Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

[TommyA]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

cpbroke I grew up in S.C. crabbing on the coast on our yearly beach trips. My cousins and I brought home more crab than we could eat (most of the time). We found the brackish water was the better pay off areas for crab and shrimp. I still visit the SC coast to crab and the last time I read the rules the main limit is the type trap you use. Those that you can leave and the crabs can't escape from you are limited to one. Hand held, spring sided and mesh bottomed are unlimited and are not subject to commercial rules.

Bait I use is wings and Legs. There is more there than necks and you can crab much longer without re-baiting. Once the chicken is seasoned you want to be able to continue to use it but once it looks washed change it. Good luck!

 

[Jarhead44]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

When I was a kid in South Jersey we would use the kind with 4 wire mesh doors with 4 strings. We used bunker for bait. I miss those days.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

I was referring to section 68B-45.004 Regulation and Prohibition of Certain Harvesting Gear. It's on the second page. Paragraph 7 says that all the rules stated in 1 - 6 do not apply to the listed traps which include fold up traps.

Here is the deal, you get caught with commercial traps you best have a commercial license. 1-6 gives you the rules for non commercial harvesting. Get caught with commercial gear and no license and you lose everything.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

How does one permenantly afix their name and address to a trap?

You buy a thin piece of 1/2 inch wide stainless and a die set. After stamping the required info into it (in Louisiana we have to put our crabbing license # rather than name), you affix it to the trap by bending the ends down into the mesh and folding them over.

BTW, one of the biggest problems with crab traps is that many of them are abandoned, or lost due to boats cutting the buoy lines. The abandonment happens for a variety of reasons, from lack of interest to the death of the person who set them. Cut lines are often the result of having buoy lines that are too long. When this is the case, the buoy will float downwind of the trap and the longer the line, the more there is to lie almost horizontally. This makes it easier for a boat motor to foul in the line and/or cut it. For this reason, the lines should be minimally longer than that needed for them to remain on the surface at high tide.

For those that might be interested, state wildlife & fisheries departments periodically hold events that bring volunteers together to remove abandoned traps. I participated in one in 2004 (http://www.gsmfc.org/trapprograms2004.htm) and we removed over 6,600 of them from a relatively small area. The problem, however, is that it is believed that there are hundreds of thousands of abandoned traps scattered throughout the Gulf Coast.

This is a very big deal because the traps, then known as "ghost traps," perpetually trap crabs, fish, turtles and other life. As each is trapped and dies in the trap, it becomes bait for the next victim. The traps can also be a hazard to boaters because they become encrusted with barnacles and other growth, ending up as "living rocks." Many of the traps that we pulled up in 2004 weighed over 100 lbs from this.

If you surf the webpages of your local wildlife agencies, you might find that one of these programs will be held near you. If your circumstances allow you to participate, you will find doing so to be very worthwhile. Just be prepared to get your boat very dirty and brings tarps to cover areas that you don't want to get scratched. The only bummer about the whole thing is that you aren't allowed to keep any of the live crabs that you find in the traps. I don't know the reason for sure, but I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that the crab "season" is usually closed in the area, as a means of getting owners to pull active traps.


PS: On buoys, I don't recommend using empty milk bottles, soda bottles, etc., because they split too easily and contribute to the abandoned trap problem. Proper trap floats aren't all that expensive and can be painted with a unique paint scheme for easy identification. I use bright colors to make them easy to see from a distance.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

here on the NC outer banks if you use commercial gear you have to get either a commercial license or a recreational license to use commercil gear.
I think now it allows for up to 10 commercial pots but you still hve to follow the regulations for leaded pot lines and bouy marking.
the fish cops occasionlly pull a trap and tag it.
you have 10 days to call the tag number in or your ticket is in the mail.
to clean a blue crab is simple, Ice them down well, have a few cool refreshing beverages, take them out of the ice one by one for cleaning, grasp the legs on one side firmly, peel off the top shell from the side, then peel off the apron from the underside, then cut off the mouth parts with a paring knife, then scrape off the deadmans claws from the sides of the crab that were exposed when the top shell was removed.
then use a hose and spray out the rest of the guts, place back on ice, repet until all are clean.
some folks like to boil them, to me it makes the meat to mushy.
I use a 35 dollar stemer setup from wally world.
add water,vinegar,just a splash and sometimes a beer to the bottom, in the steamer basket add a layer of crab,sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning,or its equivalent, and repeat until the basket is full.
steam until the crab turns red.
empty the basket on newspaper or other aborbent media, grab another refresing beverage and enjoy .
although some folks, mostly yankees, cook there crabs without cleaning I dont. I also gut my chicken,turky,venison and most other stuff I cook.
nothing nastier than being at an eatery watching a yankee slurp guts calling it "Mustard".
you will find the meat is tastier if cleaned before cooking.

