Six males a day, six inches across the back, pots from December 1 to September 15 and ring nets all year. Where to drop a pot, when the crab are full, and how closures work.
Domoic acid closures affect crab as well: check the Department of Health notice for whether crab is open, or must be eviscerated, before you set a pot.
Measured across the back, inside the points. Every female, every soft-shell and every undersized crab goes back in the water, and crabs must keep their back shell while you are in the field so a checker can see the size and sex.
The smaller, darker crab in the same pot. Same back-shell rule, same release rule for soft-shells.
On the coast the crab pot season closes from mid-September through November, when much of the Dungeness population is molting and soft. Ring nets, snares, dip nets and catching by hand stay open all year, so the fall closure is a pot closure, not a crab closure.
Those are Puget Sound rules. On the coast you need a Washington license that covers shellfish, a shellfish and seaweed license or a combination license, from age 16. Carry it.
All crab gear must be out of the water by one hour after sunset on the last day of any open period, and no gear may stay in the water on a closed day.
When domoic acid rises, the Department of Health can close crab along with razor clams, or require that the viscera (the guts) be removed before cooking. The same alerts that cover the clam beaches cover these notices.
Westport has the easiest crabbing on the coast: ring nets and pots straight off the marina floats and the fishing pier, no boat needed, with the best catches on the hour either side of slack water (Westport tides). Ocean Shores marina and the Damon Point shore are the Grays Harbor north-side equivalents (Ocean Shores tides). Tokeland marina works Willapa Bay (Tokeland tides), and Ilwaco docks and Baker Bay work the Columbia mouth (Ilwaco tides). With a boat, Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay fish well in the fall once the crab have hardened, and the ocean in Marine Areas 1 to 4 when the bar allows.
Dungeness molt in late summer; a crab that has just shed is light, watery and mostly shell. By late fall through winter they have filled out, which is why the coast pulls pots hardest from December on, and why a crab trip pairs well with a winter evening razor clam dig: pots in the morning, clams at dusk, cleaning and dinner after.
This is a plain-English summary, not the regulation. Limits, sizes and the pot season are set per marine area by WDFW; see the WDFW crab regulations and the Department of Health shellfish safety map before you go.
DigTide Pro alerts you when a coastal marine area opens or its rules change, and closure alerts are free for everyone. Tides for every port are built in.
