Northwest Fishing Reports

Hello my fellow forumers... My dad thinks im an idiot, but im trying to target the red rock crab. Personally it blows the dungenous right out of the salt in terms of taste. I like the toughness of them. Dungenous just breaks apart and i dont like that. I know that the puget sound is home to alot of pockets holding these delicious crabs but i have alot of trouble finding them. Is there anyone who is willing to help me find these? I dont need a honey hole or anything. Just some advice.

Redrock Crab are a lot like Squawfish, I can catch a bunch except if I'm targeting them specifically. I do run into them more often with my shallower(60' and under) sets. I stopped dropping pots on the south side of Jeff Head because Redrock is all I'd pickup. Give it a shot in that 40' range and keep an eye on them. A shallow bar runs well off shore on the south side and boaters will cut over it, and your gear, when running to the Port Madison/Agate Pass area.

I like the taste of red rocks too. You dont get as much meat for a similar sized crab, but I dont throw them back

Please don't pull off the claws though and throw the rest back. There is a decent bit of body meat. I've seen people do it saying 'the claws will grow back'. 1. Yes they will, but very slowly over a number of moults. 2. It leaves them defenseless, likely resulting in significant mortality.

Roughly where do you fish? Perhaps I, or someone else can suggest some places nearby.

Anywhere there is a rocky structure like a breakwater.
I usually get a limit off the Edmond's Pier.
And once in awhile get Dungeness

I agree with G-man, just stay shallow, like 40-50'. I like tje comparrison to Pike Minnows, because yes, they are usually a let down to most people.

We caught 4 limits of reds on Saturday out on Hood Canal. North of the bridge on the west side, off Point Hannon in about 40ft of water... No dungies (story to come), but other boats were saying dungies were in 60ft of water... Anyways, we pulled our pots and headed over to Salsbury boat launch to let pots soak while we hit the low tide for some clams. Dropped 5 pots just to the north side of the launch, went to clam the beach to the south of the launch, about 100 yards away. Long story short, came back an hour later and 4 of our pots had been stolen. The only one that didnt get stolen was because it was the only one that wasn't weighted and it "walked" about 80 yards away from where we had dropped the other pots. All pots were dropped in 45-65 feet of water, with 100ft of leaded line. The 4 stolen pots had added weights, so chances current got them are pretty slim. Pretty crappy day, no dungies, and 4 stolen pots.

That sucks!

I've been fishing just south of the bridge for 3-4 years now, summer and winter. Theft of crabs so far this season has been beyond anything I've heard of. Last Monday, I pulled mine in for the week and both were picked clean, though the bait was well eaten. I asked others, accounting for 10 more pots, all in the same area. Only one wasn't empty and it was full! I guess they lost count of which they'd picked and which they still had left to pick. It is a very organized operation, whoever is doing it.

That said, I haven't heard of any pots taken so far this year (has happened in the past), and just north of the bridge has a very strong current. I get the weighting thing, but if you just happened to have them on the edge of a drop off, they'd not have to go far and the current may have taken them. You could check the tides for that time of day to see if it was moving much.

Whatever happened, report them as lost. Not only is it required, but within a month of losing one of mine, WDFW called me about it, (I have my phone number on my floats), but they also dropped it off in my yard! I doubt this is a regular thing, but, occasionally, maybe! And, " Thanks Again!".

Thanks for the info on reporting the pots as lost David! Hopefully, maybe they'll be returned. We dropped the pots just after 3pm, low tide was just before 3pm, so it should have been a slack right? After the ebb? There was a big tide change I believe the morning high was 8.5 and the low was -0.5.

I prefer the red rock crab too. I usually catch them from the Edmonds fishing pier, which is currently closed for repair. Ugh... No idea where to go now for the first weekend of crabbing.

Sorry about all the stolen crab and gear guys. What a bad start to the season.

Good Luck!

You can try Shilshoe for Rock Crabs or Mukilteo for Mostly Dungies.
And there is Kayak Point.