Tokeland, a small fishing town on the north side of Willapa Bay, has been a local hot spot for commercial crabbing for decades.

But you don't need a crab boat or any state-of-the-art equipment to bring home your own day's catch of Dungeness Crab.

“It’s beautiful out here. I mean, it's just gorgeous,” said Rick Johnson, of Centralia, as he loaded bait into a crab pot on Friday. “When you take home your crab from here and you cook it, sitting down to dinner, it’s unbelievable how good it is.”

The Toke Point public pier in Tokeland offers the perfect spot to drop crab pots in the bay while keeping your feet on solid ground.

Anglers from across Western Washington make the trip year-round in hopes of coming home with a legal limit: six male crabs measuring 6 inches across the carapace (back shell) or larger.

Any crab that does not meet these Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) requirements must be returned to the waters.

“Ninety percent of people up here are very friendly. It's nice. Everyone talks with each other and has their different ways to do it,” said Calvin Stamper, of Long Beach, who has been crabbing at Tokeland with his wife, Teresa, for over nine years. “This year hasn't been bad. Not bad at all. We’ve had to throw a lot back, but we still get our limits.”

When asked for his suggestions on the best strategy for pulling crabs from the bay, Stamper, laughing, responded, “have your wife do it. It's much easier.”

Many different types of crab traps are used containing a variety of bait to lure in the coldwater crustaceans.

Raw poultry, squid, razor clams, and, according to one local crabber, the occasional dead possum found on the side of the road, all make adequate crab bait. The more fragrant, the better.

Dungeness crabs must be kept alive before being cooked. When they die, the crabs can release a chemical that is poisonous to humans. As long as they are stored in a cool temperature with a decent amount of moisture, crabs can be kept alive for long periods of time. When ready, all that is required to cook crab is a pot of boiling water and a little rock salt.

According to the WDFW, Washington’s commercial Dungeness crab season opened on Jan. 15 from Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula south to Cape Falcon, Oregon, including the Columbia River and Willapa Bay. An opening date is still pending for the rest of the state’s Pacific Coast.

Dungeness crabs support Washington’s most valuable commercial fishery. The value of state landings for the 2023-24 coastal commercial Dungeness crab season was $66.8 million, surpassed only by an $88.2 million record set during the 2021-22 season.

The WDFW states that all recreational crabbers 15 years or older must carry a current Washington fishing license. Options range from an annual shellfish and seaweed license to combination fishing licenses, valid for a single day or up to a year.

Learn more online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfishing-regulations/crab.