercial rigs to crab in the sound (instead of the ocean where they should be) and the tribal 50% fishery is watched and monitored so loosely, and crap sells for $6- $8 lb retail that it does not take a brain surgeon to figure out where they are going.... "Oh" was the reply.......

MC

Bentpole ........ I have heard that months with 'R' thing also (it might be an old wives tale) or it could refer to months when their shells aren't soft (molting).

Nehalem --that's Oree-gone isn't it?
Run that question by the folks on IFISH.net.. They are always talking about crabbing on the Oregon coast...

I received a call last night from these same people for my step son, Scott, who was at his dads. So i answered the questions for him, as his dad does not take him fishing, and was told that they were doing it to compile numbers for the division of the take. I told her the same thing that the commercials and the tribes sweep through the area and we have to find someplace else to crab, wipes them out til the next season, Fishy......

They called me too.

The gal that I talked to said that they try to call about 10% of the license holders to get some data on the amount of crab taken by sportsman. She only wanted info off my card, even though I usually go crabbing with my wife and kids - thus they have many crab on their cards, too.

I'm glad they're making an effort to collect some real data from sportsmen. We'll all be much better off if they make their decisions based on actual data, rather than for political reasons.

Why doesn't the wdfw setup their web site so we can enter our catch electronically? That way we/they would have a gauge on catch rates for the year. Instead of taking a year for the info to be counted by state workers....

just a thought...

My dad and brother limited on crabs in 2 hours over Labor Day weekend. They live in Portland. I guess my mom was waiting on the docks at Wheeler for the 2 hrs and wathed 35-40 kings come out to be weighed. My dad said some were 25-35 lbs and they saw lots of people catching fish around the state park boatramp. The crabs are usually in August - October. I have been there in May and it was empty