CrabbingInTheHood.com

One of the perils of recreational crabbing here in the Puget Sound WA is exposing yourself and your crabbing gear to potential thievery.

Okay, so maybe it’s not quite as perilous as the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” but it certainly is extremely annoying and frustrating!

We went out onto Hood Canal last Saturday afternoon to retrieve our crab pots, only to find 3 out of the 4 missing. The remaining pot had been picked clean.

There are instances (usually during the weekdays) when we don’t have a lot of time, and simply drop off our crab pots, leaving them out overnight. On the weekends, when we’re not in as much of a hurry, we’ll catch some rays, or tool over to Pleasant Harbor, while we wait for our pots to fill up.

Occasionally, it is entirely possible to set your pots too close to a steep underwater shelf, and have the current drag them into deeper water. But we dropped ours out at the peak of high tide, and left more than enough excess rope to compensate for any variables. It’s also highly unlikely that 3 pots, set at varying depths, would all strangely disappear, or that the 4th pot would be empty.

So, to you low-life crab pot crooks, I offer the following message:

Each of my crab pot buoys are marked with my name and phone number – Rich Jacobson (360) 440-4758. If you feel it necessary to pull up our pots and pilfer our crab, then at least leave the crab pots intact where you find them. We’ve always been very generous with the bounty of our catch and we don’t mind sharing some with you. But having to replace our gear is a huge pain and gets rather costly.

May the Creator of Crabbing Karma repay you for your dastardly deeds of Dungeness deprivation.

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable 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, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Okay, so what’s wrong with this picture?

Here is it July 13th, and my boat (the ever-faithful 16 foot C-Dory Angler) hasn’t graced the waters of Puget Sound for the 2009 crabbing season!

Where the HECK are my priorities???

Normally by this time we’d have dropped and pulled our pots a half dozen times or so, porked out to our heart’s content, and started to replenish our our stock of frozen seal-a-meal bags.

But unfortunately, the opening of the recreational crabbing season has been delayed for Marine Zone 12 (Hood Canal), and doesn’t begin until July 29th.

Add to that the fact that I’ve been literally SWAMPED here of late working with 4 different Buyer clients. Luckily though, two of them should be under contract shortly, so I may finally have a few spare moments to run out and snag a few Dungies!

Happy Crabbing!…

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Okay, so you’re probably as bummed out as me from the news that Hood Canal (Marine Area 12) isn’t scheduled to open for recreational crabbing until July 29th!

You heard it right, July 29th! That’s nearly two-thirds of your prime warm Summer crabbing weather gone down the tubes, leaving only a few short weeks in August to make a mad scramble for those coveted Dungies!

So what are your options, you ask?

Well, starting as early as June 18th, you could trailer your boat up to Neah Bay/Seiku (Marine Area 4 & 5), on the northernmost point of the Olympic Peninsula. Don’t forget that the Hood Canal Bridge might still be closed, so you’ll have to drive around through Shelton! And while you’re at it, remember its open water up there, so that 12 ft. aluminum boat with a 5 hp. kicker just ain’t gonna cut it!

Or, you could trailer your boat down to Marine Area 13 (South Puget Sound), down around Olympia. But they haven’t seen any dungies in those parts since Lewis & Clark came through!

So that leaves you with Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) that opens on July 1st. We normally launch at Brownsville Marina and motor out through Agate Pass, and drop our pots off Suquamish Harbor. It costs you a couple bucks to launch at Brownsville, but they have a nice ramp and dock.

There is always the Charles Lawrence Memorial Boat Ramp in downtown Suquamish as well, which is suitable for small-to-medium sized boats.

Of course, you could always just run out to one of the local tribal fisheries and pay $6.99 per pound. They’ve got plenty, all year round!…

For a list of all WA State Park boat launch locations, go HERE.

For the list of all Kitsap County WA boat launch locations, go HERE.

For the Kitsap Peninsula Visitors & Convention Bureau website, go HERE.

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable 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, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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I promise that I won’t make it a habit to promote any real estate stuff here on CITH, but I really wanted to share an amazing value with those of you who frequent this blog, and can appreciate properties with water view and beach access.

