Crab Fishing on the Bay

[ Day 1 ]

[ Day 2 ]

[ Day 3 ]

[ Day 4 ]

[ Day 5 ]

Day 1
As usual, Tom was eager to get out on the bay as soon as our motorhomes were parked. Because Tom had been in the area a few days before we arrived, his boat was already in the water. So, all I had to do was to quickly assemble my crab traps and get them down to the boat. The tides were not only favorable to us this year, but they were later in the day. This allowed us to go out on the water during afternoon shortly after arriving. Wally and his crew were going to go up the river to try their hand at salmon fishing.

It didn't take Tom very long to drive his boat out to a familiar location on the bay to drop our traps for the first time on this trip. The weather was beautiful with the sun breaking through the wispy clouds drifting across the sky. There was a small amount of fog hanging around the bridge that made for an interesting accent to the view.

Tom is baiting up a crab trap — Fog layer covers the highway

One thing was very noticeable when our group headed out to the Bay to drop our crab traps, everyone was wearing a life jacket. This was a direct result of the close call Tom had last year. We jokingly referred to the life jackets as "Tom jackets."

The latest fashion for safer crab fishing

One thing that quickly became apparent, the crabs were in the bay and they were looking for food. We began pulling up "Keepers" with our first pull. Tom and I both observed that this was the first trip where we would catch so many crabs on the first day. However, we didn't quite get a limit.

As we waited for our traps to fill, we did our usual thing of letting the boat swing on the anchor. While sitting quietly watching the activity on the bay, we saw Dave and Nilo coming toward the shore with a boat in tow. I had to get a picture of the event for the "Italian Navy." As it turned out, the disabled boat had an outboard jet-drive that had sucked up a crab trap rope.

Nilo and Dave tow a stranded boat to the beach

Nilo and Dave pulled the boat over to shore where the crew could work on the drive to remove the tangled rope. In a very short time, the jet powered boat was on its way back out onto the bay. A short time later, the jet powered boat returned. The men in the boat gave Nilo and Dave a gift to show their appreciation for helping them out earlier. We returned camp a little early to prepare for our first crab feed of this trip.

Top of Page

Day 2
On our second day on the bay we had to deal with rain. This was the first trip where we had to spend the whole time on the water having to put up with rain. Can you believe it, RAIN in Oregon? I told Tom that I felt we had been fortunate because this was the first time in five trips that we had do put up with rain for so long. The weather on our previous four trips had been pretty good for the most part and very good a lot of the time. Traditional Oregon rainy weather had to catch up with us eventually.

Tom and I hadn't been out on the water very long when we saw a man in a small boat pulling hard on a bent fishing pole. He was fighting what appeared to be a large fish. Tom maneuvered his boat to a position where we could watch the action while remaining out of the way of the ensuing battle.

We didn't have to wait very long before the fish was netted and pulled into the boat. There was good reason for the long fight, hooked on the end of the line was a very big salmon. The man with the pole was very tired after working so long to land the fish, however, he struggled with the fish to lift it up to show it off to the occupants of the boats gathering around. When quizzed as to how big the fisherman thought it was, he responded by saying that the fish probably weighed 50 pounds or more.

That is a really big fish

After that bit of excitement, we went back to our crab fishing routine. With it raining steadily, the boat was taking on water at a faster rate than we've experience in the past. Tom would have to turn on the bilge pump to get rid of the water. At one point he pulled on the pump switch with nothing happening. After several tries, I looked behind the panel to find that the back of the switch had pulled loose. Knowing about the broken switch, I was able to bypass the switch to get the bilge pump to work.

Tom works on the bilge pump switch

As we sat in the rain waiting for our crabs to find their way to our traps, we had the company of Dave and Nilo who had tied up to Tom's boat. I was to find out later that it wasn't just our sparkling personalities that attracted Dave and Nilo. It seems that Nilo had forgotten to bring the anchor for his boat. Even so, it was nice to have the "Italian Duo" hang out with us while they shared Tom’s anchor.

