The Great Escape.

Ocean Falls is well know for the abundance of crabs. Great big Dungeness crabs. Everyone who there put down a crab pot or two. We were no exception. 

The first morning we were there Jim got out the crab gear and put a pot out in "the spot". A few hours later he came back with a couple of couple of crab. 

 By late afternoon he had 4 good sized crab.  A couple of them were what he calls "dinner plates". Big crab!! 

We were having Bob and Louis over for Happy Hour - so deciding it was too late to cook them at 4 pm  Jim had put them in a live bucket - which has a tight lid and holes to let the water into the bucket. And we put them behind the boat. We have done with with crabs last year in Bay of Plenty. 

The next morning, Jim pulled the pots again -- 3 more large crab. We got the water boiling and cooked the first three crabs -- shucked them and had a nice bowl of crab meat. 

Pulled up the live bucket to cook the next 4 --- EMPTY!!  Lid pushed partially open and crabs no where to be seen!  So disappointing!!!  But there were more crabs to be caught.  Back to the crab pot. A few crabs in the pot but only one legal.  Ok. Pot back and we will try again later. 

Our plan was to spend the day getting a few crabs caught and cooked for future dinners and then leave the next day. 

Jim decided to put out the prawn pots as well. He had heard there might be a few prawns about. 

Last pull of the day. Crabs are a lot of work!! Pulled the crab pot -- only a couple of under sized crab. I turned off the water I was starting to get to a rolling boil.  

Jim went off to pull the prawn pots. One measly Humpback shrimp!!  

We had a very nice dinner of crab cakes and salad and one Humpback shrimp. 

Jim had rebaited the crab pot and moved it. He left it overnight and pulled it the next morning.

15 CRAB!!

FIFTEEN CRAB!!   FIFTEEN!!  All large. Almost all male and legal. 

We were packing up to leave and decided not to change plans or try to cook crab and then leave so we threw them all back. All of them! Sigh!  Maybe we could have figured out a way to keep a couple or cook a couple. But..... If only we had caught them the day before!!!   Crabs are a lot of work. 

We may go back to Ocean Falls on our way south at the end of the month. See if we can catch a few more crab. 

So of a total of over 23 crabs caught 19 were allowed to live another day thanks to us!  Well 4 took it upon themselves to live another day.   The great crab escape!