Washington State crab catch report time-gctid824373

[green650]

Well I got the post card telling me it's time to report.

Seems like you have to create an account now in order to report, cant just enter your wild id # and info and call it done.

I have 4 people to enter, if I'm required to create an account for each, I'm thru with crabbing.

[builderdude]

hmy: Is there an old school way to report ya catch?

[green650]

"builderdude" post=824374 wrote:
hmy: Is there an old school way to report ya catch?

Yup.

I'm going to do that.

Put the four catch reports in an envelope and mail it in so they can enter the data.

That's probably what they want so they can justify hiring more people and expanding.

[green650]

Put them in an envelope and mail to:

WDFW CRC Unit

PO Box 43142

Olympia, WA 98504-3142

[Pcpete]

I just did that with ten or so records from family and guests. Kinda tough to do online if ya don't have their birthdate.

[green650]

"Pcpete" post=824399 wrote:
I just did that with ten or so records from family and guests. Kinda tough to do online if ya don't have their birthdate.

Did you have to create an account for each person or just for yourself?

I just put them in an envelope and mailed them. I don't have the patience to create a new account and password just to log how many crabs I caught, and then do the same for my nephews and gf. I already have accounts and passwords for some 50 data bases at work...none of which use the same parameters so same id's and passwords can be used. Some of which new passwords have to be created every 30 days. And computers were supposed to make life easier. Seems like all they have done now is double the workforce to get something done.

[Pcpete]

You don't have to create an account, an alternate is to use their "Wild ID" and birthdate. The Wild ID is on the catch record but not their birthdate. Considering half of the records were for guests in our case, mail was the right option.

[builderdude]

"Pcpete" post=824405 wrote:
You don't have to create an account, an alternate is to use their "Wild ID" and birthdate. The Wild ID is on the catch record but not their birthdate. Considering half of the records were for guests in our case, mail was the right option.

Just tried to use wild ID and birthdate but was directed to a page that said "you must create an account to continue". No thanks, I'll send it via snail mail.

[Norton_Rider]

I just did it online for my wife and I. I reported a grand total of zero crabs....

The second weekend of the season we went crabbing for the first time this year and set a number of traps NW of Saddlebag Island in Anacortes. We let them soak while we went and got fuel, plus did a few errands. When we returned a couple of hours later all our traps were gone, except for an old crusty one. The crab trap that was left had the trap door latch undone and there were no crabs in it. It seems like some low-life liked my new traps and crabs better than me. I wasn't about to spend more money on traps this year; so we did not go crabbing again. :angry:

BTW, I added, "Washington State" to the main topic line.

[CptCrunchie]

"Norton Rider" post=824412 wrote:
I just did it online for my wife and I. I reported a grand total of zero crabs....

The second weekend of the season we went crabbing for the first time this year and set a number of traps NW of Saddlebag Island in Anacortes. We let them soak while we went and got fuel, plus did a few errands. When we returned a couple of hours later all our traps were gone, except for an old crusty one. The crab trap that was left had the trap door latch undone and there were no crabs in it. It seems like some low-life liked my new traps and crabs better than me. I wasn't about to spend more money on traps this year; so we did not go crabbing again. :angry:

Being an avid crabber in the PNW, other than theft (which happens, but more often, they drift away) there are three considerations to ensuring your pots remain where you set them: buoyancy of floats, weight in the pot, and length of line. I use 200' on all my pots. I use double 6x14 floats rigged to a piece of PVC. I use 3 or 4 of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grip-Rite...d steel stakes zip tied to the bottom of each. I set them at any depth up to 170' and they are (almost) always there, even overnight or if I have to leave them longer.

I have one heavy SS commercial pot, but the other 3 are cheap Danielsons that I zipped all the connections to. They all catch crab, and many times, a Danielson will have more than the commercial pot. Two Danielsons had the door on top with the rot cord on the bungie holding the door closed. Unfortunately, with the doors on top, even after the cord has rotted, most crab will not find it and will die hugging the bottom corners. So instead, I cut the ring out, and as recommended by the folks who do the lost pot retrievals, I used rot cord to tie it back in its place.

