Our First Time Crabbing

Crabbing for Dungeness crab off the dock in Old Town has been a wonderful experience since our first visit.  We originally discovered Bandon while camping at Bullards Beach State Park back in 2004.  We rented a crab ring from Tony’s Crab Shack and gave it a try.  I was too cheap to buy a fishing license on that day, so the kids who were all under 12, officially did the crabbing.

Using the crab ring provided some pretty non-stop action because every 10 minutes we would pull up the ring and look for a big male crab.  Almost always we had the fun of catching a handful of crabs every time we pulled up the ring.  The trick was finding a male large enough to keep.  We eventually left the ring in the water and walked to fish and chips.  Then when we returned a couple nice folks has filled our crab bucket with huge male crabs so we’d have enough for a feast.  What a great surprise and generous gift.

This made our day and also our dinner.  Dee and I got the kids to bed and then it was around 10PM when wefinally sat down to chow down on fresh crab.  We really had no idea how to prepare them, but a nice guy at Tony’s Crab Shack cleaned them for us and we were on our way.  Keep in mind, if you ask 10 people on the dock how to cook a crab, you’ll get 10 different answers.  Keep reading and you’ll see our favorite way.

How to Catch a Crab

1. Consult the tide chart.  It’s ideal to go just before high tide so that the tide is bringing crabs in from the salt water up into the river harbor.  Then the crabbing an hour or two after high tide can be good as well as the crabs head back to sea.  Since the dock crabbing is on the mouth of the Coquille River, it’s not good to crab with a few days after a big rain as the crabs will be washed out.
2. Feel free to use the 3 crab rings and other equipment we have at the house.  You are also welcome to add to the equipment if you find something that is helpful.  In addition to the crab rings, you’ll want to take the bucket, crab ruler and gloves (optional).
3. Stop by Tony’s Crab Shack just in front of the dock in Old Town and pick up some bait and a fishing license.  We prefer to use both fish and turkey or chicken.  Keep in mind that the seals like to steel the fish bait; but that just adds to the sport of it.  While at Tony’s make sure they use the drill to put a hold in the frozen bait.  There should be a hook on each crab ring for connecting the bait.  If it gets lots please replace or use a zip tie to attach the bait.
4. On the dock, just tie off the crab rings, attach the bait and give it a toss.  Then about every 10 minutes pull up the rings and check for  crabs.  Use the crab ruler to make sure the top of the shell just behind the points is large enough to keep.  Also ask someone to show you how to check for a male vs. a female.  Basically the female has a wider triangle on the back underside of the shell, while the male is a narrow triangle.
5. There is a crab cleaning station at the top of the dock.  My favorite way is to hold the crab by the legs and bang the shell.  Then remove the shell and inside keeping the bottom shell and legs all attached.  If someone else is up there cleaning, just watch and learn.  The reason I like this method is because we do not prefer to cook them live.  We’d rather have them all clean so when we cook them there’s unwanted parts in the water.  I also like this method keeps them looking like a full crab, just minus the top shell and inside parts.
6. Our favorite way to cook the crabs is to boil them for about 8-12 minutes in salty water.  We just heavily salt some tap water and use the huge pot.  We’ve tried it a bunch of ways and with various spices as well.  Feel free to ask around and come up with your own favorite way.  Then post it below as a comment.

Bandon Dungenes Crabs are Good Eats!  For about $5 of bait and a little luck, you can have a feast of the most delicious fresh Dungeness crab you’ve ever eaten!