Dungeness Crabbing
Seminar by Fish Alaska’s George Krumm and Marcus Weiner
Dungeness crabbing is a popular activity from northern California all the way through southeast Alaska. The reason is obvious: Dungeness crabs are delicious!
In this comprehensive Dungeness crab seminar, Fish Alaska editor George Krumm goes through the gear he commonly uses to catch Dungeness crabs, from the crab traps to the buoys at the end of the rope, plus common, useful accessories such as the LeeLock Crab Cracker. George shares a lot of hard-earned Dungeness crabbing insight to shorten the learning curve for new crabbers, but experienced crabbers will likely gain knowledge, too. Everything from modifying the crab traps, the rigging above the trap, baiting the trap including using scents such as Pro-Cure’s Crab and Shrimp Attractant, and more. There is Dungeness crabbing footage, and the seminar ends by showing you how to clean and cook Dungeness crabs.
Crab traps for Dungies vary in price from less than $20 to over $150. We tend to favor the inexpensive ones, and we modify them to make them more effective. Most of the pots we use are Promar or Danielson brand. They’re made of PVC-coated wire, are square, and have a door on each side. To make these very light traps fish better, we weight them with rebar, usually 3 or 4 pieces of 5/8” cut to the width of the trap and secured to the bottom of it with zip ties. We also weight the doors of the trap to prevent the current or debris from holding them open. We use solid, ¼” pencil lead and simply wrap a couple ounces of it around the wire near the bottom of the doors. The last thing we do to these collapsible traps is to reinforce them with zip ties so they are a little more rigid.
Dungeness crabbing is a sustainable recreational activity and it’s great fun for everyone in the family. If you employ the tips provided in this Dungeness crabbing seminar, you will catch more Dungeness crabs.