Crabbing July 1st

jode hillman

jode hillman

Well-known member
I have been spending the last few months working steadily on the house. It's old, I have a growing family and it was time to get things done. However with the July 4th coming up I figured I needed a few Crabs to go along with our family Bar-B-Cue .

Usually by this time of year the Delaware bay and lower river is teeming with crabs. Not so this year. Hurricane Sandy two years ago, and a brutally cold winter last year have put a hurting on our local crab numbers.

However when a unexpected phone call from and old friend (from Miami) came in late Monday night I decided to give it a try anyway.

We left in the dark yesterday morning to give it a full day off crabbing figuring we would have to move alot to get any real numbers. The first spot we hit at dead low and were surprised to find good numbers of crabs stranded in 25-50 yard section of creek cut off by the low water. We waded and scapped about 40 crabs by 9:00 am, getting pretty mudded up in the process. Also I must of donated at least a pint of blood to the local greenhead fly as bug spray was pointless being in the water. I actually think DEET is like colonge' to them!


As the tide rose we set up in some creeks closer to the bay and had a slow pick of mostly 5" crabs. Biggest of the day was 7-1/8" We ended the day with a 3/4 bushel of good eating. Although todays catch was decent. I hope the crab numbers rebound soon as I prefer them to almost anything else in the salt save a good oyster or Tuna Sashimi.


Heading out



It's been awhile since this FL. boy has been in NJ mud.





After a few hours of Scapping.




End of the day




Dinner time.


 
Nice to see Jode. They sure have been tough to find this year. Was liking your post until I saw them Maryland style !! lol.. I just can't get into the "mustard".

Gotta have mine cleaned and cooked with garlic, onions, parsley, red pepper, beer and old bay.

I agree they are some of the best eating around here. Don't think there is another food I would spend so much time carefully extracting such little meat.
 
Nice to see Jode. They sure have been tough to find this year. Was liking your post until I saw them Maryland style !! lol.. I just can't get into the "mustard".

Gotta have mine cleaned and cooked with garlic, onions, parsley, red pepper, beer and old bay.

I agree they are some of the best eating around here. Don't think there is another food I would spend so much time carefully extracting such little meat.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Jay, I like them dirty, but clean the ones for the kids before they get cooked.

Chris , thanks it's been tough but hopefully it will get better!
 
Funny you should bring up crabbing. I want to give it a try for the first time with some crab traps. Has anyone seen any crabs in CT yet?
 
Dang it, Jode, I just finished breakfast and now after seeing this thread, I got hungry all over again. Very nice. Congrats.
Al
 
Thanks guys. It was a really fun day with a friend I haven't seen in years.  We used to fish hunt all the time before he became a world traveling surfer( hey somebody has to do it right!)

I was surprised at the behavior of the crabs we scapped from the creek.  Despite throwing a few hanlines in some of the deeper spots, 2+ feet, very few crabs touched either the bunker or chicken.  They were to busy activley chasing and catching minnows and even other smaller crabs.  The 7" was eating a 3" peeler when my buddy netted him.  They are much more aggressive+ predatory than I ever gave them credit for.  Not just abunch of carrion eaters.....
 
Looks like a fun day. I was planning on going tomm but it looks as though its going to pour. I heard that they are just starting here. very few if any keepers dirty, too. But i enjoy it more than fishing so i spend alot of time doing it.

Hopefully the hurricane goes out to sea.
 
I just watched the latest predictions....it is supposed to hug the coast but stay offshore. As long as you aren't in big open water thurs- fri might be good.
 
GEEZE Jode, you're killing me!


Add a few ears of corn, maybe a potato or two, a few cold craft beers AND a few fresh shucked oysters and I'd be wondering what all the rich folks are doing!


For the first time in eons, we won't be making our annual summer trip to the coast this year. My Son moved to South Dakota, (Tim J's territory), a couple years ago so we opted to forego the Coast and visit him instead. When we do, we always stop at a place called Ocean Odyssey in Cambridge Maryland for a few hours to gorge ourselves on Blue Crabs, and of course the craft beers.


Nice going. I hope the crabbing picks up for you.


Jon
 
I hear ya John.....not to rub it in but we had fresh oyster for lunch WHILE we were out crabbing!

Have a good trip to see your son. I have never been to the Dakotas , but I have friends who tell me its an outdoor mans paradise.
 
I couldnt take it anymore so i got my lines together and went for a few hours. We ended up with 3 crabs, all of them keepers. It was slow but felt great to be in the marsh. it was the first time i cooked them "clean". They are much easier to pick when prepared this way.

I hope the hurricane doesnt mess anything up because i cant wait to fill up a cooler. Im already dreaming of crab mac and cheese, raviolis, crustini, cakes, rangoons.

Mmmmmmm.....
 
Nice, sometimes it's just good to be out. Northern NJ is starting to pick up , so I imagine you shouldn't be to far behind.
 
Nice day Jode!

And Im glad to see you helped feed the Greenheads.
I know they are having a hard time after I left. LOL
 
Jeesh Jode... You got a good basket of crabs there!

Looks like good eatin and a good day out slogging in the marsh too.



We've got Dungeness crabs out here. They are a little different than yours.
I knew a guy that had a freezer fail with about 30 bluebills he'd frozen up once. It was while he was out of town... he came back and it smelled like someone had been left in the shade to rot for about a week.




He tried to use the bluebills as bait.


It was not a successful mission, Apparently, he did get some mighty confused looks from other crabbers when they saw him pulling up pots with ducks in them.
 
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