WALDPORT, Ore. — ‘Christmas ‘tis the season to be crabby in the festive bay city of Waldport, where crustacean-crazy fishermen fill their wintertime coolers with limits of Dungeness crabs — often in record time!

“It took us three hours to drive from Portland but just an hour to catch our limits,” beamed Serge Izotov, displaying an ice chest filled with 48 clattering crabs.

The angler and his party of four used an 18-foot runabout to lay their crab pots in the mile-long, 25 ft.-deep channel that begins at the mouth of the Alsea River and winds lazily through some upstream powerline pilings.

The town is located on Hwy. 101 on Oregon’s middle coast in Lincoln Co., roughly between Newport and Florence, on the Alsea River bay. Fed year-round with saltwater tides, the briny surge has created an estuary rich in all sorts of marine life, including Coho and Chinook salmon, sea-run cutthroat trout known locally as “bluebacks,” surf perch, starry flounder, Dungeness crab and a variety of succulent shellfish such as gapers, cockles, softshell and purple varnish clams.

But it’s the sweet winter “Dungie” that draws crab fishers to Alsea Bay during December, confounding a popular narrative that claims crabbing at the Oregon coast is best between May and October. Among the dozens of outboards that dot the bay are rentable skiffs from the Port of Alsea marina, headquartered in a big metal shack called Robby’s Crab Shack at 1245 NE Mill St.

“It’s a myth that crabbing is a spring and summer sport,” asserted Robby Hensen, the straight-talking manager of the marina where a fee of $125 delivers a fully-fueled, four-person boat equipped with crab rings. “Because of the nature of Alsea Bay, it’s really year ‘round. Under those powerlines you’ll find male crabs feeding all winter long.”

Seaward of the Hwy. 101 bridge is another Dungeness honeyhole, but Hensen advises boaters to beware the outgoing tide. The marina also rents crab rings that can be used on the nearby public docks and cooks crabs in a steam-hissing boiler.

It’s hardly surprising that Waldport would be home to phenomenal mid-winter crab fishing. The city’s slogan, “Where the Forest Meets the Sea,” captures the natural spirit of Waldport. Braced between the Pacific Ocean and the great Siuslaw National Forest, Waldport is the epicenter of all-things-outdoors. Climatologists couldn’t offer a better backdrop for alfresco fun, with warm, dry summers and cool-but-seldom-cold winters.

For the latest information on crabbing, clamming and fishing at the Port of Alsea, call Robby Hensen at 541-563-2003.