Local recreational crabbing opened this morning on a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule, with crab populations expected to be on par with what turned out to be a good, albeit short, season last year. Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood said the stretch of shoreline between Picnic Point and the shipwreck is almost always a good producer and, while crab can be found anywhere between 30 and 150 feet deep, 100 to 120 feet is a popular depth to start. If you’re not hitting crab, move up or down from there, Chamberlain said.
Other areas that should be productive on the opening three days, according to Chamberlain, would include the Howarth Park shoreline; off the northwest corner of Camano Island (a favorite with many); Port Susan from Kayak Point south; the Clinton to Langley section of the east Whidbey shoreline; Cultus Bay on the south end of Whidbey; and the Kingston area on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Be sure you have a license, a $3 Puget Sound crab endorsement, your record card and that you’re up on all the current regulations, because this is a very high-profile fishery and it’s going to be monitored closely by the state Fish and Wildlife Department. Either pick up a copy of the regs at any license dealer, or go online. The folks in uniform are not sympathetic to pleas of ignorance.
Wayne Kruse
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