Dungeness Crabbing in Vancouver, BC

Dungeness crab live in Vancouver waters year-round, from Burrard Inlet through Howe Sound and out across the Strait of Georgia, but the crabbing you actually want happens from June through September. Warmer water speeds up their metabolism and gets them foraging, and by mid-summer the crabs that molted in spring and early summer have hardened back into solid hard-shell adults. Late spring is the soft patch: weeks 17 through 20 put plenty of post-molt crabs in your gear in poor condition. Early summer brings a smaller dip when the Fraser freshet pushes low-salinity water across the nearshore. Through winter the crabs are still here, just deeper and slower, sitting off the shallow urban flats.

Six spots hold them. Sturgeon Bank and the Capilano Mouth give you sand and mud close to the city. The West Vancouver Shoreline works the north side of the inlet, while Roger Curtis, Gower Point and Plumper Cove open up Howe Sound.

Crab trapping does most of the work. Drop baited round or square traps on sandy or muddy bottom in 30 to 100 feet, load them with fish carcasses, chicken, herring or clams, and let them soak. Hoop netting suits the shallower flats, baited the same way and pulled often before crabs climb the low rim. Work the slack, from dead water up to about 2 knots. Past roughly 4.5 knots your gear will not stay put.