Winter Crabbing

Matt wanted to take his uncle's center console trophy out for a quick dunk and to do some crabbing. Despite the ugly weather, I volunteered to go. We were at the ramp at 6 a.m. at Luhrs Beach. To our surprise there were about 10 rigs already parked and we surmised that they were waterfowlers and were out there in their duck boats ready to hunt.

The morning greeted us with the sun shining, but only briefly and the rain and wind came. We can hear the shotgun blasts from the hunters and we saw maybe over 1,000 waterfowl flew through the Nisqually Delta. That got me excited, to know that duck hunting can be had so close to home.

Crabbing was OK. We took home 8 with 3 Red Rocks and 5 Dungies. Matt's pots produced all except for one. His shad and salmon combo worked better than just shad alone.

Big Kings at the Hump

Tim's Sunday passengers bailed so Matt and I took up the empty seats for the Humptulips. We were a little worried about the rain but when we got to the river it had very little effect. We did the hatchery drift again and at the first hole Clint strikes first with a dandy King pushing 35+ lbs. It took Clint almost 20 minutes to land the beast as it took him downstream to the hatchery.

Tim also got a big King drifting a cluster of eggs under a bobber at a deep hole. This fish was also a beast and in great shape. We would have kept it if kings were open for retention. I caught a chum at Jake's hole and almost got a second fish soon after we released the chum. There were a lot of jacks on the river again but where are the silvers?

Clint also got to bag his first duck on the river.