"Deadliest" Dungeness
Crab advice from a crabbing king
By Joel ShangleEditor's note: Based in North Puget Sound and operating from Alaska to Baja, Joel Shangle has been a news junkie on the West Coast saltwater scene since the 1990s, first as editor of California Fishing & Hunting News' and now as editor of California Sportsman, which hits newsstands in October. He's the host of Northwest Wild Country, a popular fishing and hunting radio show airing throughout western Washington, and has the deepest source list this side of the Library of Congress. In other words: if you're catching fish on the West Coast, just try to get away from him.
I feel like I'm about to ask Tiger Woods how to hit through the windmill on the local putt-putt course. But, as I find myself at the lunch table with Capt. Keith Colburn of the 156-foot, Seattle-based crab vessel Wizard — you may have seen him on a little program called "Deadliest Catch" — I know I have to take my swings.
Dungeness crab season is at full, raging boil up and down the West Coast right now, with crabbers dropping pots on eelgrass flats and off docks from Alaska to northern California. I have access to a guy who drives one of the most productive boats in the history of the Bering Sea's infamous crab fishery.
JS: "Are there any universal truths to crab fishing? You're fishing for 100 tons of king and Opilio crab on the Bering Sea, the rest of us are fishing for a limit of Dungeness crab in Puget Sound, Winchester Bay, Shelter Cove, etc. Are there any things that translate from where you fish to where we fish?
KC: "Heck yeah. The one universal truth is, make sure you bait the heck out of the pot. Don't sell yourself short there. Whether you're using a turkey leg, a salmon head, salmon carcasses, whatever, throw plenty of bait in there."
JS: "So just load 'em up and send 'em down, simple as that?"
KC: "Also, make sure you throw something in there they can actually get at and eat. One thing I've found with king crab — and I assume this is true of Dungies — is that when they get in a pot and start feeding, they start making noise. Their shells are clacking together and they'll make a feeding noise that'll draw other crab into the pot.
"The major difference in fishing for Dungies and the king crab up north is that Dungies can see. They're a shallow-water crab. The crab I fish for don't see anything — they're down there in the dark, totally blind. The thing they do have in common, though, is that they both feed based on scent and sound. That goes back to the theory of giving them something to chew on: if there are three or four crab in a pot scraping and clawing at a fish head or a piece of meat, they're making a feeding sound that'll bring other crab around."
JS: "What sort of range do you think that applies?"
KC: "Sound travels a long ways underwater, and it'll travel up-current. One thing they've show in video, with king crab especially, is that they only travel into the current. If the feeding-sound theory is true, you're hitting two perceptions: you have the scent that crab are coming up-current for, but if you throw the sound in there, a crab that might be just a little up-current of the pot will move a little down-current to go feed as well.
"You'll get a higher catch per pot."
JS: "What's in your bait bucket on board the Wizard?"
KC: "Herring, sardine ... I want a pretty sticky, oily fish so it's releasing a lot of oil into the water. Those have a pretty long duration, too. You can go probably 48 hours or more where herring and sardine are releasing oil into the water and getting a scent out there.
"For hang bait, we use a lot of fresh codfish. Guys have used everything from codfish to salmon, but if you're going to use salmon, it's better if it has the eggs in it. Salmon roe works really well. If your salmon has that skein of eggs in it, you're going to see an increase in catch. Salmon eggs are so oily, they work really well."
JS: "How about finding a good crab spot? Up on the Bering Sea, you're going bombs away on millions of square miles of water, with sonars, GPS, etc. blazing. What about puttering out into your local bay and finding a spot?"
KC: "Guys will generally go back to the same hole over and over again and call it good. I guess that's no different than what we do: we head straight to the traditional places where crab like to hang out. If you're actively looking for new spots, though, you have to think about it a little bit. What's the bottom like? What's the current like? Depending on the time of year, what's the temperature like?
"From year to year, you're going to have variations in temperature, where the food source is deeper or shallower. With crab — and it doesn't matter where you're fishing for them — it's all about temperature. They're chasing whatever food source is following the thermocline."
JS: "There have been more than a few times where every boat in the fleet pulls up a string of pots with nothing in them ..."
KC: "Yeah, and that means you have to have a good bailout spot. If your go-to spot that year is dead, you better have a backup in mind. There's nothing worse than going out fishing — and maybe you only have one weekend and one hot spot — and having to go to the store afterward to buy something to eat."
JS: "So you have temperature, bottom structure ... how about tides?"
KC: "Make sure you hit more than one tide. Some people get out there, get excited, and pull everything up after just one tide. Unless you're on a big pile of crab, pulling after one tide is a good way to get disappointed. Try to leave your stuff down through the flood, ebb and slack, and if you have an opportunity to soak them overnight, do it. That way you're playing several tides."
JS: "Anything I'm not thinking of?"
KC: "Take every single good luck charm you've got. I have no idea how many superstitions I have, but it's amazing to think about how many things I have to have on board before we can leave. Most of them, I don't even remember until I get on the boat. You fall into a pattern where you're successful, and you've always done it a certain way, so there's no reason to stop repeating that pattern. I know, it sounds almost creepy."
JS: "That includes the Cup o' Noodles, of course ..." (Colburn's Cup o' Noodles superstition delayed the start of the Wizard's season in 2007 when he refused to leave Dutch Harbor until his crew could locate a Cup o' Noodles for him to use as a spittoon in the wheelhouse.)
KC: "Don't leave home without it. You can use it as a spittoon while you're out there, and even if you don't catch any crab, you can have a hot meal on the way home."
