King salmon and Dungeness crab

[Okanagan]

Got some salmon and crab.

We kept the two fish above, about ten and 13 or 14 lbs. Couldn't find my digital scale.  Lots of fish, small by historic standards.  I landed 7, from five to 14 lbs.  Cousin about the same, plus he lost several bigger ones close enough to the boat to get a look at them and I lost a few.

Calm water in rain about half the time, beautiful day to fish. We had two doubles of both having salmon on at the same time.  On both of those he was playing a fish and I reeled up to about 20 feet deep as his salmon got near the boat, and each time another salmon grabbed my jig.  Like many fish, salmon chase the hooked fish and are excited enough to often grab any lure in sight.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY.  Fish finder showed a large fish at 40 feet under our boat, so I reeled up  to 40 and BAM, the fish grabbed my jig.  I slammed the fish to set the hook and it was just like setting the hook on a corner post.  The fish was too heavy for my hook set to budge.  For a few seconds my rod was bent double, as if hooked on the bottom, then when the fish started to move he simply came off.  Would have liked to see that one. 

A friend gave me his limit of crab so we are chowing down on ten large Dungeness crabs.  Wife absolutely loves it and I've told her to pig out since it is rare to get enough crab to get more than an ordeurve.





I prefer to break them in half and clean them before cooking.  Some folks prefer to cook them whole. 

[nastygunz]

I am drooling! When I was a commercial fisherman I had an unlimited supply of seafood fresh from the ocean but that was a long time ago now I'm landlocked up here and fresh seafood is hard to come by.

[Hawks Feather]

And just like that you have me wanting fresh salmon and crab. The problem around here is that fresh really isn't fresh and if it hasn't been frozen it has been harvested from a fish farm.

When I first looked at the fish I was thinking that they were much smaller than what they really were. Then I read the weights and saw the tape measure. Maybe small for you, but looked large to me.

[Okanagan]

When I first looked at the fish I was thinking that they were much smaller than what they really were. Then I read the weights and saw the tape measure. Maybe small for you, but looked large to me.

Re size of salmon:

They are getting smaller all the time.  Used to catch a lot over 30 lbs. right here in Sequim Bay.  Most are under ten lbs. now and a 14 pound fish is equivalent to a 35 lb. fish in the 60's and 70's.

In 1900 the Elwa River 20 miles west of us still had an annual run of huge salmon with fish often reaching 100 lbs.  I have seen photos and recorded weights of fish going 96, 104 lbs. etc.  A dam made that strain of fish extinct.

The first time I fished here, with my wife's cousins, was 1969.  I caught a 32 lb. king, and this crappie fishing kid was amazed.  They caught fish in the 30's most days, and officially, a Chinook salmon had to be over 25 lbs. to be called a "king."

1981 was a banner year for salmon.  I think the limit was four fish per person per day, and 22 lbs. was the mean, or average.  We just hammered the fish:  a limit after supper and then another limit before breakfast the next morning.  Most fish went between 18 and up to 26 lbs. with a rare one over 30.  In 1986 we caught one anomaly, a beauty that went 39 lbs. 

Gradually the salmon got smaller, seasons shorter, limits less till now we can only keep one fin clipped hatchery fish per day per person.  All unclipped "wild" fish are to be released.  We have lots of salmon this summer, many in the 4-7 lb. range and anything in the teens is a "big one".  One of the cousins got a 15 pounder yesterday, and we heard a rumor of a 20 lb. fish, out of 150-200 boats.

Any Chinook salmon now, no matter how small, is called a king. 

[Okanagan]

I am drooling! When I was a commercial fisherman I had an unlimited supply of seafood fresh from the ocean but that was a long time ago now I'm landlocked up here and fresh seafood is hard to come by.

We are fortunate, and I realize it!  Wish I could hand you some fresh crab and a slab of salmon through the internet.  Just checked and whole Dungeness crab, cooked, is $16.99 lb.  so the average mid-size  crab will cost $35.  Crab meat all picked out of the shell is $39.99 lb. 

[FinsnFur]

I'm with Jerry. Fresh seafood doesnt exist around me.
I love Salmon and got plenty of it when I lived on Lake Michigan. Probably no where near as good as it is further up there. But never had fresh crab. I cant even find the old frozen junk around here. Just imitation crab and that actually gags me. Tried it once. I hope if I ever find real crab it dont taste like the imitation stuff.

[bambam]

I'm drooling too  !!!!

[Okanagan]

I'm with Jerry. Fresh seafood doesnt exist around me.
I love Salmon and got plenty of it when I lived on Lake Michigan. Probably no where near as good as it is further up there. But never had fresh crab. I cant even find the old frozen junk around here. Just imitation crab and that actually gags me. Tried it once. I hope if I ever find real crab it dont taste like the imitation stuff.

One of my sons and his wife worked on a pollack dragger (trawler) up against the ice pack in the Bering Sea, catching pollack and turning it into surimi, which is immitation crab before they mold it into crab form.  They would load tons of a white powder mix before they left Seattle.  I think they called the white powder curimi.  On the ship they would mix curimi with pureed pollack fish meat, to form a gelatinous substance called surimi that is molded into immitation crab meat.  Sounds good, eh?  I kind of halfway like it, in small doses.

[nastygunz]

We used to catch crabs all the time in the Navy but I'm pretty sure they weren't dungennese crabs     

[FinsnFur]

Clyde, that process description made me dislike it even more

[nastygunz]

I love that fake crab stuff!

[Okanagan]

Clyde, that process description made me dislike it even more

  Wish I didn't know the process.  Don't I've ever seen my son or DIL eat immitation crab.