Once again absolutely great crabbing in 8-2. We (3 of us) set 6 pots south of Hat Island in 65 to 80 feet of water at 7am and returned to check them at noon. 3 of the 6 pots had been raided or picked by unknown A-H’s, the other three yielded 30 male keepers. We kept our 15 and returned 15 keepers to the water. No fictitious stories here, one pot had 38 crab in it. OMG it was absolutely fantastic! We have crabbed this spot now 3 weeks in a row and have limited effortlessly every time out. On a side note, while the pots soaked, we fished Possession for salmon. Lots of boats doing the same. Although we caught no salmon we did catch and release a Ling Cod we estimated at about 15 to 20 pounds which we photographed. It was a beautiful fish. I am unable to post the picture of the Ling being held by my buddy for reasons associated with our jobs. Trust me when I tell you it was a very nice healthy fish. The biggest Ling I have seen in person while fishing.

We were also greeted by two WDFW Officers in a nice welded aluminum fishing boat equipped with two poles displayed on both sides of the boat, to the rear. The only markings on the boat were small white letters that read WDFW. It was very cool and they were great. We would have loved to have caught whoever thought it was okay to take crab from 3 of our pots. Next time we won’t stray so far from our pots and if someone makes that bad decision again, they may not be so lucky! Anyway;

Photo # 1 This pot had 38 crab in it, 10 were oversized keepers around 7 inches each, 8 others were barely under legal size, and I mean barely under, the rest were females or small males.

Photo # 2 is one of the many that were easily 7 inches. Quality crab!

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