I went crab snare fishing off the llwaco jetty on the Columbia River and caught some nice Dungeness crab and made the best crab cakes for a special Christmas dinner. We got there a little after sunrise and about an hour before high tide. Fished with 4 oz weights in the crab snares. Thought we might need the 8 oz weights but never did. Used homemade crab snares, a 12 ft Ugly Stik Bigwater rod, and a Penn Battle III 8000 spinning reel. It was a little windy, but nothing crazy. Got 6 keeper male Dungeness crabs in 2.5 hours of fishing. It wasn’t the best fishing but it also wasn’t the worst. Plus the crab were super filled out with meat. Very tasty!

For those following the domoic acid closures, WDFW (as of 12/28) has stated that crabbing on the Columbia River from the outer jetty tips upriver remains open (https://wdfw.wa.gov/news/central-washington-coast-grays-harbor-willapa-bay-closed-crab-fishing-due-marine-toxins).
The Ilwaco Jetty is one of those weird places that seems to fall within two management areas when discussed in the crab closures...Marine Area 1 (which includes the Ilwaco area) is closed to crabbing, but the Columbia River (which is the body of water you're fishing off the Ilwaco jetty) is open to crabbing. So I'm no expert, but the press release specifically said that from the outer jetty tips upriver is open, so that's where we were fishing in accordance with what WDFW put out.

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