Crab....

[jerry]

So it is hard work....you and two friends take off from the fish camp with your traps,two big blocks of frozen Sardines for bait and just flat out work like a dog.If you are lucky you will bring in 400 lbs. but more like 200.the launcher chargers you 20lbs to launch,your bait cost 20 bucks,your gas maybe 30(guess) and you get paid 14 pesos a lb(think I have that right) then you do it all again tomorrow.

 

[Stuart]

Hard work? Naaahhh. I just look for the crab pot floats and pull up their pots and empty them.

(kidding, of course)
Living in Maryland for a few years, I got spoiled. We used to be able to take a chicken neck, tie it on string, and toss it out of a dock. Lift it up every few minutes and the crab (or two) would hang on, scoop 'em up with a net. In a few hours, you could have a couple dozen crabs for dinner. I was disappointed in the crabs I bought in Rocky Point. Even though they were blue crabs and I steamed them the same way I did Maryland crabs, there just wasn't much meat in them. And the meat was pretty mushy, not as firm and sweet as Chesapeake Bay blue crabs. I dunno...

 

[GV Jack]

I prefer the soft shell crabs in Myrtle Beach. Yum Yum with a couple cold beers...Double yum, yum

 

[jerry]

Right off the panga and in the pot then on the table with a butter detour before eating....really good but some work...you can buy a kilo of cleaned crab meat for 20 bucks...comes frozen

 

[Estero]

We used to catch blue crabs by putting the remains of a filleted fish in a pair of cut up pantyhose tied to some fishing line and throwing it in the estuary and then just waiting a while. The crabs get caught on the pantyhose and before you know it you have enough for a nice crab boil.

 

[JoseAz]

I spent 2 years in Philadelphia and got into the crab boils....

My neighbor brought 2 bushels up from the Chesapeake and i put them in coolers on ice the night before the party. The next day it was raining so i was prepping in the garage and decided to check on the crabs. I'll be darned if they were all dead! Not a one was moving and friends were on the way.
Motivated with liquid inspiration, I came up with the idea of pulling the crab out of the coolers to see if i could salvage enough live ones to have a boil. I made piles on the floor of the garage of maybe's, hope so's, and dont think so's.....
Needing more inspiration, I went back inside and helped coordinate the the rest of the meal and party......
When i went back into the garage to attempt to salvage the few fresh crabs, I found the floor, driveway and cul-de-sac were crawling with blue crabs....who had warmed up enough to make an escape...
Hilarious scene with the whole family chasing runaway crabs in a downpour....

Have moved onto crayfish boils now. They fly direct from New Orleans and don't get very far when they escape

 

[Kenny]

For those of us who have spent time up in the Pacific Northwest, it's the Dungeness crab most of us still yearn for. Not unlike how Stuart would catch his crabs we'd put bait, usualy a Anchovy in the middle of a big mess of mono line and when the'd stick there claws in to get it they would get caught up in the line. Two and three at a time off the Jetty was not uncommon.

 

[mermaid]

There's nothing like catching your own Dungeness. Fresh caught crab and a loaf of Extra Sourdough Bread. Those were the days.
I think I see a road trip in my future.

 

[AZRob]

Jerry are those the blue crabs or dungeness?

 

[jerry]

The blue ones from around here...they get pretty big by mid JulyJuly

 

[AZRob]

we'd put bait, usualy a Anchovy in the middle of a big mess of mono line and when the'd stick there claws in to get it they would get caught up in the line. Two and three at a time off the Jetty was not uncommon.

Kenny you ever see on of these. Put your bait in the cage, than the 6 snares are there when the crab starts eating you pull it in with your fishing pole and the loop snugs on leg and they come in with the cage.

 

[Kenny]

Kenny you ever see on of these. Put your bait in the cage, than the 6 snares are there when the crab starts eating you pull it in with your fishing pole and the loop snugs on leg and they come in with the cage.

I have and I've tried one similar but really, a ball of mono works as well or better.

 

[mondone]

Back when I lived on south shore of L.I., we would go out on Baldwin bay at night with a Coleman lantern burning brightly on the bow. I would mount a Minnkota electric motor on the stern of our small Boston Whaler and we would move ahead slowly around the bay as the blue claws would swim to the surface attracted to the light. All we had to do was scoop them with our long handled crab nets. Had a bushel full in no time at all.