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I had today off of work and a friend of mine told me that his scientific research said that there are allot of large male crabs in the middle Patuxent. So I decided to give it a try. I could not launch from the park on the Patuxent that he was referring to since it did not open until 8am. I picked a location just south of the area that he was talking about to launch from. It was the Route 231 Bridge DNR ramp.
I got there at 5:15am and the parking areas closest to the ramp were almost full. I was lucky to get the last spot which was right next to a little pier. As luck would have it, there was a sandy beach on both sides of the pier. I was able to unload my kayak and just take few steps and drop my kayak on the beach. Setting up and launching from the beach was great. I did not have to rush to setup my setup and to quickly launch in order to get out of the way of the boaters using the two available ramps. I had my own private launch spot by using the beach. The ramp can get quite busy here. Many crabbers were heading out. I launched just before 6am and headed north to head to the area that my friend recommended. Since I saw so many crabbers with motor boats blasting north and laying out their trot line, I decided to lay my 600 foot line north of the bridge within a 5 minute paddle from the ramp. I immediately started to work the trot line and I immediately started catching crabs. I noticed that there were allot of giant, hard and heavy female crabs. Don't get me wrong, there were allot of big male crabs. From my experimentation of catching crabs at different locations, I can say (unofficially) that the crabs in the middle Patuxent are more plentiful, larger, and have harder shells that the crabs in the Rhodes, Severn, and Mills Creek. Next shot is maybe the crab alley area.
I made some modifications to the Crab Whisperer's Crabbing Mobile....haha.... I got some legal bullet size floats that can be stored much easier in my kayak, than the plastic gas cans that I was using. I also added two concentric rings of pool noodles to the top of my crab basket that gets narrower as you get to the top. This slope makes it hard for the crabs to escape. The last time I was catching crabs at Herring Bay, I lost 6 to 8 nice crabs, because they climbed out of the basket while I was in rough water. I am also using slightly lighter chains for the kayak to hold the trot line on the river floor. It is easier for the peddle yak to pull the chains over the prop without significant torque of the kayak. I also carry a second Home Depot bucket to carry my crabbing gear. Everything worked great on Friday. This was the smoothest operating trip for kayak crabbing for me to date, and the crabs in the Patuxent were tasty Too!
I got there at 5:15am and the parking areas closest to the ramp were almost full. I was lucky to get the last spot which was right next to a little pier. As luck would have it, there was a sandy beach on both sides of the pier. I was able to unload my kayak and just take few steps and drop my kayak on the beach. Setting up and launching from the beach was great. I did not have to rush to setup my setup and to quickly launch in order to get out of the way of the boaters using the two available ramps. I had my own private launch spot by using the beach. The ramp can get quite busy here. Many crabbers were heading out. I launched just before 6am and headed north to head to the area that my friend recommended. Since I saw so many crabbers with motor boats blasting north and laying out their trot line, I decided to lay my 600 foot line north of the bridge within a 5 minute paddle from the ramp. I immediately started to work the trot line and I immediately started catching crabs. I noticed that there were allot of giant, hard and heavy female crabs. Don't get me wrong, there were allot of big male crabs. From my experimentation of catching crabs at different locations, I can say (unofficially) that the crabs in the middle Patuxent are more plentiful, larger, and have harder shells that the crabs in the Rhodes, Severn, and Mills Creek. Next shot is maybe the crab alley area.
I made some modifications to the Crab Whisperer's Crabbing Mobile....haha.... I got some legal bullet size floats that can be stored much easier in my kayak, than the plastic gas cans that I was using. I also added two concentric rings of pool noodles to the top of my crab basket that gets narrower as you get to the top. This slope makes it hard for the crabs to escape. The last time I was catching crabs at Herring Bay, I lost 6 to 8 nice crabs, because they climbed out of the basket while I was in rough water. I am also using slightly lighter chains for the kayak to hold the trot line on the river floor. It is easier for the peddle yak to pull the chains over the prop without significant torque of the kayak. I also carry a second Home Depot bucket to carry my crabbing gear. Everything worked great on Friday. This was the smoothest operating trip for kayak crabbing for me to date, and the crabs in the Patuxent were tasty Too!
.. Who am I to say no?
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