CRABHAWK DOWN.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

NEWPORT - When it came to catching crabs, the guy using a fishing rod to cast a small rectangular contraption with a chicken drumstick affixed to it was running rings around the traditional crab rings and pots Gary Bowman of Eugene was using.

The first time the guy limited out while he caught only one crab, Bowman thought it was a fluke. The second time, Bowman decided to buy one of the Crabhawk contraptions the guy was using so he could try it himself.

The third day, he bought another Crabhawk and decided to hang up his crab rings for good.

"This is a lot more fun," Bowman said Tuesday while shaking a half-dozen undersized crabs out of one of his Crabhawks. "With a crab ring, you sit and look at it for an hour. This you always have something in it to pull in and look at. ... It's like fishing for crab."

"Gary is one of my converts," said Steve DeMars with a chuckle. DeMars, a retired hospital engineer who lives in Gleneden Beach, is owner of the company that produces the lightweight, 9-inch-by-12-inch crab-catching device.

And there are a lot more Crabhawk converts.

"We've got 2,700 of them out there," DeMars said.

He's thrilled with that, considering that he started aggressively marketing the device only in August, after buying out his partner, Crabhawk inventor Bill Paterak.

"When we were working together it was pretty much a onesy-twosy deal, but I'd lined up a distributor who was real excited about selling a lot of them," DeMars said. "And Bill said, `I don't want to work that hard. Why don't you just buy me out?' '

Now sales are growing so fast DeMars is looking into contracting with someone to take over the manufacture of Crabhawks. Right now, he's assembling them with the help of his wife, his son, Steve DeMars Jr., and his son's wife.

The Crabhawk is so surprisingly simple it's a wonder no one thought of it earlier.

It's built like a butterfly, with two 5-inch mesh net "wings" on stainless steel frames. The wings are attached to the axle-like body with torsion springs that force the wings into the open position.

Attached to the body is a "bait post" with safety pin-like locking mechanism that assures the bait stays one while the Crabhawk is being cast. Short lengths of monofilament line run from the outside edge of each wing, through an eyelet at the top of the bait post to a standard fishing swivel.

Line from the reel is tied to the other end of the swivel.

When a crab starts tugging on the bait, the tip of the fishing pole moves. The crabber than reels in the line, which pulls the net wings up against the bait pole and traps the crab or crabs.

The angler then simply reels the Crabhawk to shore, being careful to keep constant pressure on the line so that the springs don't open the wings and allow the crabs to escape.

"It really works well," Steve DeMars Jr. said. "It always lands right side up. It hits the water and as it sinks to the bottom, the trap automatically opens up due to the torsion springs and then it lays flat on the bottom.

"It was designed with the sport fisherman in mind, so when the crab gets in there and starts working on the bait, tearing at it, the bait post starts moving. You give it a little bit of time for the crab to call their friends, then you just lift the rod and keep the line tight. You don't have to jerk it or do anything. Just keep your line taut and reel it in."

Crabhawk users often catch more than one crab at a time, making it much more effective than other castable crab snares.

Bowman says he's landed as many as 14 or 15 crabs of various sizes at once.

Tuesday was one of the slower days crabbers had seen in a while. Nonetheless, several Crabhawks were reeled in with four to six crabs inside, although most of them were under the legal size limit and had to be tossed back.

"I've had as many as three legal-size males in there at one time," DeMars said.

He said crabbing with a Crabhawk is a lot like "plunking" for trout.

"You just watch the rod tip - the big ones, when they're there, will really pull down hard."

In addition to making crabbing a more active pastime, the Crabhawk opens new waters to shore-based crabbers.

"With a ring, you're limited to as far as you can throw it," DeMars said. "But these can be cast out 100 to 150 feet - out where the big ones lay."

Indeed, a half-dozen men - each armed with Crabhawks and a couple of stout surf-casting rods - were crabbing from the man-made liquid natural gas tank peninsula in Yaquina Bay as high tide approached Tuesday.

"It's great for areas that aren't really practical for crab rings," DeMars said. "Like this spit, where rings would get hung up in the rip rap.

"Another advantage is that they're easy to store and transport because they're so small and lightweight."

Several sporting goods chains in the Northwest - including G.I. Joe's, Bi-Mart and Englund Marine - are selling the Crabhawk for about $20. DeMars also sells them over the Internet (www.crabhawk.com) for $24.95, including shipping and handling.

Standard crab rings sell for $15 to $20.

Crabhawk users, of course, must also have rod, reel and line strong enough to deal with the weight of the device itself, plus several crabs. That can add another $40 or $50 to the cost for a beginner.

DeMars uses a 10-foot, 6-inch rod. "What you want is a rod with good backbone and a limber tip so you can see the action," he said. He uses 85-pound test braided line and recommends that Crabhawk users go no lower than 50-pound test.

Oregon law allows crabbers to use up to three pots, rings or traps at one time. No license is currently required to harvest crabs.

The Oregon Legislature, however, is considering a bill that would require an angling license to harvest crabs or shellfish.

CAPTION(S):

Steve DeMars Jr. prepares to cast the Crabhawk with a chicken drumstick as bait. DeMars' father is the owner of the company that so far has produced 2,700 of the 9-inch-by-12-inch crabbing devices. The Crabhawk can pull in several crabs with each cast. Steve DeMars Sr. bought out business partner and inventor Bill Paterak and has been aggressively marketing since August.