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I wanted to test out my kayak crabbing gear to test out some of the improvements that I implemented since my first kayak crabbing trip in October. This would be a personal best for me. It is the latest that I have ever crabbed on my canoe or kayak. I did some research and everyone on the forums were telling me to head further south, like the Patuxent River at Solomon's Island and crab in 20 feet or more of water. I read some reports of crabbers catching some crabs there several days ago.
My friend Steve (Toadfinger) would accompany me on this experimental trip. Since my kayak was outfitted to run a trot line , I gave him 8 topless traps to use. I baited a 600 foot snood line Friday night and I extended the lines on my trap floats and trot line anchor to allow us to crab in 20 to 40 feet of water.
Steve met me at my house at 8am. After chatting for awhile Steve realized that he had forgotten his kayak seat at home, so we drove back to his house so he could pickup his seat. This was the first series of errors that we had to persevere over the rest of the day. We were only 30 minutes behind schedule and arrived at the Solomon's Island boat ramp just after 9:45 am. The wind was blowing more than the 5 to 10 mph winds that were predicted for today. Fortunately, the Patuxent offered us some shelter. After seeing the chop on the water was not bad, we proceeded to pay our $5 bucks to launch our kayaks. We launched about 30 minutes later and proceeded to cross the Patuxent. I used my FF/GPS to scan the area depths. I found my target depth of 20 to 25 feet. Steve proceeded to deploy the 8 traps. I proceeded to put out the trot line. This is when the next series of errors occurred. As I was deploying the first anchor I reached over to get my float and the anchor line slipped out of my had and quickly made its way to the bottom of the Patuxent. While deploying the crab traps, Steve ended up loosing one, so we were down to 7 crab traps and a trot line with one anchor. I determined that I was still able to crab with the one anchor. I would just only be able to crab in one direction moving from the anchor to the chain at the other end of the trot line.
Steve and I caught crabs. It was the latest in the year that I have done this. I got crabs at 25 feet, but not in large numbers. Towards the end of the day I moved the chain end of the trot line from 25 feet of water to 40 feet of water! Well, that was this best thing that I could have done. Now, I started to pickup larger and heavier crabs at 35 to 37 feet of water. They are definitely moving deep. I wanted to see how Steve was doing, just to find out the crab trap number 7 was missing. We had no idea what happened to it. So now Steve was down to 6 traps. Despite all of these error, about $40 in gear, we still had fun (priceless), and we caught just over 1/2 bushel of crabs, about 54 which we split before going home. It got dark quickly. We were just pulling out of the parking lot when all daylight vanished. Perfect timing, and a good time.
Well, the crabs are still there, but very deep. Even in this cold water the crabs still liked chicken necks and legs. I was surprised home much the crabs wanted to hold on to the line from 37 feet of water. I did see some crabs jump off, but enough was coming to the surface to make it interesting. Steve ended up catching 9 crabs in the traps up to 30feet in depth. I was amazed of all of the little crabs and immature females that I encountered. We got some good crabs, but I expected to see alot more jumbo size crabs for this time of year. I guess if I started out in the 40 foot of water, then I would have caught more of the larger variety of crabs. All in all it was a good day.
My friend Steve (Toadfinger) would accompany me on this experimental trip. Since my kayak was outfitted to run a trot line , I gave him 8 topless traps to use. I baited a 600 foot snood line Friday night and I extended the lines on my trap floats and trot line anchor to allow us to crab in 20 to 40 feet of water.
Steve met me at my house at 8am. After chatting for awhile Steve realized that he had forgotten his kayak seat at home, so we drove back to his house so he could pickup his seat. This was the first series of errors that we had to persevere over the rest of the day. We were only 30 minutes behind schedule and arrived at the Solomon's Island boat ramp just after 9:45 am. The wind was blowing more than the 5 to 10 mph winds that were predicted for today. Fortunately, the Patuxent offered us some shelter. After seeing the chop on the water was not bad, we proceeded to pay our $5 bucks to launch our kayaks. We launched about 30 minutes later and proceeded to cross the Patuxent. I used my FF/GPS to scan the area depths. I found my target depth of 20 to 25 feet. Steve proceeded to deploy the 8 traps. I proceeded to put out the trot line. This is when the next series of errors occurred. As I was deploying the first anchor I reached over to get my float and the anchor line slipped out of my had and quickly made its way to the bottom of the Patuxent. While deploying the crab traps, Steve ended up loosing one, so we were down to 7 crab traps and a trot line with one anchor. I determined that I was still able to crab with the one anchor. I would just only be able to crab in one direction moving from the anchor to the chain at the other end of the trot line.
Steve and I caught crabs. It was the latest in the year that I have done this. I got crabs at 25 feet, but not in large numbers. Towards the end of the day I moved the chain end of the trot line from 25 feet of water to 40 feet of water! Well, that was this best thing that I could have done. Now, I started to pickup larger and heavier crabs at 35 to 37 feet of water. They are definitely moving deep. I wanted to see how Steve was doing, just to find out the crab trap number 7 was missing. We had no idea what happened to it. So now Steve was down to 6 traps. Despite all of these error, about $40 in gear, we still had fun (priceless), and we caught just over 1/2 bushel of crabs, about 54 which we split before going home. It got dark quickly. We were just pulling out of the parking lot when all daylight vanished. Perfect timing, and a good time.
Well, the crabs are still there, but very deep. Even in this cold water the crabs still liked chicken necks and legs. I was surprised home much the crabs wanted to hold on to the line from 37 feet of water. I did see some crabs jump off, but enough was coming to the surface to make it interesting. Steve ended up catching 9 crabs in the traps up to 30feet in depth. I was amazed of all of the little crabs and immature females that I encountered. We got some good crabs, but I expected to see alot more jumbo size crabs for this time of year. I guess if I started out in the 40 foot of water, then I would have caught more of the larger variety of crabs. All in all it was a good day.
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