NR, losing pots is going to happen. However, PNW Dungeness crab is a resource I would hate to give up on. I have lost or replaced over a dozen pots in the past 12 years; 3 pots this year due to my stupidity, underestimating the current the first time I set them at the south side of Protection Island. Weighting fresh caught crab against the precooked crab sold at $13-18/lb, buying or replacing pots becomes a no-brainer. I replaced the pots immediately, but added two more metal stakes to each. (The pots we lost were 3 years old, and they'd caught thousands of dollars of crab.)

Wifey and I harvested 48 crab this season, which comes to around 24lbs of crab meat. That works out to about $1K if we'd bought from the store (....which ain't gonna happen, because I am not a fan of how they cook them). Most of them were eaten within a day or two, but some was shucked and frozen in FoodSaver vacuum bags. Personally, nothing beats a crab and cheddar cheese scramble for brekkie, and now we can have that all winter long. Yummmm!

[Norton_Rider]

"CptCrunchie" post=824460 wrote:

"Norton Rider" post=824412 wrote:
I just did it online for my wife and I. I reported a grand total of zero crabs....

The second weekend of the season we went crabbing for the first time this year and set a number of traps NW of Saddlebag Island in Anacortes. We let them soak while we went and got fuel, plus did a few errands. When we returned a couple of hours later all our traps were gone, except for an old crusty one. The crab trap that was left had the trap door latch undone and there were no crabs in it. It seems like some low-life liked my new traps and crabs better than me. I wasn't about to spend more money on traps this year; so we did not go crabbing again. :angry:

Being an avid crabber in the PNW, other than theft (which happens, but more often, they drift away) there are three considerations to ensuring your pots remain where you set them: buoyancy of floats, weight in the pot, and length of line. I use 200' on all my pots. I use double 6x14 floats rigged to a piece of PVC. I use 3 or 4 of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grip-Rite...d steel stakes zip tied to the bottom of each. I set them at any depth up to 170' and they are (almost) always there, even overnight or if I have to leave them longer.

I have one heavy SS commercial pot, but the other 3 are cheap Danielsons that I zipped all the connections to. They all catch crab, and many times, a Danielson will have more than the commercial pot. Two Danielsons had the door on top with the rot cord on the bungie holding the door closed. Unfortunately, with the doors on top, even after the cord has rotted, most crab will not find it and will die hugging the bottom corners. So instead, I cut the ring out, and as recommended by the folks who do the lost pot retrievals, I used rot cord to tie it back in its place.

NR, losing pots is going to happen. However, PNW Dungeness crab is a resource I would hate to give up on. I have lost or replaced over a dozen pots in the past 12 years; 3 pots this year due to my stupidity, underestimating the current the first time I set them at the south side of Protection Island. Weighting fresh caught crab against the precooked crab sold at $13-18/lb, buying or replacing pots becomes a no-brainer. I replaced the pots immediately, but added two more metal stakes to each. (The pots we lost were 3 years old, and they'd caught thousands of dollars of crab.)

Wifey and I harvested 48 crab this season, which comes to around 24lbs of crab meat. That works out to about $1K if we'd bought from the store (....which ain't gonna happen, because I am not a fan of how they cook them). Most of them were eaten within a day or two, but some was shucked and frozen in FoodSaver vacuum bags. Personally, nothing beats a crab and cheddar cheese scramble for brekkie, and now we can have that all winter long. Yummmm!

Mine were weighed, had adequate line, and we're set correctly. The prior week there had been a number of crab trap disappearances at the same location. Had I known this I would have hung around while they soaked.

[green650]

"Norton Rider" post=824478 wrote:

"CptCrunchie" post=824460 wrote:

"Norton Rider" post=824412 wrote:
I just did it online for my wife and I. I reported a grand total of zero crabs....

