Crabbing picking up in Coos Bay

[nextgenar]

Went crabbing on Saturday with the wife and 2 kids, caught 41 dungenous in 4 1/2 hours in the bay. The boat launches were quite crowded being a holiday weekend and the salmon are on the bite. PS watch for sand bars if its foggy. They suck!

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[jbett98]

What bait were you using, and were they all hard shell?

 

[nextgenar]

We were using various bait, had some chicken, some rock fish carcasses, turkey, and a beef heart. All seemed to work equally well. Most of the crabs were hard shell, out of the 41 probably 5 or 6 were soft, but still fairly full.

 

[jbett98]

I need to get one of those crab pulling davits for my boat. After pulling traps all day my back is done in, but it sure is fun out on the water.

 

[nextgenar]

Ya I see a lot of those on boats but have never used one, I have an open bow boat and stand on the front seats which isn't exactly stable but it works. I would like to see how those things mount one of these days to see if I can mount one on my boat.

 

[jbett98]

My neighbor gave me a good tip last year on improving the catch rate on the coated wire traps.
He zipped tied a large metal washer to the swinging trap gates. The extra weight keeps the tidal current from pushing the door open and letting the bigger crabs from escaping.
It about doubled my catch rate this year.
I have a couple of miniature welded rebar and stainless steel wire commercial style and they always out performed the cheaper collapsible traps until I added the extra weight.

 

[nextgenar]

Hey thanks for the tip, I will definitely try that. I use both box traps and rings. I would like to someday get some of the welded rebar style but a bit out of my price range at the moment.

 

[jbett98]

Next time your out in the bay during low tide, look around for submerged trap floats with sea weed on them. I have found a couple of lost traps that way.
I look in areas that an outgoing tide would carry them to.
Never crabbed at Coos Bay, mostly Neatarts because a friend had a house there.

 

[semperfi68to70]

A buddy and I went crabbing in Alsea Bay (Waldport) on Wednesday (9/4) and limited out by 1120. We actually had to release five legals on our last round while picking up our traps because we had 24. Fish and game was there and checked our licenses and catch. We used nothing but chicken.