![]() Some are shaped like triangles, some have tops, and some, called stackables, do not have tops, but they all catch blue crabs the same way. Collapsible box traps are made of galvanized or vinyl-coated wire and generally feature four sides with leader lines attached to a main line and a float. There are three types: collapsible box traps, ring nets and pots. Traps are a popular way to catch some crabs and, like hand-lining, can be done from the dock-though most folks use them from a boat. If the crabs are hungry, and your net game is good, it’s easy enough to bag a couple dozen for the steamer in an hour or two. Getting the crab in the net before it darts off to safety is definitely more difficult than it sounds, but mastering this skill is half the fun. Once the crab is in sight, simply scoop up the crab with the net. When a blue crab is feasting on your offering, the line will begin to tighten and move this is when you slowly and gingerly bring the line in hand over hand. Once you’ve found a public dock, pier or bulkhead where crabbing is permitted, simply toss the baited lines out into the water-scattershot in different directions. Other items to pick up include a bushel basket, a pair of heavy-duty crab tongs and a crab ruler. Wrestling an ornery, armored crustacean with weaponized claws out of cobweb of nylon netting is no fun. My dad and I always had better luck with chicken-wire nets over ones made of nylon mesh, which crabs easily get tangled in. You can buy the necks and twine at your local tackle shop or hardware or grocery store. Hand-lining employs a 10- to 15-foot piece of cotton twine or masonry line with a chicken neck tied on the end. It’s also the most entertaining, in some respects. Hand-lining-also affectionately known as chicken-necking-is the easiest way to get started. There are all sorts of ways to rustle up a bunch of crabs for dinner, and owning a boat is not a prerequisite. Also learn up on how to tell a male (jimmy) from a female (sook) and from an immature female (she crab) so that you don’t inadvertently slip an illegal recruit into your catch basket. Crabbing licenses for both states are available online or at most bait and tackle shops, which also generally have printed copies of fishing and crabbing regulations. Instead of boring you with the extensive details-visit the Maryland ( ) and Virginia ( crabbing regulations pages online. Some gear requires licensing with the state, while hand-lining and dipping up crabs with a net generally do not require government entanglement. You can take home, how large they must be, and restrictions on keeping certain sexes, as well as regulations regarding the type and quantity of gear you can use. The recreational and commercial crab fisheries in Maryland and Virginia are tightly regulated and enforced by Maryland Natural Resources and Virginia Marine police agencies. Before you know it you’ll be cracking open cold cans of suds over a pile of spicy steamed crabs. But if snoods, bull lips, chicken necks, and jimmies and sooks all sound like Mandarin Chinese to you, never fear, you’ll get the scoop here with tips from a recreational crabbing sensei and a dose of my own experience. These are among my best childhood memories-sunburn, smelly eels, mosquito bites and all.Ĭrabbing with traps, pots, a net, hand lines, or a trotline is something you simply do, or should do at least once, if you live in Chesapeake Country. Once we had a bushel’s worth we made for home, steamed them up, and spent hours into the evening picking the sweet meat from their hard exoskeletons. Dad drove the boat and I scooped up the crabs as they magically appeared out from the depths on our trotline. We woke well before dawn and trailered our fiberglass skiff and its cantankerous cohort, a 25-horse Evinrude two-stroke outboard that seldom worked, across the Bay Bridge to Eastern Bay. While my teen years would render me too aloof and emotional for crabbing-cars, friends and romance were seemingly more important-for eight years, my pops and I ran that trotline together almost every summer weekend. Our legs are peppered with itchy red bumps inflicted by biting flies. My mother despised this routine. By the time we finish baiting all 1,000 feet of line we collectively smell of brined eel, sweat and gin. My father sips a coffee-mug martini with a cigarette hanging off his lower lip and ties loops in the line while I dice up pieces of eel and slip them in the openings. Beneath a patio light that’s under attack from a hundred buzzing insects, my father and I sit surrounded by 1,000 feet of braided nylon line, a couple of wooden bushel baskets, a 25-gallon tub of brine, and 30 pounds of very dead and extremely odiferous salted eels. It’s early one sweltering evening in 1977 as the sun begins to dip below the tree line. Tips and techniques for enjoying blue crabs, the Bay’s tastiest pastime
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