Crabbing report

[Yak Fish]

This is a late report but I figured I'd still throw it out there.
I went crabbing on the gunpowder 2 weeks ago, running 600' of trotline with chicken necks at my usual spot.
It was probably the worst crabbing for this time of year that I've ever had. I would expect this from June but not mid july. There was no real shortage of action, just very tiny crabs. Almost all were throwbacks. I managed around 20 barely legal crabs after hours of running the line, and many of those were light. I'll give it a shot in another 2 weeks as the reports coming in are still the same as I saw. If I want some crabs I may have to go further south I guess...it's just unusual. It's just like the perch, shad and rockfish runs this year to the northern bay. They were later than normal, interesting.

[MetroMan]

Thanks for the report. Seems to be a real slow time of year. I've seen many reports that are very similar to yours. The small crabs do major damage to the baits so quickly! Hopefully this fall will be great like the spring was.

[Shady]

My dad and brother have done pretty well in the past weeks near carroll island, but thats a pretty long run on a kayak. They said they caught a ton of small crabs too, but some nice keepers as well. It seems the throwback to keeper ratio is pretty high everywhere.

[Yak Fish]

Thanks Shady. Good to know. That's the general area that I crab and yeah, it's a bit of a run just to get there. This late in the season I've never had such a high ratio. That's the reason I stopped crabbing before July 4th, but this year seems to be off. I hope it means huge september crabs galore!

[MTDluvsFishin]

Not crab related but Gunpowder/Carroll Island related. It's really interesting to see the changes in species that area has seen. Before my father passed some 20+ years ago we used to fish that area all the time. Brings back great memories. That area used to be our bluefish haven. We could catch them non-stop. Again great memories.

well last week my brother from FL, his 9 yr old son, mom (74 yrs young), and I took my brother-in-laws boat out to fish that area. It's probably been 25 years since we've fished it. Anchored up at our old spot and found as many large white perch as you could handle. My nephew was catching them on bare finesse hooks. crazy. a bunch of small schoolie stripers mixed in as well. A good amount of spot too.

Just interesting to see how things have changed.

[Yak Fish]

I live pretty close by and have fished that area a lot and I've never ever seen a bluefish up there. Wow, that is amazing how it can change. I do agree about the wp, but they come and go. They'll be in one spot one week and not there the next.

[moc]

I have seen the same thing on the water crabbing....tons of babies eating up your bait and allot of throw backs. I decided to concentrate on fishing for now, but allot of the fish at babies too!