Severn River Crabbing (5/31/12)

[DOGFISH]

Could someone explain the steps to crabbing? Ive never done it and the concept is highly appealing!

There are some past threads by MOC. It is a very good explanation of the trotline process from a kayak. I think they were written last summer or fall. He also has a video attached to one of them.

[bdwilliams]

Ugh. I keep the kayak at work and left before I saw Foursteps24 was heading out. If I'd known I would've gone. I had minimal success last year with traps from the kayak but didn't really put forth much effort. It'd be nice to go with someone that knows what the heck they're doing. I ended up finding a neat spot on the Little Patuxent for the dog to play. Had a blast but crabbing sounds equally as fun.

Thanks for the water quality link. That was my concern with crabbing near Annapolis.

[john from md]

Foursteps24 was crabbing while I was paddling around on Monday. He was working five traps and had about a half a cooler full when he left Jonas Green. He has that neat little motor in his OC Trident.

[moc]

Good Job, Metro and you too Foursteps. Those crabs looked great. I guess most of them from your post were full? Where the shells hard? or brittle? I can't wait to get out there with my kayak. I have been out on my canoe, but not on the kayak yet.

[Foursteps24]

Im sure Metro had the same quality crabs I had but my crabs were full and I had maybe 2 paper shells. I ended the day last Monday with 29 crabs in 4 hours using 10 traps. John it was nice meeting you. I actually have and Ocean Kayak Torque. It is along the same line as the OC Trident but the OC Torques motor is factor built in. Im looking to go again sometime this week.

[MetroMan]

Moc, they were good crabs indeed. You need to get out there! I can't wait till we setup our crab feast!

[MetroMan]

Most of the shells were hard. A few brittle ones, but they still had a decent amount of meat in them. We actually just finished them this evening. I was surprised at how good the last ones were.

You know how a "table cull" naturally happens as everyone goes for the bigguns lol

[moc]

Most of the shells were hard. A few brittle ones, but they still had a decent amount of meat in them. We actually just finished them this evening. I was surprised at how good the last ones were.

You know how a "table cull" naturally happens as everyone goes for the bigguns lol

Maybe we should shoot for the end of June while the crabs are running good and have decent sizes. I plan on taking a day off, maybe this Thur or Friday or next Friday (15th) to crab the Severn.

[Foursteps24]

Moc I may be out there this Friday on the Severn

[mhoffman]

So I wanted to do some crabbing out of my kayak soon, but never have....someone I talked to seemed to think that I would have to register the yak like a boat if i was going to crab. Does anyone know what the stipulations are for crabbing out of a yak? DNR site says any vessel that is equipped with mechanical propulsion needs to be registered, so that counts me out. My other question is, do I need the recreational crabbing boat license (the $15 one)? I already have the $2 license I bought in conjunction with my fishing license.

[john from md]

The boat licenses are for if you carry several people in your boat as it covers them all. I don't think you have to worry about that in your yak. You are perfectly legal with the $2 version.