Dungeness Crabbing — A Beginner's Guide

Crabbing is the most family-friendly shellfishing there is. You can do it from a dock with a single pot and a chicken leg, and a good afternoon can put a feast of sweet Dungeness on the table. Here’s how to get started on the Washington and Oregon coast.

Know your crab

Two crabs are worth keeping in the PNW, and one you must never release.

• Dungeness crab — the prize. Sweet, big, white-tipped claws, narrower oval shell with 10 spines along each side.
• Red rock crab — smaller but good eating, with black-tipped claws and a wider, fan-shaped shell. Strong claws, lots of meat for the size.
• European green crab (invasive) — 5 spines beside each eye, 3 bumps between the eyes. Color isn’t a reliable tell. In Oregon it’s illegal to return one to the water — report and destroy it.

The quickest tell between the keepers: white claw tips = Dungeness, black = red rock.

How to catch them

• Crab pots/traps — baited cages dropped on a weighted line with a buoy. Best from boats or docks; they hold crab while they soak. Set them and check in 30 minutes to a few hours.
• Ring nets — collapsible rings that lie flat; crabs walk on to feed and you haul up before they climb off. Check every 10–20 minutes. Great from docks and boats.
• Crab snares — baited cages with loops, cast with a fishing rod from shore or a jetty. Perfect where you can’t drop a pot.
• Pier/dock crabbing — drop a small pot or ring straight down, or cast a snare. The easiest, lowest-gear way to start.

Bait: raw chicken is the go-to — cheap and tough enough to last. Fish carcasses, herring, shad, and clams all work. Fish around slack tide, when crabs forage most actively.

Measuring and sexing your catch

You can only keep legal-size males, so two skills are essential:

Measure with a crab gauge straight across the widest part of the back, just in front of the points (Oregon measures “in front of the points,” Washington “inside the points”). Carry a plastic gauge — guessing gets you a citation.

Sex the crab by flipping it over and reading the apron (the flap on its belly):

• Male: narrow, pointed apron (lighthouse-shaped) — a keeper if legal size.
• Female: wide, rounded apron — release it, always.

Releasing females protects the breeding stock, and it’s the law for Dungeness in both states.

Where to crab

Oregon bays:

• Tillamook Bay / Garibaldi — among the best, with public piers, a long public pier, marina, and rentals.
• Netarts Bay — great tidal exchange, stays productive after rain.
• Yaquina Bay (Newport) — very beginner-friendly, with dock crabbing right downtown (Bay Street and Abbey Street piers) and rentals.
• Coos Bay / Charleston — Oregon’s largest bay, several public docks.

Washington:

• Westport / Grays Harbor — top coastal crabbing, marina docks and Float 20 pier; Half Moon Bay is good for families.
• Willapa Bay — lots of shallow habitat (Tokeland, Bay Center, Nahcotta).
• Hood Canal & Puget Sound piers — Point Whitney, Edmonds Fishing Pier, Des Moines Marina Pier.

Before you go

Crabbing has its own limits, sizes, and seasons — and they differ a lot between Oregon, coastal Washington, and Puget Sound. Read crab limits & seasons next, and check the safety status: domoic acid can affect crab (it concentrates in the guts), and seasons are sometimes delayed for it.