Ocean crabbing off the Columbia River

[Irishrover]

Crabbing was fantastic the other day just a few miles south of the Columbia River South Jetty. We had 12 pots out for an hour and decided to check the first few. We had 30 good size keepers in our first three pots. It was no trouble getting our 48 crab. We ended up dumping out an incredible amount of legal back into the ocean because we had our limits way before we hit the end of the string. Shad, razor clams, salmon heads and such were used for bait. We set them to soak in 55 to 60 feet of water in a nice smooth ocean.

 

[Chromatose]

:thumb:

 

[rogerdodger]

oh yeah!

 

[Gulfstream]

Razor clams for bait...? interesting

 

[Irishrover]

A retired commercial fisherman that I know mentioned it to me. He said it was a mainstay for bait when he was commercial crabbing. When we go clamming we save the crushed clams for bait. They work well, we try not to crush them but things happen.