Did a trip to the Siuslaw today.

[plumbertom]

Been reading poor crabbing reports so I wasn't gonna drive to Coos Bay.
Tried two hours before and two hours after the noon low tide.
Took exactly one legal crab.
Altogether we may have trapped 25-35 or so shorts. I'm sure many more slipped out while retrieving the traps.
Strangely none of the shorts were female. all males.
Even more strangely, they were all missing one or both pincher claws. some had new ones growing back.
Also we trapped no less than 12 green crabs, which were destroyed.
Not a great day crabbing but it beat sitting around the house.

 

[Fummus]

Glad you were able to get out, and totally agree that getting out and giving it a go beats sitting around the house any day. After all, if our only aim was to bring home food, we'd save a ton of money and time by just going to the store.

 

[rogerdodger]

good job destroying the green crabs, I've never found the Siuslaw to have keeper crabs in the winter even down between the jetties, especially after it has hit flood stage once or twice. I usually start checking the Siuslaw in late-May/early-June to get a feel for whether it's going to be a good year for summer crabbing....

I am aware that there have been issues in the past with people on the crabbing dock breaking pinchers off shorts and tossing the crabs back in...I like to think that karma evens the score with folks like that eventually.

 

[GaryP1958]

The commercials are notorious for taking one claw its their TAKE!

 

[Crabman]

Feel your pain regarding crabbing the Slaw. I launched my kayak yesterday from the beautiful cove beach near the crabbing dock at low slack and worked three pots for about three and a half hours. I did manage to get nine crabs but they were as small as they legally could be and many were only about 50% filled out. Also, as you mentioned, many had missing claws. Strangely, no green crab for me. It was, however, a beautiful day on the water.