The second weekend of the season we went crabbing for the first time this year and set a number of traps NW of Saddlebag Island in Anacortes. We let them soak while we went and got fuel, plus did a few errands. When we returned a couple of hours later all our traps were gone, except for an old crusty one. The crab trap that was left had the trap door latch undone and there were no crabs in it. It seems like some low-life liked my new traps and crabs better than me. I wasn't about to spend more money on traps this year; so we did not go crabbing again. :angry:

Being an avid crabber in the PNW, other than theft (which happens, but more often, they drift away) there are three considerations to ensuring your pots remain where you set them: buoyancy of floats, weight in the pot, and length of line. I use 200' on all my pots. I use double 6x14 floats rigged to a piece of PVC. I use 3 or 4 of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grip-Rite...d steel stakes zip tied to the bottom of each. I set them at any depth up to 170' and they are (almost) always there, even overnight or if I have to leave them longer.

I have one heavy SS commercial pot, but the other 3 are cheap Danielsons that I zipped all the connections to. They all catch crab, and many times, a Danielson will have more than the commercial pot. Two Danielsons had the door on top with the rot cord on the bungie holding the door closed. Unfortunately, with the doors on top, even after the cord has rotted, most crab will not find it and will die hugging the bottom corners. So instead, I cut the ring out, and as recommended by the folks who do the lost pot retrievals, I used rot cord to tie it back in its place.

NR, losing pots is going to happen. However, PNW Dungeness crab is a resource I would hate to give up on. I have lost or replaced over a dozen pots in the past 12 years; 3 pots this year due to my stupidity, underestimating the current the first time I set them at the south side of Protection Island. Weighting fresh caught crab against the precooked crab sold at $13-18/lb, buying or replacing pots becomes a no-brainer. I replaced the pots immediately, but added two more metal stakes to each. (The pots we lost were 3 years old, and they'd caught thousands of dollars of crab.)

Wifey and I harvested 48 crab this season, which comes to around 24lbs of crab meat. That works out to about $1K if we'd bought from the store (....which ain't gonna happen, because I am not a fan of how they cook them). Most of them were eaten within a day or two, but some was shucked and frozen in FoodSaver vacuum bags. Personally, nothing beats a crab and cheddar cheese scramble for brekkie, and now we can have that all winter long. Yummmm!

Mine were weighed, had adequate line, and we're set correctly. The prior week there had been a number of crab trap disappearances at the same location. Had I known this I would have hung around while they soaked.

I always see a ton of boats in that area. Is it because it's the easiest to get to from Anacortes?

I used to go to a shelf about a couple miles out from wildcat cove. It's about 10-12 miles from Bellingham (1.5 hours by 32xx, or 15 minutes on planing boats). Always limit out. Usually leave them overnight to get big ones. I had 10 pounds of lead in each pot, never lost one.

Sold all my pots on CL ten minutes after I listed them. Got nothing now.

[SomeSailor]

I always use a an orange A2 bag on a tag line of about 15 feet. It'll float the pot if needed and I lose the bottom. More than once I've shown up with two foam floats underwater and hanging from that tag line and A2 Polyform buoy. They drift a lot more than people think.

[Pcpete]

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police added 2 new photos.

September 18 at 10:02am ┬À

Puget Sound Unlicensed Charter Seized

After receiving reports of an unlawful crab charter out of Everett, Officers contacted the vessel after returning from harvesting crab. The vessel contained ten total subjects, but only seven licensed subjects on board, mostly children with catch record cards.

in addition to failing to have a charter license, the captain also did not have a fishing license due to his privileges being suspended for prior crab violations. The subjects possessed a total of 78 Dungeness crab, 2 red rock crab, one Coho salmon, two Ratfish, one Dogfish, and an Octopus. Of the 78 Dungeness crab, 28 were female and an additional 28 were undersized. As a result of multiple violations and unlicensed charter operation, the vessel was seized for forfeiture proceedings.

The pictures are on the wdfw police Facebook page. They seized a pretty nice looking boat.

[Norton_Rider]

"SomeSailor" post=825310 wrote:
I always use a an orange A2 bag on a tag line of about 15 feet. It'll float the pot if needed and I lose the bottom. More than once I've shown up with two foam floats underwater and hanging from that tag line and A2 Polyform buoy. They drift a lot more than people think.

Good idea