Trolling for... Crabs?

Pelagic and I checked out the Nehalem yesterday to see if we could scratch up some salmon.  There were plenty of boats in the morning, but the numbers dwindled toward mid-morning.  I think we saw one or two caught the whole morning.  Everyone we chatted with had an empty box.  We started trolling farther out in the bay later in the morning.  We were getting pretty bored so we pulled off to a muddy flat to take a break. 





Pelagic had mentioned to me how he had recently been in the same area and saw lots of crab hanging out in about two feet of water.  As I'm pulling up to tie off my kayak to his, he had grabbed his salmon net and swept up a dungee.  I looked around after noticing this and grabbed my net to sweep one up that was near me.  We grabbed our kayaks, tied them off to our waist, and began walking through water that was knee to waist high.  Every 10 yards or so we could sweep up another crab with the net.  Most every crab was either a female or a small male of course, but this was much more entertaining than the salmon fishing was at the moment.  We reached a channel which made it too deep to continue walking so we hopped on our yaks and let the wind push us back.  After we hopped on the kayaks, we realized we could simply troll for crab.  Either by letting the breeze push us back or by pedaling around, we could float around and spot the crab.  Then hop off and net them, or just net them while sitting in the kayak.  We ended up with a couple keepers which made the day of slow salmon fishing seem not so bad.  Pelagic had a bite once we got back to trolling but that was it for the day. 









Wrapped up the day with a stop at the seafood market in Garibaldi for some bay shrimp cocktails and smoked tuna bellies.  I about passed out in my truck from the tuna bellies they were so tasty!

Nice! way to make a boring day more fun.

I actually caught a dungie trolling with the salmon gear the other day. Was going against the current so was probably barely moving.

Oh sweet Smoked Tuna Bellies!  How I love you, let me count the ways! 

The crab grabbin was fun.  I think a trip dedicated to just that is in order!

A great place for slow fishing if there is such a place.  And tuna bellies are my new favorite too.

Now that I have officialy called Nehalem Bay my home port for about a month now it is quickly becoming one of my favorites for all it has to offer.  Although I haven't trolled for them yet crab limits have been easy to come by lately.  For Chinook it's one of those you shoulda been here yesterday scenarios it has started to wind down but was red hot a couple weeks ago.  Coho can't be far away though.

Video!

http://youtu.be/0KDMHGEBCNM?hd=1

Now that you discovered another way to crab, try it at night with a headlamp.  DTS and I did this on New Years day last year in Netarts and had a blast.  Just cruised around in the shallows, and used a ski pole through the scupper to anchor the yak for walkabouts.  Also, we used the ski pole in the right hand reaching over head and leaning over the left side of the yak to reach into a foot or less of water to grab crab with left hand.

The head lamp really lights up the pincher tips on the Dungeees.