Crab time

 Boiling your catch is step one; then...

moving the Dungeness  to a 5 gallon bucket before icing

 ANACORTES, WA - - Dungeness crab, it's what's for dinner or lunch or even breakfast.  Over the weekend, there's been quite a crab-fest as the short Dungeness crab season was in full swing.  It's been that way in past years over the beginning of August.  But this year it was different as the crabs were out in full force meaning a lot of anticipated long days for a good haul were over in a couple of hours having reached the daily quota.

     I approached one rather young guy hard at work preparing the day's catch.  He was almost down to the bottom of his cooker ... and filling up the top of a 5-gallon bucket.  His rhythm never slowed while we talked:  Into the cooker with his tongs; grab a bunch of claws and then shake the excess water off; and finally deposit the goodies in the bucket.

     As I stood there trying not to drool too obviously he asked if I'd like some as he never anticipated meeting quota early on the three days his group was out.  I ended up with at least two pounds of yesterday's catch...fresh off the ice where it was stored.  I should have taken a photo of my Dungeness delight.  Unfortunately, by the time I thought about photographic evidence all that was left was a large pile of smashed shells.