JDub had to work this weekend, so I grabbed the dogs and we ventured up to Camano Island for the day. It turned out to be a gorgeous day once the clouds burned off. Dungeness crab season is open and it's been a year since I've had any! (It's generally previously frozen in the grocery stores and it's just not the same. There's nothing like ultra-fresh crab right from the bay! And it costs a whole lot less than the grocery stores! It's a lot of work though -- just ask my brother...) My shoulder/arm pain pretty much stayed in the background most of the day, until late afternoon and it started to really bug me. Tonight it's bad. Nothing I do seems to help. I'm so sick of this.
But until the pain started to get to me, it sure was pleasant up there. My brother, Dave, and his daughter and their Pug (Milo) came up, and Dave and my niece made multiple crab pot checks. He ended up getting enough for us to each take home a nice amount. (JDub was thrilled!) Soon after I got there, we all sat down and ate a bunch of chilled cracked crab that my dad had caught yesterday. I was in heaven! I swear I swooned!
How to Catch and Cook Dungeness Crab
- Get a shellfish license
- Clams (cockles, horse clams) make the best bait (so digging and freezing them is part of the work involved).
- Crack the shells so the meat is exposed and place in the crab pot bait trap
- Outfit the crab pot with secured and weighted line (that's more than long enough for the depth of the water) and a buoy (red & white is required in Washington waters) and write name and address on it with waterproof ink
- Row or motor out quite a ways -- into the deeper waters -- then drop the pot
- Check the pots rather frequently because the pots do allow the crab to escape
- Once the crab have been caught (legal size and no females), hatchet them in half (yes, while alive, eeww) and remove the backs, shake out the innards, and hose them out well
- Boil a big pot of water on an outdoor propane crab cooker with four large handfuls of rock salt. Once the pot is a rolling boil, add all the crab halves and boil solidly for 22 minutes
- Place the cooked crab halves in a utility sink with some cold water to cool down, but not for long so that the salt doesn't dillute. Then place the crab in large containers and refrigerate
- Once chilled, grab some paper towels, seafood or nut crackers, and a couple of buckets for the shells -- plus a beer! (Beer is nummy with crab!)
- Time to swoon!
~~~~~~~~~~
It was nice to see my dad and his lady friend, Cathy. Dad is very very tan. We discovered why! He naps a lot on the deck in his LaFuma! (And there really have been a number of sunny days -- just mostly during the work-week which doesn't matter to retirees!)
Here are a few scenes from the pretty day. (Click all these pictures for enlargements). Oh! And an interesting note: It's 77 miles from our house to our Harstine property (south), and it's 77 miles to Dad's place on Camano Island (north)! Isn't that weird?
