Northwest Fishing Reports

I'm gonna take my five year old son to Utsalady for crab tomorrow. I have a 13 foot boat on a trailer. Which launch do you guys recommend Maple Grove or Utsalady Pt? Any suggestion on where to drop the pots? I only have an 8 HP Evinrude so I won't be covering a whole lot of water. First time crabbing in the area. Thanks in advance for the help.

I like launching at maple grove. Just look for shelfs breaking from 35-45 down to 60-70 feet. If you don't get crab pull up and move

three of us crabbed Utsalady on sat. We limited on dungies but did not see one red rock. We came home with 15 crab. We worked hard for our limits. on the water from 11 till 6 pm. Launching is a crap shoot. Either launch is busy.We crabbed best in 30 -40 feet of water.

I don't normally use the launches but Utsalady point is very close to crabbing grounds. The entire Bay is no more than 12 feet deep. Even way out in the middle about three or four good pulls and the pot is at the bottom of the boat.

Hey Bodo? when you watched me with the sheriff did you know it was me? Now Im back to being fully up to date. I wrote a letter to the court to reduce my fine and I'll go from there. Then when I move to island county and become mayor I will fire all involved in my citation. That'll fix them lol. Im switching over to area 9.

racfish wrote:Hey Bodo? when you watched me with the sheriff did you know it was me? Now Im back to being fully up to date. I wrote a letter to the court to reduce my fine and I'll go from there. Then when I move to island county and become mayor I will fire all involved in my citation. That'll fix them lol. Im switching over to area 9.

Can't say I did, I was just watching through the binos. We have a telescope that's more than capable of reading boat numbers at that distance but it's a pain to focus. The Sheriff boat was just hanging in a bunch of anchored boats down the beach a hundred yards. The like to sit there and watch. They even have a skiff that they deploy, if you see a little RIB with a couple guys in flannel shirts when it's 85 out, guess who they are and the big boats not far away. After they saw you the just hauled @ss out of their hole full throttle, full cop. I much rather see the WDFW guys, at least they aren't Pr!cks.

I wrote a letter to the court asking that my fine be reduced. We'll see what happens. It was a 257.00 citation. The sheriffs are trying to recoup the money they spent on illegal fireworks. LOL... They werent very nice cops. the older guy was pleasent but the younger one was a dick.I was wearing my PFD all day and they said none of us were wearing PFDs. They also mentioned that I didnt have childrens PFDs on board. We were all 30 yo plus. Go figure. They are bored since no more Barefoot Bandit. HahahaThen they wonder why they earn the title PIGS.

They feel like fish out of water when they're on Camano. Seeing as it's the red headed step child of Island county.

Crabbed Utsalady on Sunday. Pretty slim pickins. We managed to get 8 keepers for 3 of us. Lots of crabs. Just smaller ones.

Move out to deeper water. Like 70' or even across the channel. I heard the neighbors say they let the natives Skagit Bay again, They counted 30 pots across the bay.

Or go east around the island

Im thinking that too. 8.2 area looks good also Whidbey off Columbia Beach. This weekend is picklin okra.

I'm glad to know that the crabs have not out smarted me. With reports of small and or female taking over everyone's pots was gross exaggeration. Being a concerned sportsman and continuously worrying about the state of our tenuous dungy fishery. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to launch the boat from the front yard and put the hurt on the crabs, for purely selfish reasons.... I love to eat crabs, rocks, blues, snow, kings and my undisputed favorites, dungy's!!!! So my darling and headed up for a few days. We picked up the bait of choice, did a little repair on one of the pots, put the gas tank in the boat, baited up the boxes and pushed the boat down the tracks and out we went. Dropped the pots in my fave spot, went back to house for a bite of dinner, cocktails and some awesome R&R. Got up in the morning slid the boat down the tracks and out we went. Pulled the first pot and pulled out 6 over 7 inches. Tossed all the little guys over and fed one to me harbor seal. Pulled the other pots and filled out our cards for our 10, tossed all the little guys out rebaited and we came for breakfast, coffee and a good crab boil....TBC...

You know what Ive been finding out is in the area we both love to crag is West of the boat launch is a female crab hangout,East of the boat launch it was all males. You know the stairway from shore? thats one of my favorite spots in 55 feet of water. I'll be hitting it again in two weeks. This comming weekend is Seafair so I go nowhere with the boat. I wait till after then I'll hit it hard and aug 1st the Skagit flats opens for salmon.