Crab report Winchester Bay 12/13

[MCMC]

Hi all, new to the forum and new to crabbing so I'm learning as I go. Going to be documenting some of my crabbing experiences here. As I was researching this hobby, I noticed I keyed in on people's monthly and yearly reports to see if I could pick up any trends. Hope this helps someone in the future.

12/13/2017
Conditions: Sunny and cold, high tide 9:40am ~7 ft, low tide 4:45pm ~1 ft
Arrival: 11:30am
Equipment: One CrabMax on a rod with 80lb test tied with a Palomar knot. One CrabMax with the handline. Chicken thighs as bait.
Catch: three 6 1/4" and one 5 7/8" all hard shell.

First rod cast was amazing. Pulled up one of the 6 1/4" right off the bat. Second rod cast got another 6 1/4" and the 5 7/8". Crabbing died down by 12:30pm, but I stuck around until 3pm. Lots of little ones off the dock.

I explored around and found a nice crab dock farther down that's part of the Douglas County park. Parking fee was $3 for daily and I think $40 for an annual parking pass. I saw two crab lines running off the side, so someone was using the spot. I didn't end up using this spot due to the fee. I wondered if the fee puts less crabbing pressure on the spot, so the crabs are better.

 

[Casting Call]

Hello MCMC! Tony here stick around for a few minutes.

 

[Casting Call]

First of all welcome to the forum. Second, crabs don.t know what a parking fee is so no pressure on them. The crab will come and go with the tides, fresh water to salt will bring them in , salt water to fresh will drive them towards he ocean. As seasons come and go the size and quality will change. December is one of the best months of the year. We all on the forum look forward to reports and stats of all kinds. Looking forward to yours. Tony

 

[4labs]

Great report. I have been trying to get to reedsport for the past 3 weeks to crab and can't get it together. Glad to hear you caught some.

 

[plumbertom]

Welcome and let me say, I've never seen one of those CrabMax traps used.
From the shore I mostly see people using crab rings and in particular from the crabbing piers.
I personally use the Danielson traps but then I fish crabs from my small boat.
I haven't crabbed at Winchester, if I'm going that far I usually go on to Coos Bay and fish out of Charleston.
But I do fish the Siuslaw for crabs when I feel it might not have too much fresh water from the rains.
It's been a week from Tuesday since my last trip to Charleston and my fishing buddy and I took home 24 crabs some as large as 7-1/2''.
All we caught were hard shells.
I find that chicken works well for bait when I can find it cheap enough.