January is a perfect time to go crabbing on the Southern Oregon Coast whether you like to catch them yourself or just eat them. Any crabber will tell you the general rule of thumb if you wanna go crabbing is do it in a month with an ‘r’ (January, February, March, etc).
If you’re dock crabbing, and have a cage type crab, you can use any kind of bait you want, fish heads do well in attracting the little guys.
However if you’re using the crab ring the fish heads also attract the big guys……(the seals and sea lions- which you don’t want as they’ll steal your bait). So if its an open crab ring, use chicken or turkey, you’ll still attract crabs, but the pesky sea lions will leave it alone.
For eating…our crab is what I like to call local’s priced. You know what I mean, you go to a lot of coastal communities and the prices have been jacked up because they find the tourists will pay anything? Not in Charleston, everything is kept reasonably priced. I picked up 3 crabs there last week for just $15 and some change.
Great places to get crab are Chuck’s Seafood in Charleston,
the Crab Shack: 63480 Crossline Rd Coos Bay, (541) 888-3433
Seahawk Seafood: 63472 Pelican Place Coos Bay, (541) 888-6645
and *Fishermen’s Wharf: 63534 Kingfisher Drive Charleston, (541) 888-8862
*If you go to Fishermen’s wharf, ask for “Katherine’s price”, they always give me a little bit of a discount. They always have the crab cooker on and if you decide to catch your own, they’ll even cook it and clean it for just 50 cents a crab!
If you wanna check the conditions for the day, you can give Davey Jones Locker in Charleston a call at any time: at (541) 888-3941. They’re a tiny little market in that always seems to have whatever you need; if you need a tomato, a shellfish license, a micro-brew beer, and a spatula, you will find it here. They also have the best dang meatloaf sandwich you’ll ever have. Another little known secret, on Saturdays only, they make a mean clam chowder, but don’t dawdle too long before picking some up, cuz its first come first serve.