Crabbing in Nehalem Bay

[benbertola]

Does anyone have advice on crabbing in Nehalem Bay? A friend and I are going camping at Nehalem this weekend and were interested in giving it a shot. Neither of us have been scuba crabbing before, but I have had good luck in the past with crabbing from a boat there. We were planning on diving near the railroad bridge just south of the Brighton marina, but I know it's a bit of a walk from the road down to there. Is there any better places people recommend, or any advice on entry or access?

[ORDiver]

Did you do this? If so, how'd it go?

[benbertola]

So I finally made it out to Nehalem for a dive this last Saturday at low tide and had an enjoyable time. We walked down from the road under the railroad bridge just south of Kelly's Marina and put in and headed a bit north then drifted back. The dive conditions were pretty good - we had about 10 - 15 feet of visibility, but the max depth was only about 14 feet where we were at. Only saw about a half dozen crabs, most all males but no keepers. There were a ton of hermit crabs around though, and lots of clam shells. Pretty basic dive, but at least we were able to get wet. I'd like to do it again in the future from a boat so we can travel around a bit further to try to find where the crabs are at.

[Beefcake]

Did you think to tie bait to your dive flag weight? Crabs are easier to catch if they're busy eating....

[FarmerMike]

When you go next ring me up. I was clamming once w/ ORDiver last year but I never did find the time to go again. Work, kept getting in the way of hunting. I have a bit more time now and would enjoy the crabbing.