74: Washington Crabbing 101: How to Stay Legal and Fill Your Pots

**Washington Crabbing 101: How to Stay Legal and Fill Your Pots** Two Dungeness crab come out of the same pot, same day, same size. One gives you a quarter of its body weight in meat. The other gives you less than 20%, and what you do get is sparse, stringy, and a pain to pick. Most people who have crabbed for years still cannot tell those two crab apart. This episode fixes that, and takes on the bigger surprise: crabbing has more rules than salmon does. Jamie covers every rule that can turn a fun Saturday into a citation, then gets into what actually fills pots -- depth, bait, soak time, and where to set in the islands. **Episode Overview** - The licensing step most people miss on the Fish Washington app, and why skipping it makes you illegal - What is actually legal for kids, including why a four month old cannot hold a limit - Gear that has to be right before you leave the dock: escape rings, rot cord, buoys, leaded line - Real spots in Marine Area 7 plus Scott's Oak Harbor and Skagit Bay picks - Why over-soaking your pots costs you crab, backed by GoPro footage shot inside a pot - The three-check keeper test: sex, size, and the pinch that separates soft shell from hard **Timestamps** 00:00 -- Two crab, same size, very different coolers 02:00 -- Resurrection Derby and Women on the Water 06:00 -- Your license, and the catch record card step people miss 08:00 -- Kids on the boat: free licenses and legal extra limits 11:00 -- Open days, escape rings, rot cord, and legal buoys 14:00 -- Weighting your pots and where Dungeness actually live 17:00 -- Marine Area 7 spots, plus Scott's Oak Harbor picks 18:00 -- Bait, soak time, and the over-soak mistake 22:00 -- Limits, sex, size, and the pinch test 26:00 -- Eight takeaways before you leave the dock **Key Takeaways** - Buying the shellfish license is not enough, you have to add the crab catch record card separately. - Every license needs its own phone, so your teenager cannot ride along on your app. - Kids under 16 fish free and hold their own limit if they can physically work the gear. - Crabbing is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Marine Areas 6 and 7, and pots have to be out. - Two units of crab gear per person, with no cap on units per boat in Puget Sound. - Set your pots in the evening and pull at first light, because crab feed at night. - Soft shell crab give up less than half the meat, so pinch the rear leg and toss the soft ones back. **Resources & Links** - Resurrection Derby, Bellingham Bay, August 29-30, 2026: https://www.resurrectionderby.com - Women on the Water with LFS, Thursday September 17, Bellingham Yacht Club, free, 100 seats: https://wkf.ms/467GOYu - Report a lost crab pot, Northwest Straits Foundation: https://www.derelictgear.org | https://nwstraitsfoundation.org/ - WDFW shellfish gear rules: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfishing-regulations/gear-rules Want the full structured learning experience? Join Anglers Unlimited Gold and get expert seminars, step-by-step courses, fishing maps, recipes, and a community that wants you to succeed: https://anglersunlimited.co/gold Fishing for a Reason is the Pacific Northwest saltwater fishing education podcast for new anglers and families who want to catch more salmon, halibut, lingcod, shrimp and crab in Washington waters. Hosted by Jamie and Scott Propst from Anglers Unlimited, each episode delivers practical techniques and local knowledge to help you get off the couch and into the fish.