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Catching and Eating Crab at the Columbia Beach House

Dungeness crab are abundant in Possession Sound and can be caught when the season is open.  They are fairly easy to catch, if you know how, and are absolutely delicious.  If you like that frozen and thawed crab in the grocery store, you will love this!

You need a Washington State shellfish license to catch crab.  Each license holder can retain up to 6 crabs.  Click here  for information, closures, etc.  The recreational crab fishery in Marine Area 8-2 is currently closed.  There is no fixed date for when it will close, though it was open for much of the last two summers.  Watch the website above for openings and closings, usually announced a week or two in advance.

We have a couple of crab ring nets, ropes and floats hanging under the deck.  Go ahead and use them, but please keep track of them.  At times, the tidal currents are strong enough to carry them away.  You'll catch the most crab by returning every 20 minutes or so to check on them.

Directions for Catching Crab

Large Dungeness crabs become active and move around when the current is nearly still.  This is when they will walk onto a crab net.  When the current is strong, you will generally only catch small ones.  At the Whidbey Island Beach House, the current stops between about half an hour before high tide and about an hour after low tide.  Tides at the Beach House.  The crabbing is generally good about one hour on either side of these times.

The way a crab net works is that bait (typically fish heads or the cheapest chicken you can find) is put into a cage in the center of the net.  The net is dropped into the water (30 to 40 feet deep) where it lays on the bottom.  Crabs come walking along the bottom looking for food and stop on top of the net to try to get the bait out of the cage.  Your task is to suddenly pull up the net before the crabs can scramble off of it.  Once the net is being pulled up through the water, its shape makes it difficult for the crabs to get out (speed counts because they can still crawl out). 

A rope, about 40 feet long, is tied between a float and the net.  It is important that the depth of the water is less than the length of the rope.  If the water is too deep, the float will keep the net from going to the bottom, preventing the crabs from reaching it and allowing the whole rig to drift away in the current.  The float should be floating freely with loose rope after the net has made it to the bottom.

Expect to find lots of crabs (up to 20 at a time) when you pull up the nets, but most will be too small or female.  Gently put everything but the large males back in the water.  The crabs can pinch very hard, so be careful..  The best place to grab them is from behind.  Gloves give a measure of protection because they allow you to get your finger out if you do get pinched.

Put the crabs you catch into a large bucket or ice chest with no lid.  Soak a cloth or paper in salt water and cover the crabs.  Keep them out of the sun whenever possible.  They should live for at least 3 or 4 hours while you prepare for your feast.  Do not immerse the crabs in water as they may not get enough oxygen to survive.   

Cooking Dungeness Crab

The simplest method of cooking crab is to take a large pot (in the kitchen cupboard), put about 2 inches of water in it and bring it to a full boil.  Put a crab in the pot  and close the lid (it won't be happy, but the steam acts fast).  Once the pot is boiling again, add the next crab, and so on.  Let the pot boil for 20 minutes after the last crab was put in.  Dinner is ready. 

While the method above seems to work OK, more experienced crabbers tell us it is better to get a large pot of salt water (from the Sound) boiling and then immerse the crabs in the water.  The flavor is reported to be more intense with the natural seasoning.

Eating Dungeness Crab

Most everything on a crab is edible, but most people prefer to just eat the meat.  The legs and claws are pretty obvious (there are tools in the silverware drawer), but the shell is more challenging.  At the back of the shell, where the top meets the bottom, force the handle end of a fork in between.  Twist the fork handle and pop off the shell.  Discard the shell and all the green or brown stuff (some people eat it, but most prefer to avoid it).  Pull the gills (soft protrusions about 30mm long and 5mm diameter) off of the body and wipe or rinse way any remaining green or brown stuff. 

Enjoy!

Crab is good to eat!	You can also catch shrimp at the beach house, although it is lots of work and the season is short

E-mail: columbia@whidbeybeach.com        Phone: 206-353-4813