14365 NW Rhonda Lane, Seabeck (MLS#29011205)

Now offered for only $199,900

It’s rare to find a home in the Seabeck/Miami Beach area for this price, especially one that allows you access to a private community beach. This home is just around the corner from the public boat launch and minutes from the soon-to-be-constructed Olympic View Marina.

It would make the perfect retirement home, 2nd-home, or vacation get-a-way.

If you or someone you know would be interested, just shoot me an email, and I’ll send you more details….

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable 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, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Well, the following news release just popped up in my e-mail in box:

Summer Crabbing Season includes Late start for Hood Canal

Yes, you heard it right. The 2009 Summer Crabbing Season for Marine Area 12 – Hood Canal will be starting ‘Late’ this year, July 29th to be exact.

YIKES!

Just about every year since we’ve moved here to the Kitsap Peninsula WA, the rules and regulations concerning recreational crabbing on Hood Canal WA have become more tightly controlled and stringent. We used to be able to crab 7 days a week. Now it’s only Wednesday through Saturday. We used to be able to take up to 6 male crabs per licensee per day. Now it’s only 5. The season used to start in June. Now were almost into August.

Now granted, even though the season is starting so late, they’re extending the season through until January 2nd, 2010. Unfortunately, depending on the weather, crabbing into the Fall and Winter months can be a rather daunting undertaking. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE going crabbing out on Hood Canal and I LOVE eating crab. But there’s a very obvious and discernible point where you have to choose between pulling up crab or contracting hypothermia.

According to a statement by Rich Childers,  the lead shellfish policy spokesman for WDFW:

“The crab abundance in Hood Canal WA has dropped considerably since 2001 and we need as many crabs as possible for reproduction. WDFW and tribal managers are taking extra precautions to help stabilize and protect the crab population.”

So I’m wondering, what exactly has been the cause in the population drop since 2001? Do we jump on the environmental bandwagon and blame Global Warming? Is the drop in oxygen levels in the Hood Canal the culprit? Have the number of recreational crabbers increased that dramatically? What affect do tribal and commercial fisheries have on the situation?

All I know is that I’m totally bummed out that we won’t be able to drop our pots out on Hood Canal WA until nearly August. Guess we’ll be launching over in Brownsville and motoring our boat out through Agate Pass for a couple of months!

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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, or by email at rich@windermere.com

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Yes, it’s true. I can’t deny it. I love crabs. And not just any ole’ crabs, mind you. But Dungeness Crabs. The delicious ‘mouth-watering’ variety that is plentiful here in the scenic Pacific Northwest.

When the crabbing season rolls around here on the Puget Sound WA, you can typically find me out cruising the deep, clear waters of Hood Canal in my trusty C-Dory, in search of the illusive ‘Dungies.’

As real estate professionals and blogging enthusiasts, we hear so much about ‘branding’ and how to effectively distinguish yourself from the masses.

In his book, “Realty Blogging,” well-know social media expert, Paul Cheney, talks about the importance of ‘Branding’ in your blog.

I’m wondering if using a crab may not necessarily be the most effective kind of ‘branding.’ Do I really want to be known as the “Crabby” real estate guy? Some crusty, hard-shelled bottom feeder? I mean, seriously, it’s nothing glamorous like “The Deadliest Catch.” About the most dangerous thing that’s happened to me is when I forgot to put the boat plugs in. I have the scar to prove it too!

I guess you can probably get away with such seemingly unprofessional ’branding’ on various social networking platforms like MySpace or Facebook. I’ve had a MySpace account for quite a while, but it’s not something I use for attracting business per se.

I know it may seem silly or unprofessional to some. But crabbin’ is one of my passions. There is something very primal and relaxing to me about being out on the ocean. All the stresses of my day quickly fall away the minute my boat’s in the water. The view of the massive Olympic Mountain Range rising up dramatically from the shore reminds me that there’s a much greater design and purpose behind this life that we live.

So yeah, I love crabs! It’s just one of the many reasons why I love living here on the Kitsap Peninsula in beautiful Washington State.

But you don’t have to worry. I doubt I’d ever go so far as to have a picture of a crab on my business cards. But I may just include a really great recipe for crab cakes in my next newsletter!

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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, or by email at rich@windermere.com

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