Tweet
Assembled the traps and loaded the Old Town Saturday night.
High tide was at 11am Sunday, so I wanted to start crabbing by 9am. As luck would have it, the rain kept us from launching until 9:30am.
A fella handlining at the ramp had a dozen so far, and he had been there since 5:30am. It was windy and there was a bit of chop on the water. The crabber seemed a bit concerned about us paddling out in that chop. It wasn't bad but it would make crabbing a little tricky so we heading straight into the wind hoping it wouldn't be so bad on the other side of the creek.
As we crossed the channel, the trees on the opposite side broke the wind and things calmed down.
We brought 4 10.5" box traps, 2 18" ring nets, and spool of twine for handlines. We deployed the box traps near the edge of the channel and then anchored in about 8 feet of water. I setup the first ring net and threw it over. But the Old Town doesn't draft much and the light breeze kept sliding the Old Town back and forth. Pulled up the net and paddled over near the shore to see if there was something that would serve as a suitable 2nd anchor.
I towed a worm behind and caught a white perch. But when my bride saw me pull out a knife to cut it up she begged me to let it go. I explained that the whole reason I brought the tackle was to catch some small fish for the crab traps. But she didn't want to see me kill anything.
Oh well..... After a fruitless search for a 2nd anchor we checked the traps. Nothing, but we dropped them back down anyway.
While near the shore I had spotted a downed tree poking out in about 6 feet of water. We ventured over there and tied off one end while dropping the anchor off the other end. Dropped both ring nets and tossed out 2 handlines. Nothing. But we spotted some rays scooping up surface bait fish over near some exposed grasses.
Paddled back out and pulled up the traps, then headed over to the grasses. Dropped the box traps in about 8 feet and paddled back to another downed tree in about 5 feet. Tied off and anchored. Threw out the handlines first and before I could get the ring nets out we had crabs on the lines.
We lost the first three. Now I know why they make those nylon crab nets out of that hi-vis green. I had re-done my crab net with chicken wire, but when it came time to scoop you could not see the net in the murky water and sure enough missed the crab.
But we got the fouth. And then six more after that, all over 6 inches. Not too bad, once we found where they were at. But it was now 2 o'clock and decided to call it quits with only 7 crabs. Again the traps came up empty... maybe the shadow of the canoe was spooking them.
Before heading to the ramp we looked over our catch. Damn! Wouldn't ya know it... 6 of the 7 were whities! So now we've got only one decent crab to show. So I threw him back over with the others. We still had a great day out on the water.
Packed everything up and drove over the to the St. Inigoes General Store for some awesome crab cake sandwiches.
Best part is the wife is looking forward to the next crabbing trip. I'm sure will do better then.
High tide was at 11am Sunday, so I wanted to start crabbing by 9am. As luck would have it, the rain kept us from launching until 9:30am.
A fella handlining at the ramp had a dozen so far, and he had been there since 5:30am. It was windy and there was a bit of chop on the water. The crabber seemed a bit concerned about us paddling out in that chop. It wasn't bad but it would make crabbing a little tricky so we heading straight into the wind hoping it wouldn't be so bad on the other side of the creek.
As we crossed the channel, the trees on the opposite side broke the wind and things calmed down.
We brought 4 10.5" box traps, 2 18" ring nets, and spool of twine for handlines. We deployed the box traps near the edge of the channel and then anchored in about 8 feet of water. I setup the first ring net and threw it over. But the Old Town doesn't draft much and the light breeze kept sliding the Old Town back and forth. Pulled up the net and paddled over near the shore to see if there was something that would serve as a suitable 2nd anchor.
I towed a worm behind and caught a white perch. But when my bride saw me pull out a knife to cut it up she begged me to let it go. I explained that the whole reason I brought the tackle was to catch some small fish for the crab traps. But she didn't want to see me kill anything.
Oh well..... After a fruitless search for a 2nd anchor we checked the traps. Nothing, but we dropped them back down anyway.
While near the shore I had spotted a downed tree poking out in about 6 feet of water. We ventured over there and tied off one end while dropping the anchor off the other end. Dropped both ring nets and tossed out 2 handlines. Nothing. But we spotted some rays scooping up surface bait fish over near some exposed grasses.
Paddled back out and pulled up the traps, then headed over to the grasses. Dropped the box traps in about 8 feet and paddled back to another downed tree in about 5 feet. Tied off and anchored. Threw out the handlines first and before I could get the ring nets out we had crabs on the lines.
We lost the first three. Now I know why they make those nylon crab nets out of that hi-vis green. I had re-done my crab net with chicken wire, but when it came time to scoop you could not see the net in the murky water and sure enough missed the crab.
But we got the fouth. And then six more after that, all over 6 inches. Not too bad, once we found where they were at. But it was now 2 o'clock and decided to call it quits with only 7 crabs. Again the traps came up empty... maybe the shadow of the canoe was spooking them.
Before heading to the ramp we looked over our catch. Damn! Wouldn't ya know it... 6 of the 7 were whities! So now we've got only one decent crab to show. So I threw him back over with the others. We still had a great day out on the water.
Packed everything up and drove over the to the St. Inigoes General Store for some awesome crab cake sandwiches.
Best part is the wife is looking forward to the next crabbing trip. I'm sure will do better then.