ReelCaster

Dungeness Crabbing in Friday Harbor, WA

7 spots · peak Jul-Sep

Dungeness crab live in the San Juan Islands year round, so you are never working empty water out of Friday Harbor. What changes is the quality of the crab. Adult males molt through spring, burying themselves in the substrate and going quiet, which is why April through June feels thin. From July into September those same crabs have hardened up and are feeding hard in shallower water, and that is your window. Legal-size numbers ease back a little in fall as fished-down pockets refill.

Two spots carry this guide: Point Lawrence and Turn Rock. Both sit in current, and current is the whole game here. Work the slack. From dead slack up to about 2 knots your gear stays where you set it, and by roughly 4.5 knots the water pushes pots off station and the trip is over. Plan your soak around the hour either side of high or low water.

Crab pots do most of the work. Bait with chicken, turkey, clams or fish carcasses, drop on sandy or muddy bottom in 30 to 100 feet in the San Juan Channel waters around Friday Harbor, and let the pot soak before you haul. Ring nets cover the shallower flats closer to shore. Lay them flat with fish carcasses, chicken or clams, give the crab time to settle on the bait, then pull fast and steady.

When to go

Dungeness crab are resident year-round in the San Juans, so abundance never drops to zero; the summer peak (July–early August) reflects post-molt hardened adults filling out after the spring/early-summer molt, while a mid-spring dip corresponds to the soft-shell molting period when many crabs are buried and vulnerable. Legal-size abundance eases slightly in fall as fished-down populations recover before winter.

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Relative abundance by month: Jan 65 percent of peak, Feb 64 percent of peak, Mar 66 percent of peak, Apr 57 percent of peak, May 62 percent of peak, Jun 76 percent of peak, Jul 94 percent of peak, Aug 99 percent of peak, Sep 87 percent of peak, Oct 78 percent of peak, Nov 74 percent of peak, Dec 69 percent of peak.

Relative abundance through the year around Friday Harbor. Peak: Jul-Sep

How to crab around Friday Harbor

crab pots

Most used here

Baited pots are dropped on sandy or muddy bottom in 30 to 100 feet and soaked before hauling in the San Juan Channel waters around Friday Harbor.

Bait and lures
  • chicken
  • fish carcasses
  • clams
  • turkey

ring nets

Ring nets rest flat on the bottom and are pulled quickly to trap crab feeding on the bait, worked in shallower flats near shore.

Bait and lures
  • fish carcasses
  • chicken
  • clams

Tide, current and light

These are the conditions ReelCaster weights when it scores dungeness crab at Friday Harbor spots, and they are the ones worth planning a trip around.

Current
100% of the score

Fish the slack

Best from dead slack up to about 2 knots of tidal current, and unfishable by roughly 4.5 knots. In practice that is the window either side of high or low water, when gear hangs where you put it.

Tides here read off Anacortes, San Juan Islands

Where to crab

Every spot we cover around Friday Harbor that holds dungeness crab, with today's score for this species. Open the spot for the tide, wind and the next 14 days.

SEE THEM ON THE FRIDAY HARBOR MAP →

Other Friday Harbor guides

Guide last reviewed August 2026. Seasons, limits and closures change: confirm the current WDFW notice before you fish.