Crabbing in Nehalem Bay is the rare outdoor activity where a complete beginner and a lifelong local have roughly the same odds of going home with dinner, and Kelly's Brighton Marina is where most people start. It's a family-run marina on the east shore of the bay along Highway 101, about ten minutes south of Manzanita, and its whole business model is making Dungeness crabbing approachable. Here's what to expect.
How Kelly's works
You can crab from their docks or rent a boat. Dock crabbing is the simplest: rent crab rings or traps, buy bait (usually chicken or fish carcasses), drop the ring off the float, and pull it up every 15 to 20 minutes. Boat rentals put you out in the channel where the crab often run bigger and more plentiful, with a short orientation and life jackets included. Prices change year to year; call ahead or check their site, and know that summer and fall weekends are busiest.
The part people remember: when you're done, Kelly's will cook and clean your keepers for a small fee. You walk to the car with hot crab in a bag. Kelly himself has been known to hand out impromptu lessons on measuring and sexing crab, so ask.
Licenses and the rules that matter
- Anyone 12 or older needs an Oregon shellfish license. Buy it online from ODFW before you go, or at the marina if they're selling them that day.
- Dungeness: keepers are males only, 5 3/4 inches across the back (measured in front of the points), 12 per person per day. Females and small males go back gently.
- Red rock crab: either sex, no size limit, 24 per day. They're smaller and feistier and perfectly good eating.
- Bay crabbing is open year-round in Oregon. Ocean crabbing closes mid-October to the end of November, but that doesn't affect the bay.
Kelly's rents measuring gauges with the gear. Use one. The fine for a short crab is not worth the extra ounce of meat.
Tides and timing
Crab move with the water, and the best crabbing is usually the hour or two around slack tide, either high or low, when the current eases and your ring stays put. A rising tide into high slack is the classic pick. Strong ebb tides sweep rings and pull crab out toward the ocean. Check a tide table for Nehalem Bay before you pick your window, and plan for two to three hours on the dock.
Season-wise, late summer through fall is prime: crab have molted and filled out, so shells are hard and meat-full. Winter and spring crabbing works but you'll pull more soft-shells, which are legal but disappointing. Locals talk about the months ending in "r" for good reason.
What to bring
- Layers and rain gear. The dock is exposed and the bay wind is cold even in August.
- Rubber boots or shoes you don't mind soaking.
- A cooler with ice for the ride home if you're not having Kelly's cook them.
- Snacks and something hot to drink; there's a lot of waiting.
- Kids. This is one of the best kid activities on the coast. Pulling a ring full of scrabbling crab is a memory.
Cooking at the house
If you take them home live, keep them cold and damp (not in fresh water; it kills them) and cook within a few hours. Boil in heavily salted water, about a tablespoon of salt per quart, for 15 to 18 minutes for a two-pound crab. Cool, clean, crack. Melted butter, lemon, crusty bread. That's it.
Puffin Lane has a full kitchen with a big pot and a deck for the messy part, plus a cedar hot tub for when the wind on Kelly's dock has gotten into your bones. Seven guests fit, which is about the right number to work through two dozen Dungeness.
Other bay options
Jetty Fishery, a few minutes north at the mouth of the bay, also rents crabbing gear and boats and has a similar cook-your-catch setup. Nehalem Bay State Park's boat launch works if you own gear and a boat. Clamming on the bay's flats at low tide is another option in season; Kelly's can point you to the beds. For everything else on this stretch of coast, from kayaking the bay to the Tillamook Creamery run, see our Manzanita things-to-do page.
Some days the crab don't cooperate. You'll still stand on a dock over a beautiful bay with a thermos of coffee and a bunch of people hoping the next pull is the good one. We've had worse mornings.