A highlight of summer on Bainbridge Island is crabbing season. It seems like everyone who can, is dropping crab traps all over the east side of the island. Don’t own a boat? No problem. A friend/neighbor may own one or you can crab via paddle board or kayak.

Bainbridge Island is in WDFW’s Area 10 and crabbing season this year (2019) runs from July 4th through August 3rd. Crabbing days are Thursday – Monday. From day one till close, you’re going to see buoys clustered all around the island.

What You’ll Need to Get Started

The first step is to get your crabbing license. Note: a crabbing license is only valid AFTER you receive it in the mail. If you need it sooner, head to Big 5 in Poulsbo to purchase it in person. For gear, you can get everything from Big 5 or online. Amazon has a two-trap kit that includes two of everything: pots, 100′ of weighted rope, and buoys. The included bait holder will last an hour before the rock crab destroy  it and that’s why I recommend getting the seal-proof bait cage instead. It’s tough and it does a great job limiting access to your bait.

For bait, you can head to T&C in Winslow and buy their salmon scraps or chicken parts. Another great bait to use, if you can get them, is horse clams. The crabs love horse clams and they don’t easily break apart.

Dropping Your Crab Pots

We’ve only crabbed on the east side of Bainbridge Island from Restoration Point to Port Madison. How deep should you go? You don’t have to drop your pots too deep; 35-60′ works well and you can let them soak for as long as you want. We normally wait anywhere from 6-12 hours to check our pots but 1-2 hours works too.

Crabbing by boat is great because you can go where people are catching crab. If you don’t own a motor boat, floating out at Fay Bainbridge is a good launching point or you can find a shoreline access point near you. The shoreline access guide is great for showing you road end beach access points you might not have known about. Our preferred crabbing method is via stand up paddle board. We stack the two traps on the front of the paddle board, paddle out and then drop them. When we check our pots, we bring a mesh bag to put our crabs in. You can also use a kayak or rowboat but for us, the lightweight and ‘flat’ paddle board is just perfect for getting in and out of the water.

What Will You Catch?

In Area 10, there are two types of crab you can catch: Dungeness and Red Rock. Dungeness crab (left) have a brown shell and are generally preferred to the red-shelled rock crabs (right). The preference is not due to taste; it’s just more work to get the meat out of the tough red rock crab shell. Red rock shells are like ‘rocks’ and eating bits of shell becomes part of the meal. Be sure to check the size and quantity rules and regulations before you go out too.

Cleaning Your Dungeness and Rock Crab

If you’re cooking your crabs whole, that’s easy. We don’t cook them whole and we like to field clean them so the parts we don’t eat are food for other sea critters. A friend of ours showed us a quick and easy method to clean Dungeness and Rock crab and it’s very similar to the technique in the video below. Less shaking of the legs and no little kids present.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about crabbing off Bainbridge Island. There’s an entire network of crabbers on the island who can answer the questions I can’t.