Nilo Columbo points the way

This would be the first day we retrieved our limit of crabs from the waters of the bay. I was glad to be able to return to port with a limit of crabs after sitting in the rain. Even so, it was fun to be out with friends. On our way back to camp Tom drove by Wally's boat to find out how well they were doing. Wally enjoyed showing off the comfort he and his crew enjoyed under cover out of the rain. We could see grins all around in the boat

Top of Page

Day 3
On the third day on the bay, the rain would be with us until late afternoon. Fortunately we were not out very long as we pulled up our limit of sea critters in a relatively short time. This year we seemed to be finding fewer crabs in our traps, however, there were more "Keepers" with each pull of the traps.

Waiting in the rain for traps to fill with crabs

On previous trips we occasionally would get a trap with as many as thirty crabs, but only 4 or 5 would be big enough to keep. This year it was normal to find a crab pot containing only 12 to 15 crabs with 7 or 8 large enough to save. The best we did this year was to bring up a trap containing about 12 critters with 9 keepers. And keepers they were. We were catching really big crabs that were much wider than our gauges. A keeper must me a male that is 5 3/4 inches across. Several of the larger crabs were fully 9 inches across. So we were doing very well indeed.

Top of Page

Day 4
The rain had stopped during the night very early in the morning, so our fourth day of crab fishing was to be more like we had experienced on previous visits to Waldport. With no rain, we still had to deal with a heavy fog when we headed out to the crab fishing area on the bay.

Heavy fog was all around us in the morning

At times the fog produces some very interesting photo opportunities, this day was no exception. After setting our first trap line of the day, Tom anchored the boat a short distance from highway 101. Our view in one direction was of the fog bank receding toward the bridge while still obscuring the view of the bridge itself. Toward the highway we could occasionally see vehicles passing by as we looked through a thick layer of the fog. As is usually the case, the fog burned off before midday leaving us with very nice weather.

Looking through the fog toward Highway 101

The fog bank begins to recede toward the bridge

As on previous days, we were catching good quality crabs. Then there was the usual down time as we waited for the crab pots to fill as the boat swung on the anchor. Looking behind our boat were our anchor buddies in their boat close astern. With the good quality crabs being caught and the nice weather, the word was out. This resulted in very crowded fishing conditions. This never seems to be much of a problem for us as Tom is very good at close maneuvering among a large group of trap-floats and lines. His skill at the helm is responsible for much of our success at catching crabs.

Tom is watching the action on the bay

A typical catch of crabs just out of the water

There were times when we had quite a show to watch as many boats criss-crossed the bay to set and retrieve their trap lines. This was another day when we were able to go in early due to the fact that we had gathered our limits quickly. As we drove to the harbor, Tom drove by Wally's boat to get a status report. They were doing fairly well using a nice setup for retrieving traps while keeping the inside of the boat clean. It was good to have a short day on the water as this would be the day when Nilo would be producing his gourmet cioppino feed.

Top of Page

Day 5
On our final day on the bay we had to finish early enough to avoid the low tide. Later, the water would be too low for us to get the boat out making it necessary to pull the boat out on the morning of our departure day. Since there is a lot to do then it was imperative that we get the boat out on this day.

Our last day on the bay - Heading back to port

As had been the case on previous days, we were able to collect a limit of crabs in a fairly short length of time. When it came time to go into port, Tom drove the boat directly to the dock next to the launch ramp. I stayed with the boat while Tom went into camp to get Harry's car to use to pull the boat out of the water. It seemed to take a longer time than usual. As it turned out, some of the women decided to take the car into town to do some last minute shopping.

Dick is backing down to retrieve Tom's boat

Just in the nick of time, Dick and Dorisdean arrived in camp for a visit and their car has a trailer hitch. So Tom not only commandeered the car, but he drafted Dick into driving . Tom returned to the boat while Dick pulled up in front of the ramp and began backing Tom's boat-trailer down toward the water. I guided the boat as Tom drove his boat up on the trailer.

Now it is time to get the watercraft cleaned up for traveling

It was a short time from the ramp to get the boat to our camp compound. From there Dick took Tom and I into town to the local coin-operated car wash. This is where Tom washed his boat to clean out the salt water and seaweed. Tom had perfected a technique this year that allowed us to gather a minimum amount of seaweed in the boat as compared to previous years. Once finished cleaning the traps, we returned to camp with the boat almost ready for our trip home.

Tom cleans the inside of boat as Dick looks on

Top of Page

[ BEGIN ]

[ PREV ]

[ NEXT ]

[ RV FUN TRIPS ]