Been a Great year for Crabbing

You’re boiling them?

Very nice

Great eating!

Worst year here in the last 10 years, I think we had a bad winter kill. Between that, and the summer dogs and skates these crabs have a tough time, lol

The kids love catching blue crabs at the beach



Nothing like a good crab boil

You folks that boil them, what do you use to purge them?

Never heard of purging a crab. I crabbed commercially for about five years. Sold everything to one fish market. We steamed our catch at 2:30 every afternoon. When we offloaded our morning catch, the crabs went into a large gray insulated ice box for about 4 hours. Boss said that killing them this way prevented the crabs from losing their claws in the steamer pot.

I've heard of people purging clams, but never found it useful. We sold about a million little neck clams every summer. Boss has a leased bed on a reef a few miles from shore. We purchased little neck clams in Florida in March and planted them in a 10' wide row in the North Carolina bed. We took clams from our bed all during the tourist season. We also bought some wild clams from locals.

It must be a great year if crabs are making it all the way to Nevada.

We just spray each one off good and throw them in the pot. We dont eat the intestinal track on them like we do crawfish - which we purge - sometimes

I have never seen anybody boil a crab before….new to me.

You might not eat them outright but 30 crabs in a pot of boiling water are sharing each others as the water stirs. I say that but, I'm gonna have to try it to see if there is a different taste. lol

Been pretty poor here in lower DE... got plenty of jellyfish though.

We had a pop of jellies here, stinging nettles, about a month ago, most I've seen in years, but they are pretty thinned out now, no idea where they went, lol, but there was millions of them.

In my area it's about 30 - 35 pots per bushel on mixed run crabs

How many pots does it take in a normal and a good year?

Are the invasive green crabs causing a problem? They are mostly so small, I doubt they will replace blue crabs well.

Keith

It depends, lol
Very good fishing is 10 pots/bu. we don't see that very much, avg is more like 20,25. but earlier it was about 50 / bu.
I only run about 75 pots, can't fit more than that where I am, small areas.
I know a couple guys that run about 300, but they have deck hands and big areas. Further south there's some much bigger operations.

Green crabs aren't a problem, the bulk of them are closer to the inlet where there really isn't many blue crabs....I'll start fishing them in mid sept for the Blackfish season for bait..
The Chinese markets use some greens, mostly for stock, but they also eat them whole, crushed up in soup, but they won't pay like the bait market so I fiddle with the blues until blackfish season starts.
Greens are a lot more fun to catch, lol, usually 2-4 pots per bu. though it can be a bushel per pot where they're thick...I'll fish them into December.

We've had huge amounts of greens here for over 40 years, invasive or not they're hear to stay, though I do my best to thin them down!.

Thanks for explaining.

Keith

GCS what’s your green crab pot look like?

I build them out of 1" vinyl coated wire, 14 ga., 2'x2' square, 11 inches high, with a top door. 3 funnels that slope up to end about 3 inches from the top , no funnel on the door side. No parlor, Funnels are set flush with the bottom. No bait tube, but lately been putting a bait spike to center the bait, which can be bunkers, rack, tuna scraps from the seafood store, but the best bait of all time is false albacore "steaks", when I can get it, stuff is like magic.

Otherwise rigged like a normal crab pot, with a frame on the bottom., They're set on the grass flats, edges of channels, wherever the greens are at the moment, then follow them into the mud when they go to bed in Dec. They can take much colder water than blue crabs, and are the thickest near the inlet.

The pot is just the cage, the magic is the funnels and how they're set, once in they don't get out, and they don't mind being crowded, in fact they seem to attract others even when the bait is gone... I like a 2 day set, but they can set for days and still hold the catch. Bycatch isn't bad till later when the water cools and we get the small Atlantic rock crabs, white crabs to the sports, which are a pain to handle, but they get sold as bait too.

Shoot me a message any time to discuss...

good read thanks guys