Tuesday, August 19, 2008

CRABBING 2008

Over the weekend we took our annual Crabbing trip to the Oregon Coast. For those of you who are unfamiliar with crabbing I'll give you the play by play on how WE crab.
First: Tie the bait (fish heads) to the bottom of the crabbing rings. 
Pick the lucky spot and throw the traps in the water. Stay away from the strong current.
To give the crabs time to crawl into the ring we usually drive around to the other boats and harass each other over who has the best catch (the goal is to catch the biggest & the most). 

The crabs can escape at any time so the faster the rings are pulled the better.
After letting them soak for a while the traps are pulled and the crabs removed.

The Dungeness male crabs have to be at least 5 3/4 inches across the back. The females aren't allowed to be taken.
Here is a very excited Devin announcing to everyone, "We got our first Keeper."

Our motor stopped working and it just happened to be after the guys left us girls alone in the boat. No, we didn't have to paddle back to shore. We got it to start again.
Eliza and Jason caught the biggest crab.
When we get back to the dock all the crabs get thrown into the steamer.
The shells and insides get removed.



Believe it or not they started catching more crab after they removed their shirts.







A whole days work into ONE delicious meal.





7 Comments:

Sara said...

my favorite is of you with the oar, so cute!

laurel said...

Very cool! Love how you two fell asleep on each other.

hooli said...

Well, that one picture answers the question I've been asking for years, Can Rach really do the splits?!?!?!?

Thanks for sharing these great pictures. Your family has such fun, strong traditions. A genuine example of a forever family.

Glenda said...

This looks so fun...the Oregon coast is lovely, but it is cold. Somehow, the pictures don't convey that.

Sara said...

I need to start paying you royalties for borrowing pictures...hope you don't mind:)

Jill said...

What a fun and amazing tradition! Watch out 'Deadliest Catch'! And crab is SO worth the work.

Kandis said...

Wow! That looked like one crazy trip! Adam loves him some crab so he's quite jealous of these pics. I especially love the one of you doing the splits with the boat drifting away!