Headed to Area 9 to do some winter crabbing. Had good success catching 9 rock crab in about 2-3 days. Have about close to zero success catching any Dungeness in this area between Oak Bay and Port Ludlow. Put my 2 pots out late afternoon the first day planning on getting them before dark. The dang tide that day was going out much quicker than I expected. Could have went to get my pots,but would have had to leave the boat on the mud coming back in. Then walk through some very sticky,deep mud back and forth twice(the second time would be to get the boat at 12-1am when the tide would be back in to the dock). So, the pots stayed out for a longer soak. Leaving the pots that long definitely did not help with my success. One of my pots is a cheap four sided folding pot. Works good for 3-4 hour soaks,but the crab can easily leave this kind of pot. By the time I pulled that pot the next day my bait was completely gone. Had been picked clean except for the meatless salmon head still there. Well,that meant no bait,no crab stayed in the pot. My second pot is a little bit better 6 sided light metal gage plastic coated style. It has a welded in bait cage with smaller mesh openings. The bait was picked pretty good,but still half of it was there. Had 3 rock crab(all keeper size)/5 3/4 inch to 6 inch. I'm sure there were bigger males in this pot,but probably left when the bait wasn't very appealing any more. Put the pots out the next day determined to get them after a much shorter soak. Left them out for about 4 hours. The cheap pot had 2(nothing big,but legal size) and still bait in the cage. The better pot had 4 keepers(2 easily over 6 inch)and most the bait left. I have usually in the past checked my pots 3-5 hours after setting them and can get a limit of 6 rock crab most the time. Funny thing is I don't catch "any" dungeness,not even sub-legal size. This area has some wicked current at times. And the wind,waves can kick up very quickly. If you don't know where to put your pots or have proper floats and some weight to the pot....that pot/pots will be gone! Even if your pot stays on the bottom,the floats can get sucked under and won't pop up until the tide slacks and/or drops. If the pot is too light,but has good floats it will get pulled off the bottom and float away with the current(a lot of people think their pot is stolen because of this scenario). Would have liked to have been trolling for winter blackmouth while the pots were soaking,but it is closed for salmon right now. Good luck! Merry Fishmas! Happy Holidays!

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