When the inland marine winter Dungeness crab fishery comes to a close on Saturday, it will be remembered as one of the best sport fisheries in a long time.

"Once we tally up all the catch cards and get the numbers of crab caught, it'll most likely be a record year for the recreational fishery," said Rich Childers, state Fish and Wildlife crab manager.

More than 240,000 sport crab licenses were sold over the summer, generating a catch of slightly more than two million crabs. Another 25,000 or more licenses were issued this winter. While harvest figures aren't known yet, catches have remained strong.

"In the (inland marine) areas that remained opened this winter all were doing quite for crabs, except for (the San Juan Islands), where it is more like a normal harvest year," Childers said.

A Dungeness crab won't win any beauty contest, and some say their mouth resembles the ugly creature from the movie "Alien." Their hard-as-armor shelled body is brownish-purple, and each is equipped with two ferocious-looking pincers.

But they're by far one of the tastiest creatures you can pull out of Puget Sound.

I had a chance to go crabbing the day after Christmas in southern Puget Sound with Tony Floor of Olympia, who had been scoring big numbers of Dungeness crabs for the past few weeks.

Brad O'Connor, retired Seattle Times outdoors columnist, and my son Tegan boarded Floor's boat at the West Bay Marina in Budd Inlet as we made the quick 20-minute ride near the southwest side of Hartstene Island.

"I guarantee they'll be loaded with Dungeness crabs," said Floor as we neared the shoreline, where his six crab pots soaked overnight at a depth of 130 feet.

The first giant commercial-sized pot we pulled up had about seven crabs, and each was well over the minimum 6 ¼ inches. We sorted and kept the four largest, then reset the pot.

The next two smaller-sized pots had a few legal Dungeness crab and also contained a handful of red rock crabs that we released.

The fourth pot had the mother-lode — more than 25 "Dungies," all jumbo-sized with some over eight inches.

We had our daily limit of five crabs apiece before we even pulled the final two pots, and each of those contained 20 more "jumbos."

"This has been going on all winter long, and it's not just in this particular spot," Floor pointed out. "I've been hearing about good crabbing in many other areas of the sound as well."

It's still not too late for people to take advantage of the fishery, which can be accessed using pots or traps from boats or piers, or by wading the shorelines at low tide with dip nets or rakes.

Open areas through Saturday are the Strait of Juan de Fuca east of Neah Bay; San Juan Islands; east side of Whidbey Island; most of northern Puget Sound; and south central and southern Puget Sound.

The daily catch limit in Puget Sound is five Dungeness crab, males only. In addition, you may keep six red rock crab of either sex daily.

Reporting your catch is mandatory, and must be mailed or done online by Feb. 1. Crabbers who fail to file reports will face a $10 fine that'll be imposed when applying for a 2012 fishing license. For details, visit http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/crab/crc.html.

The summer Dungeness crab season will reopen in most areas of Puget Sound on July 1.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com