Trotlining for Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs

A great article describing how to catch blue claw crabs with a trot line can be found at "Maryland-Virginia Saltwater Fishing" website.
A photo of how to set up a roller guide system on the side of your boat and how the complete process is done is described in detail.
Be sure to check them out!

Giant Blue Claw Crab!

Digging through some old photos I came across this picture taken of a blue claw we caught in a brackish lake near Montauk LI. To date it has to be the biggest blue crab I ever saw no less caught!
The interesting thing is how we caught crabs in this shallow lake... You simply rowed about in 8' aluminum boats and looked along the bottom and picked the crabs up with a net. The water was only 3' deep or so and the crabs were easily spotted until the water became rippled by the wind.





For those interested in where this crabbing spot is located you can find it in the town of East Hampton at Cedar Point Campgrounds. It's called Alewife Pond. I'm not sure if you can still rent boats there but it's worth a shot. You can see the small salt water feeder on this map.


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First Blue Claw Crabs of the Season!

Great news for the blue claw crab fans... We headed out to our spot in Pamlico County and caught our first blue claws of the season. With the next couple of hot days we should see an improvement. The traps were re-baited and put back in.
Guy picked up a new trap and I a 6 ft. cast net so we're ready to catch the crabs when they come in strong.
Will report!

The Mud's Warming Up!

It's been a long winter but finally we had the chance to cast net for some bunker (menhaden) and bait our crab traps. The traps were topped off with chicken bait.
I'll give a full report when we head back to the pier and see if there is any action!

Cabin fever and the crabs are in the mud

Well it's the latter half of January and then some and cabin fever has officially set in. Tomorrow the forecast is for temps to reach into the 60's so I'm sure water events will be creeping toward the frontal lobs of many fishermen here in the Carolina's.
Won't be long we unpack the cast net and wet the traps!

The Crab Guy on YouTube :)

Here's a summary of a little crabbing stuff in '08. It should help you with that cabin fever!

Crab Bait

Today we decided to use menhaden (bunker) for our crab traps.
Not that chicken is too expensive but rather smells quite a bit when we process the traps.
Being a commercial fisherman for lobsters I have always used bunker as a choice bait. What the heck, they have to work for crabs as well, right?
Only time will tell because on Sunday we will check the traps. I have a 6 foot cast net which we easily got enough to bait the traps and them some.
Guy is a bit reserved about the idea but I have full confidence our little bunkers will do the job and then some :)
We came up with 24+ beauties (mature jimmies) with nice hard shells today.

Will report...

Crabbing with a trot line

Here's an interesting video of trot lining for blue claw crabs.

Crab Guy's Dash Board

Here's a picture of Guy's bobble head.
He's seriously a goof ball!
Only Guy would do something like this.

Cooler with Blue Claw Crabs

Today we managed to get a few (40 +) blue claw crabs. It's to a point now where we don't keep anything under 6". Some of the guys that came along for the ride hand-lined with chicken legs and pulled up another 8 - 10 nice sized Jimmies.
Guy also took home a half dozen crabs for Judy to cook ;)