 

[olehoggvalley]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

Off our dock in Jax,Florida we catch a lot of Blue Crab.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

Use bull lips for bait and run a trot line. We got close to a bushel in 2 passes yesterday.

I will not comment on the cooking procedures other than to say that no one described how to cook the world famous Maryland Blue Crab correctly.

Old Bay is so tourist. A real crab spice contains salt, paprika and a mixture of pepper spices. We buy it locally in 5 lbs bags and keep it in the salt shaker on the table and use it as season salt. The stuff is great on French fries.

http://www.skipjack.net/le_shore/crab/

 

[TheChugBoat]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

Hey now...that mustard is pretty damn tasty!

 

[TommyA]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

I've cooked them both way and enjoyed each. I normally just heat the water till it is boiling and seasoned with Old Bay. Drop the crabs in and shut the heat off. When the shell becomes read you are done. Mmm good!

 

[fishdog4449]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

mmm straight from the pot to the steamer mmm
with some melted butter and old bay mmmm

Down near the mouth of the Potomac there is a sort of a lake a few hundred feet inland with a tidal creek connecting it to the Potomac. High tide, the crabs get swept in, low tide, they get swept back out. You can basically sit there and pick them up and they swim by.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

We boil them in "crab burl," aka Zatairan's seasoning. I agree that the meat can be mushy when boiled but that is only if you over-cook them. Properly boiled, the meat is firm and succulent.

I grew up eating blue crabs in New England, where they are typically steamed or boiled with little or no seasoning. As mentioned by someone else, we also melted butter to dip the meat in. Having been in Louisiana for 16 years, however, I can no longer eat crabs this way - gotta have my crab burl!

Y'all are making me want to run down to the "shrimp lot" (open air market with about 25 seafood vendors) that is about a mile and a half from my house to get some crabs. Maybe I'll even throw the traps in my boat and go set them to get my own!

 

[ovrrdrive]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

We used to sight fish them all the time growing up but I haven't caught an appreciable amount in years now. This thread is reminding me how I would feel with a pot full of them as I sat down to feast. I'm going to have to get back into it for sure.

I do recall though that a marine patrol officer told me back in the day there was a size limit though. I think it was 3 or 4 inches peak to peak. Have they done away with that?

 

[TommyA]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

I know that in South Carolina there is a size limit of 5 inches point to point. Not sure of Florida but I would think that you wouldn't want to keep anything less than that anyway.

 

[rdny041285]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

i posted the size thing earlier i think for Florida....dont believe there is a size limit...

 

[olehoggvalley]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

Ya there is no size limit in Florida. The only thing you can't do is take a female with eggs.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

The South bridge between Tampa and St Petersburg is the Gandy bridge. As a kid we would go there with a stout cane pole with a dip net tied on and literall dip em out of the water on an outgoing high tide. Didn't take long to fill a three bushel zinc washtub full of those. Just can't do that nowadays.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

For recreational crabbing in Louisiana, a permit is required and up to ten traps can be set. While there is no size limit, the traps must have at least two escape holes of 2-5/16" in diameter. Daily catch limits are 12 dozen (144) crabs per person. Female crabs in the "berry stage" (egg bearing on abdomen) may not be taken.

If I remember correctly, the commercial size limit here is 6", tip to tip. Even though I crab on a recreational basis only, I adhere to that standard as a conservation measure. To me, that's a pretty painless way to conserve the resource anyway, because we have plenty of crabs that are larger. I also don't like to fool with tiny crabs anyway - too much work for very little meat!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

you guys are cheating. the proper way is on a bulkhead or dock, a hand line, with a chicken neck tied to the end. you also need a long handled dip net. no traps. also Palatka Florida is the blue crab, capitol. so they like fresh water also.

 

[gonefishin485]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

We boil them in "crab burl," aka Zatairan's seasoning. I agree that the meat can be mushy when boiled but that is only if you over-cook them. Properly boiled, the meat is firm and succulent.

Y'all are making me want to run down to the "shrimp lot" (open air market with about 25 seafood vendors) that is about a mile and a half from my house to get some crabs. Maybe I'll even throw the traps in my boat and go set them to get my own!

yes indeed, you ever go to fourchon or grand isle and crab or fish? me and the ol lady went to fourchon (wanted to go to grand isle but it was the weekend of the tarpon rodeo), and in about 2 hours had a 50 quart ice chest full, EVERYBODY out there was catching serious crabs too, hand line, trot line, and nets.

and ill let yall in on a little secret of mine.

chicken necks work well, TURKEY NECKS work 10x better, bigger, oilyer, last longer, and are big enough that we catch 4 to 6 in every set net everytime!

 

[DTM]

Re: Blue Crabbing. You have to try it.

In the crab capital of the world, Mandurah, Australia, we call them Blue Manar or Blue Swimmer crabs. We even have our own crab festival once a year. 10 crab nets legal size 127 mm, 5 inches, 10 per person and 20 per boat. You can take females without spown, but most aussies don't.