Crabbing: A Crabby Day

Have you been crabbing? If you live near, or
visit, the ocean there’s one thing you can count on:
there are crustaceans in the water. Sometimes, as with
king, spider, or stone, they are deep-water species,
not generally available to sports enthusiasts.
But many varieties are denizens of the shallows, and
can be easily caught by several methods.

Friend Wife and I didn’t get much salt water fishing done on our last annual visit to the Outer Banks. The Spanish mackerel and bluefish were running, it’s true. And we did spend a few hours visiting them. But not as much as we had planned. We got distracted.

What lured us away from the finned fishes was the incredible crab catch that was taking place. It was early June, and they should have been just starting to move. Instead, we found them in numbers and sizes more usual later in the season. On average we took 30-40 keeper sized animals each day, and innumerable smaller ones that just missed the legal five inch minimum size. So we spent more time with crustaceans than with the fish. Typically, we’d head to the sound after breakfast, spend a few hours catching, then return in time for lunch. Afterwards we’d steam and pick the delightful creatures.

Crabs are found wherever there is salt water, in far more variety than is realized. Most of them have no sport or commercial value, but a surprising number do.

On the East- and Gulf-coasts, only one species comes to mind: the Blue Claw, usually referred to as “blue.” Up north, in Maine, there are the Pinky Toes , which are gaining in popularity among chefs and home cooks. And, of course, the Stone species, which are only available as a commercial crop because they require specialized equipment and have their own harvest rules.

On the West Coast, they also think of one specific species; the Dungeness. But there’s also a Red, about the size of the blues, that is all but ignored. In Arctic waters, the King and Spider varieties supply much of the commercial catch for America. But they, too, are unavailable for sport enthusiasts.

No matter the species, crabbing involves one of four methods:

• A weighted hook and bait is tossed into the water. You can jury-rig this, or purchase special weights made for the purpose that have a built-in tie-on loop and safety pin bait holder. After leaving it long enough for your target to find the bait, the line is gently pulled in. Once on a bait, they are reluctant to leave it, and will stay with it unless there’s a sudden jerky movement. Once in shallow water, the use a long-handled dip net to facilitate capture.
  
  Free lining like this is the most fun form of crabbing. But it does take some practice getting proficient with the net.



• Various shaped box traps, baited and lowered in the water. Traps come in cubical, oblong, and pyramidal shapes. What they have in common is that the sides are hinged. Once lowered to the bottom, the sides open up, allowing access to the bait. When you pull on the rope, the sides close, trapping the your catch inside.



• Open hoop nets of various sizes. Originally used commercially for Dungeness, these are metal rings supporting a shallow net. Bait and a weight is wired or tied to the center, and the net lowered to the bottom. A rapid retrieve assures that any crustaceans working the bait remain in the net. Hoop nets run from as small as 13 inches to as large as four feet in diameter.



• Dipping off pilings and sea walls. This is the only crabbing method that does not require bait. But a good set of polarized sunglasses helps. The idea is to spot the animals on those support structures and, using a long-handled dip net, harvest them that way. Very often this is method used to fill in the wait-time while using box traps and hoop nets.

Although you can catch them in the open ocean, you’re more likely to find crabs in the bays, backwaters, and inlets. That’s why, on the Outer Banks, for instance, we work the sound side rather than the ocean side. Similarly, on the Chesapeake, crabbing is more productive in the backwaters and river mouths than in the open bay.

Crabs are scavengers, who eat anything they can find. So bait is not a problem. Anything from dead baitfish to chicken parts can be used. You can buy bait locally, if nothing else, in the grocery store---where it’s probably cheaper than the tackle shop anyway. Unlike lobsters, who prefer their food on the ripe side, crabs will happily feed on fresh meat.

We usually save the backs and necks of chickens, freezing them through the year, and use them as bait on our trips. When I was much younger I’d use a minnow trap to catch baitfish, then string several of them on a wire loop attached to the box trap. Fish heads make great bait, too, and you might want to save them in the freezer to use as needed.

Most areas have minimum size requirements for harvesting. On the East Coast, for instance, blues must measure five inches, point-to-point on the top shell, to be legal. Dungeness have a seven inch minimum size, but you usually want them at least ten inches.

Don’t expect to use a tape measure or one of those paper rulers given out by tackle shops when crabbing, though. There’s nothing I know of that’s more awkward than trying to hold your wriggling, clawed catch in one hand while using one of those rulers in the other. Instead, I make permanent measuring tools, using plastic laminate. A five-inch opening is cut in a rectangle of the laminate. This is passed over the body. If it doesn’t hang-up on the shell points it's is too small and gets released.

The safest way to hold a live crab is by the rear swim fins. By squeezing them together, close to the shell, it cannot reach back and grab you, both because it can’t bend it’s claws that far, and because squeezing the fins immobilizes the claws. There also are special tongs available in tackle shops that let you safely pick one up. Personally, I find them awkward to use. But many people are happy with them.

Crabs will stay alive if they are kept damp and out of direct sunlight. We toss our keepers into five-gallon buckets, and cover them with a towel that is periodically dipped in the water and wrung out.

They should always be cooked right away. Those you don't eat right away should be picked, and the meat super chilled for the trip home.