The details of our Puget Sound summer crabbing season have finally been announced! Most of it gets underway on July 1st, with some of the usual areas delaying their openers out of concern for soft shells continuing through July.
This blog post will share the season details and connect you to helpful resources for anyone just starting out, or if you need a refresher / new gear for this crabbing season.
We will also share the seasons by Marine Area here with helpful links to skip to the one you are most interested in:
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 4, 5 and 6
Open July 1 through Sept. 4, Thursdays through Mondays only.
Crabbing is definitely the best in MA6 of these 3 areas. Port Angeles Harbor, Discovery Bay, and Dungeness area can all really produce great catches of crab.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 8-1, 8-2 and 9
Open July 1 through Sept. 4, Thursdays through Mondays only.
These three Marine Areas represent the absolute best crabbing in Puget Sound. Crab always thrive the most near freshwater sources because of the nutrients washed into the area that crab eventually feed on.
The Skagit River puts out 80% of the freshwater that dumps into the Puget Sound. All the areas around where the Skagit and the Snohomish River systems dump into Puget Sound will be highly productive crabbing areas.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 7 – South (San Juan Islands/Bellingham)
Open July 15 through Sept. 30, Thursdays through Mondays only.
There are too many areas around the San Juan Islands and Bellingham to list as potential crabbing spots.
Opening the crabbing season a bit later due to soft shell concerns.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 7 – North (Gulf of Georgia)
Open Aug. 17 through Sept. 30, Thursdays through Mondays only.
The San Juan Islands are juxtaposed between major river systems in both Washington and British Columbia that create some of the best crabbing anywhere.
The latest opening is due to concerns about soft shell crab, but also one of the later available crabbing summer seasons.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 10 (Seattle / Bremerton)
Open July 2 through Sept. 4, Sundays and Mondays only.
Closest to population centers, but also can offer extremely good crabbing. The two-day openers should keep the usual spots viable all season long, but don’t be afraid to drop deeper as well, as the season goes later to pickup late season limits in water deeper than 100 ft.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 11 (Tacoma / Vashon)
Open July 2 through Aug. 28, Sundays and Mondays only.
It’s great to have our South Sound crabbing back in Marine Area 11. The north end of MA11 will offer better Dungeness crab catches compared to the southern areas around Tacoma. However, if you like red rock crabs, you will find monster specimens in these southern areas, along with a few Dungeness mixed in.
Puget Sound Crabbing Season in Marine Area 12 / Hood Canal – north of a line projected true east from Ayock Point
Open July 1 through Sept. 4, Thursdays through Mondays only.
Hood Canal is probably my favorite place to crab for all Puget Sound areas. The productivity, fewer people, and second-to-none scenery of the Olympics make this my personal go-to.
Stay away! 🙂
Puget Sound Areas Remaining Closed in 2023
The following areas will remain closed this season to protect weak Dungeness crab populations:
Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) south of a line projected true east from Ayock Point: Closed until further notice.
Marine Area 13 (South Puget Sound): Closed until further notice.
Opening tides for the Puget Sound Crabbing Season in 2023
Note: There will be slight adjustments to these tides depending on where around Puget Sound you are launching.
Every year, the concept of tidal currents and the rules around launch/retrieval catch a few folks unawares, creating boat launch hilarity along with some certainly negative dynamics with pots lost and other impacts to the environment that could be easily avoided with a little bit of tidal education.
Let’s look at Sunday, July 2nd for example: You shouldn’t launch inside of 2.5 hours on either side of the -3.2 ft low tide expected at 10:37 am at Shilshole Bay.
That means, if you launch at 6 am (which is fine), you should expect to be off the water by 8 am, OR staying on the water until 1 pm. It’s really that simple…
Now, the other tidal dynamic is that of understanding currents. You want the least current / water movement for the best crabbing.
So again, let’s start with Sunday’s high tide of 10.8 ft at 3:08 am which goes down to a -3.2 ft at 10:37am:
The total water movement is 14 ft ( 10.8 – -3.2 – two negatives make a positive). The total time difference is 7 hours and 29 minutes (time between 3:08 am and 10:37 am.
Convert the time delta of 7 hours and 29 minutes to minutes (7* 60 + 29) you get 449 minutes.
Divide 14 ft by 449, and multiply by 60 to convert back to hours and you get 1 ft 10 in (almost 2 ft) of average water movement each hour. Note: actual water movement is much higher because peak water movement will be between high and low tide (max ebb).
Now compare those numbers to the evening tide movement on the same day and the average tide movement is less than 1 ft per hour.
The point is, for the best crabbing, I would be launching in the late afternoon/evening on the Sunday opener, crabbing that tide and getting off the water before dark with my limits of tasty crab.
Helpful information on How-To crab in Puget Sound in 2023
Here’s our how-to crab Puget Sound dedicated page, if you prefer the blog format for your information.
But, also checkout our video of the same material and subscribe to our active and growing YouTube channel below: