Our Crab Fishing Adventure September 1998 Page 4 Tuesday 9-15-98 This morning started early for me because we had to get out on the water at 7AM to be ready for the change in the tide that was supposed to be the best time to catch crabs. Tom drove the boat to the outer bay on the ocean side of the Alsea Bay Bridge. We dropped our crab pots and set back to enjoy the sunrise over the mountains behind the Alsea Bay Bridge. Sun about to rise behind the Alsea Bay bridge As the sun rose, a thin fog developed just above the surface of the water. The fog seemed to get thicker and denser as the sun came up, but when the sun rose higher in the sky, the fog burned off by mid-morning. Early morning fog on Alsea Bay We spent a lot of time with our boat near a sandy beach. Many times, Tom drove the bow of the boat up on a beach that was part of a peninsula between the bay and the ocean. I could hear the sound of the waves breaking on the other side of the peninsula which was covered with a collection of drift wood pieces of all sizes. At one point I stepped out of the boat to take a short walk to a place where I could see the ocean. I took a few pictures of the driftwood and the ocean breakers in the distance. Driftwood with ocean in the distance There were a lot of seals and sea lions around the bay. They would come up close and look us in the eye for a few minutes before diving to find a snack. We thought they might be trying to get at the bait in the crab traps. We would see these critters all day long every day we were out on the bay. We began to get keeper size crabs as the morning wore on. A couple of them were really big, much bigger than would normally be found in a store. By the way, the crabs we have been catching are good old Dungeness crabs. I called Kay on the amateur radio at about 9:30Am to find that the women in camp were just getting around. They all planned to go to the town of Newport to go shopping and sightseeing. By this time Tom and I had caught 9 keeper size crabs while Harry and Wally had 11. We were out until time for lunch when we came in for awhile with a total of 27 crabs between the four of us. We hauled our crab catch up to the place where the campground staff cooked and chilled our crabs while we were eating lunch. We all took a break while waiting for the turn of the tide. During the time off, I was able to connect to the Internet to get my e-mail messages from where I work at Varian Imaging Products and from America Online. Our first catch, ready to clean Before going out again, our crew wanted to clean and ice down our catch. So Tom, Harry, and Wally set up a crab cleaning production line. Crab cleaning production line Tom would pop the top off the crab, Harry removed the innards, while Wally washed out the center of each crab. They made a quick job of cleaning our first load of crabs. At the cleaning station, as the crab scraps ran into the water next to the dock, there was a flurry of activity in the water. It was caused by hundreds of three inch long baby salmon going into a feeding frenzy. Many of the small fish would come partially out of the water to get at the tasty morsels of crab guts. All the time I took pictures of the operation. Small salmon in a feeding frenzy Suddenly it was time to get back out on the water. While we were in port a fairly heavy fog rolled in over the bay. So Tom and I went out only a short distance from the campground. Crab fishing in the fog As we found our way to the opposite shore, we found the water was very shallow. The boat propeller stirred up some mud at one point, so we headed for deeper water. We followed the shoreline so we could find our way home in the fog. As it turned out the wind came up and blew the fog away before we quite fishing. As luck would have it, we caught only one big crab by the time we decided to head back to camp. Just before we got back to our boat dock, Tom decided to drop the crab traps one last time before going in to port. We were within view of the dock when I saw Kay and Nora up on the dock watching us. I pulled up the crab pots for the last time today and was pleased to find we had another keeper size crab. I joking told Tom that we had just doubled our catch for the afternoon. Kay and Nora were taking pictures of us as we returned to the dock. Home from the sea with two crabs Now it was time to prepare for our big crab feast. We had 27 crabs that had been cooked and cleaned earlier in the day. Our meal was simple; just fresh delicious crabs, French bread, and wine or what ever else a person wanted to drink. Eating our first catch of crabs I ate two nice sized crabs, but I could not keep up with Harry. He really enjoys eating fresh crab. Friends of Harry and Shirley joined us for our meal. Harry’s friends brought two more ring style crab traps for us to use the next day. We kicked back and relaxed next to a warm campfire. We could all thank Cathie for building a nice fire in the fire ring at one end of our wagon circle. A bag of marshmallows appeared along with the rest of the ingredients needed to make a campground favorite, s’mores. Roasting marshmallows All that was needed was some way of roasting the marshmallows. As it turned out, I still have a set of skewers I made 20 years ago for camping trips with our son and his friends. I always carry the skewers in our motorhome just in case there is an opportunity to cook hot dogs or roast marshmallows. So, we ate roasted marshmallows and used some of them to make very tasty s’mores. After finishing off the marshmallows, we all sat around the campfire visiting while trying to avoid the smoke from the fire. Then it was time to head for our respective motorhomes to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another busy day. 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