Crabbing and Clam digging in the PNW? UPDATE! SUCCESSS!!!!

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Congratulations! What a fun thing to learn how to do!
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Ian and I spent a week doing that off the north end of Vancouver Island once. Wow, lots of work, lost a couple traps and spent way too much money on rope and such, but had a blast. In the end we came home with zip lock bags of crab meat and then I separated them for freezing in quantities just for a pasta or stir fry. We ate way too much of it fresh, I almost did not want crab again for a bit, but it was so good! Shucking them took so much time every evening, there must be an art to that I never captured. We put out prawn traps too, did you try that? They are just as much fun and delish!
 
I can't imagine catching enough crabs to be able to freeze any down! That's amazing! All we are fishing from is the public pier so other than starfish and crabs... I think the only other thing I saw fished up was a lost crab trap. Boats are expensive... but that is where it's gotta be at! I have no idea if prawns live in the bay, but I doubt it. If they did, I'd be all over them!!!
 
We did have a boat, and the down side to that is you need more equipment, a float and more rope generally, and weight. We lost taps to the rip tide taking them away, not being back at the right time, and rope breaking while hauling them up due to the tide strain. It's more complicated than doing it off shore for sure, and the workout for you arms hauling those things up, wow!

But a great way to spend a week on the water, and yes it took days before we were ahead on the catching of crab over the eating of it! LOL as good as it is you feel like something else on day 3 or 4. So that's when I started the collection for the freezer. I think in the end though we came home with 2 medium bags of crab and about 4 of prawns. The most expensive seafood ever I'm sure, but the best.
 
Those are some strange looking crabs!We've got Blue crab down here. It's a sweet meat, too.

I was just down on the Chesapeak Bay a few weeks ago. 2 days of crabbing and ended up with just 17 keepers. In Virginia they have to be 5 inches point to point. Caught lots of little ones and females loaded with eggs that we tossed back. We'll catch them again at another time, lol.
 
We actually needed 100 foot of rope off the pier since it is a standing one that is about 20 feet above the water, which is 50 feet deep at the end of the pier. I kind of felt bad for the people who only had the 50 foot rope that comes standard with most rings. I'm sure ocean is way harder to do, since it's like infinity deep!!!

I've never eaten a blue crab since I've always been told to never eat crabs from the opposite coast you are on for freshness reasons, and I've never been east of the cascades! Hear they can swim too which I'd imagine you'd need different gear too as they'd just laugh and swim out of the rings used for walking crabs on the coast here.

As for throwing some back, we told all the girls to make lots of babies, while we insulted the manhood of the boys which were too small. Watching the net come up is so exciting!
 
I bet you are right when it comes to freshness. I've seen folks on the road outside of Charlotte selling seafood that was caught in Myrtle Beach which is over 4 hours away. They are just sitting on ices. I usually only eat seafood when I am close to the shore. Red Lobster is ok but it's been frozen.

Oh yeah they are funny when they swim. They swim with their butts up in the air! At night, they swim just below the surface and you can catch them with a net and a flashlight. Use the light from the flashlight to draw them into you like a puppy to a bone.
 

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