CrabbingSep 29, 2011
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Floats
Catching Crabs
Catching Crabs
| I didn’t have to be at Ken and Mary Jo’s campsite until Noon so I worked on the journal in the morning while Carolyn did laundry. She got done just in time for me to head out. When I arrived, they were working on the crab pots. They had lost 3 of them the day before. They had left them out overnight and the tide took them out. We are crabbing in the Siuslaw River just before it empties into the ocean. With the boat they had, they can only go past a certain buoy toward the ocean before the Coast Guard shuts them down. They found the 3 floats for the pots, but it was past the buoy so they couldn’t go get them. The wave action is too much for the boat according to the Coast Guard, and they may capsize. Someone had given them some old ones and they were tying floats onto them. It didn’t take long before we headed out. They are camped right by the Marina so it was a short walk to the boat. The boat is about 16-18’ long and is equipped with a 6 cylinder motor. We drove downstream and found their spot close in to the shore in about 20’ of water. Think of World’s Deadliest Catch only in a smaller version and you will understand what we did. We threw out the first pot and then tooled downstream for a ways and threw out the next one until we had all 9 pots out. We had 2 different kinds of pots. Most were square and made out of wire. They were about 3’ by 3’. There is a bait cage in the inside. The outside walls have trap doors on the sides that they push open, crawl in and the door closes on them. The pots have ropes attached to them and the floats on the ends of the ropes. The 3 new ones they had were round and the top was open. The crabs crawled up the side and fell into the pot while going after the bait. After we had all the pots out, we went back to the first one and grabbed the rope with a boat hook and pulled the pot in. These were Dungeness crabs we were trying for. They have to be at least 5 ¾” measured across the back shell before they are legal to take. They also have to be male to keep them. We caught hundreds of crabs, but only got to keep 19 of them. We had to set and check all of the pots five times to get that many. Once the pot is hauled into the boat, you have to reach in and pick them up to check them and either throw them back or keep them and put them in a bucket. Now think of all the crabs you have seen pinch people on Americas Funniest Videos and you have an idea of how careful you have to be when we picked them up. The bait was old raw chicken and Salome fish parts that had been fermenting for a while. I got to do everything except drive the boat. It was a nice sunny day with a little breeze. It was great fun and I am glad I got to experience it. We got back to shore about 4:00 and started getting ready for dinner. We were having rotisserie chicken, but the group of Ken and Mary Jo’s friends were also going to cook all the crab and freeze them. So I got to taste the crab and they also barbecued some clams and I got to taste one of them. Both a first for me. I am not a big sea food lover, but I’m glad I tried them. I went home to get Carolyn and woke her from her nap with the cats. We had a great dinner with the chicken, mashed potatoes, sticky rice, fresh out of the garden cooked vegetables, pistachio salad and for dessert, banana cream pie. Now that’s my idea of camping. Yea Baby! We are moving inland tomorrow and starting our trip back home. We can’t believe we only have about a month left. Where has the time gone? |
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