CrabbingInTheHood.com

In years past, you had several local options on where you could purchase your crabbing gear supplies.

When we first moved here to Silverdale WA, I found some great bargains at a Pawn Shop over in downtown Poulsbo, just down from JJ’s Fish Restaurant. Unfortunately, they went out of business a few years back.

Kitsap Sports (just behind Macy’s Furniture store and Home Depot) has historically maintained a somewhat limited inventory, with typically higher prices.

Big Five Sports (located in the strip mall with Arby’s and Emerald City Smoothie) is known for their bargain prices, but their inventory of crabbing gear is extremely minimal.

As I had reported previously, in the face of bankruptcy proceedings, our local Sportsman Warehouse was recently purchased by UFA Cooperative Ltd., a company based out of Calgary, Canada, which currently operates 35 farm and ranch stores, 7 sporting goods stores, and 120 gas stations, mostly in western Canada. They operate under the name of Wholesale Sports.

I took a brief visit to Wholesale Sports here in Silverdale the other day (just one block east of Costco) and was pleasantly surprised to find an even greater selection of products than what had been previously inventoried by Sportsman’s Warehouse.

They carry the full range of Danielson products, including the most popular inexpensive collapsible crab trap for under $25.  You can outfit a complete crabbing rig for about $75 – which would include the trap, buoy kit w/ 100 ft. of poly rope, bait cage, weight kit, and 4-point harness kit.

The low end Danielson collapsible trap will usually last approximately 3 seasons, but Wholesale Sports also offers several other brands/styles that are more durable and naturally more expensive.

With the recreational crabbing season quickly approaching here in the Puget Sound, I would highly recommend a visit to Wholesale Sports in Silverdale WA, and stock up on all your crabbing gear needs!

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Well, we’ve come a long way since the time my son Ben and I dropped our first crab pot into the waters of Hood Canal WA.

If you’re already familiar with the story, you’ll know that the Summer after we moved here, we were desperate for crab! So we bought a ‘cheapie charlie’ 2-man inflatable boat from Wally-Mart, loaded it up with crabbin’ goodies, and launched out of Seal Rock Campground, just north of Brinnon.

Needless to say, it was a comedy of errors! But the upside was that we learned all the things NOT to do next time, as well as what ‘correct’ gear was necessary.

Obviously, the most basic thing we needed was a decent boat. Thanks to a really generous old-timer over in East Bremerton, we bought our 1985 C-Dory Angler, the perfect little utility boat.

The next thing was figuring out what crabbing rig was most effective.

In  the past, your best bet for crabbin’ gear was the Sportsman’s Warehouse in Silverdale. Unfortunately, they filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and sold 15 of their stores, including 7 in WA State, to UFA Cooperative in Alberta, Canada. It’s unclear if UFA plans to continue stocking crabbing gear and at what discounts.

I have always purchased the less expensive Danielson 24″ Folding Crab Trap. It retails for just under $30 and lasts about 3 or 4 seasons. A more durable stainless steel version will easily run $80 per trap.

In my next installment, I’ll give you some possible resources where you can purchase your crabbing gear in the Puget Sound area.

Happy Crabbing!…

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One of the best things I enjoy about living  out on the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula here in scenic Washington State, is taking my 16 ft. C-Dory out on the Hood Canal, part of the extensive inland waterways of Puget Sound. The Hood Canal is a long, deep, narrow strip of water wedged in between the Kitsap Peninsula and the picturesque Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic Mountain Range rises up rather dramatically from the edge of the water. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking.!

One of the many benefits of boating on the Hood Canal is recreational crabbing. The Dungeness Crab is the prized catch in these waters. The season typically opens the first week of July and runs through Labor Day weekend. The Washington Department of Fish & Game is extremely active in monitoring sports fishing in our state, so you better be in compliance with all current rules and regulations! (WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife)

We launch our boat out at Miami Beach in Seabeck WA. We learned through experience to be mindful of the tide schedule. If you go out too close to low tide, you will have a rough time getting your boat down the ramp. So we usually launch an hour or two before the peak of high tide. (WA Tide Schedules)

Once on the water, we head over towards Dabob Bay, just around the Toandoes Peninsula, and prepare to lower our crab pots. You can purchase crabbing gear from the Sportsman Warehouse in Silverdale. You can figure on spending a minimum of $80 per rig, including the crap pot (cage), buoy & flag, 100′ of weighted line, bait box, and weights. Being bottom-dwellers, crabs will eat just about anything, but they seem to be partial to salmon guts. Several of our area supermarkets (Silverdale Red Apple Market and Central Market in Poulsbo WA) save the guts when they clean the fish, and sell them for crab bait.

We lower the crab pots (usually in about 60 to 100 feet of water) and then head over to Pleasant Harbor, a quaint little port nestled on the Olympic side. They have a convenience store, pizza parlor, and deck overlooking the harbor. We’ll grab some cold drinks, pork-out on pizza, and catch some rays as we wait a couple hours in hopeful expectation that our pots will fill up.

We head back and pull up our crab pots, carefully extracting the prized booty. We prefer to clean the crabs while we’re out on the water. It makes for less clean-up later and allows you to put more edible crab into the pot when cooking. We also bring salt water back with us, to use for boiling the crab in. Some people prefer to use fresh water and add a crab boil spice pouch. I have found that boiling the crab in saltwater gives it a really great natural flavor. There is a difference of opinion on how long to boil the crab. I have found that 12 to 15 minutes after reaching boiling point is more than enough time. I’ll drain the water, and put the crab into a big stainless bowl, covering it with ice to cool it quickly. Some people like to dip their crab in melted butter, but I prefer to eat it right out of the shell.

There are few things better in life than spending a few relaxing hours out on the Hood Canal, bringing home some fresh crab, and porking out!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, and SOUNDBITEBLOG.

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Welcome to “Crabbing In The Hood” (the Hood Canal, of course).

Soon this site will be loaded up with interesting and entertaining articles about Rich’s adventures stalking his wily prey, the Dungeness Crab.

Rich Jacobson, the website owner, is an avid Kitsap County crabber with many a tale about his times on the salty brine as well as a collector of Pacific Northwest recipes for cooking the delectable morsels he so patiently traps.

CrabbingInTheHood.com is still in the process of being set up so come back soon. This site will feature articles about local crabbing, crab recipes and crabbing gear recommendations for the novice crabber as well as the experienced crabber.

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