Crabs on the side

Recreational season in full swing locally

Robert Mears tosses a crab ring off of B Street Pier, above, shows off a catch, below, and takes his gear home, bottom. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Sport crabbing is in full swing in Del Norte County while commercial crabbers on the North Coast still wait for the green light.

“This is what I do when I’m laid off,” said Jesse Johnson, who paints in summer months but travels from Brookings to Crescent City to crab in the winter. “It’s a good way to waste a day.”

Several of the sport crabbers found this week on the B Street Pier said they come from Brookings. The size and quality of crabs are better here, Johnson said. “I might just get one, but they’re all keepers.”

Pier crabbing also attracts non-locals because sport crabbers don’t need a fishing license when crabbing off of the public piers, although only two traps or rings are allowed per person.

“I enjoy just being out,” said Robert Mears, who recently moved to Crescent City from Yreka, partially to live close to the ocean.

“We’ve always loved it over here so we thought we might as will make it permanent,” said Renee Mears, who moved here with her husband. “It’s fun to pull crab pots, see what’s in there — hopefully something, maybe nothing.”

Robert Mears pulled up a pot  to find “nothing but dirty chicken.”

Chicken is popular bait since seals and sea lions don’t have a taste for it. If fish are used as bait, the seals pick it right out of the traps. Squid, however, is the most popular bait, said Chris Hegnes, manager of Englund Marine, which sells and rents all the tools needed for sport crabbing.

Englund Marine sells crab rings  and folding crab traps, both of which are light enough to toss from public piers and pull up — hopefully filled with crab.

Englund Marine also rents crab rings.

Another helpful tool is a plastic crab gauge, which easily indicates whether crabs are large enough to keep. 

On the North Coast, Dungeness crabs must be 5.75 inches from the shell’s edge to the other directly in front of  the points (lateral spines). Crabbers may only keep and have in their possession 10 Dungeness crabs at any time.

Other crabs falling under the Cancer genus, including yellow crabs, rock crabs, red crabs and slender crabs, must be 4 inches across the shell from edge to edge. The limit is 35 crabs.

All crabs must be measured immediately and undersized crabs should be immediately released.

The limit for sand crabs is 50.

Crabbers are only supposed to leave nets or rings in the water for two hours at the most.

Persons 16 years old or older who are not fishing or crabbing off of a public pier, like Citizen’s Pier or B Street Pier, must have a valid sport fishing license. Licenses can be purchased from Coast True Value, Englund Marine, Hiouchi Hamlet and Walmart, or online at dfg.ca.gov/licensing/ols/.

If diving for crab, whether skin or SCUBA diving, only hands may be used to collect crustaceans.

Low meat mass delayed the commercial Dungeness crab season in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, but the recreational crab season has been open since Nov. 5, closing July 30. Sport crabbers have noticed the Dungeness getting plumper though, Hegnes said.

The California Department of Fish and Game recommends only eating the meat of the crabs since organs could contain chemical contaminants. Also, do not eat the green “crab butter” that is found in the body section of crabs.

Questions on recreational crabbing can be directed to the California Department of Fish and Game’s groundfish hotline: (831) 649-2801.