Guys Cooked Blue Claw Crabs

Click image for super size. Be sure to have a bib or napkin ready!
Well, actually Judy cooked them but we all knew who ate them...
Looks great!
You can visit the "Crab Lady's" blog for more about this dish.
The Crab Lady

North view of our crab spot.

Here's a north view of our new crabbing spot in the country.
That's a shrimp boat in the distance.

Crabbing on Sunday 7/6/08

Despite rough water and overnight thunder storms we still managed to get 17 nice crabs. Mostly male with a few large female crabs mixed in. We also tried hand lining with chicken thighs and picked up a few nice ones as well. My dad "Pops" cooked up the crabs and my two kids who love them took their fair share.

The traps were re-baited and we plan to check them Monday night. Instead of stuffing chicken inside the bait towers we decided to tie off parts so the meat of the chicken will be more available to our hungry guests.

Will post results...

New crabbing site in the country.

The crab Guy and I are testing a new crabbing location. Guy's friend allowed us to put out 2 traps at his pier out in the country. We set out down the pier armed with our crab traps and a pile of chicken parts.
As we walked out on the pier we saw quite a few crabs hanging on to pylons. We now anticipated a good catch to come when we come back to pick up the traps Sunday.

It was exciting to say the least. So we tied off the traps and then decided to ask our humble dock host for a net so we can get the crabs we saw just hanging around.

We returned to the pier and picked up 8 or so crabs but most were mating so we let them be. One however was of decent size and instead of bringing one crab home we decided to put the crab into a trap to possibly attract more or better yet be there when we get back Sunday.
Well... We were surprised to find that within the 15 minutes of the trap being in the water we had a jumbo Jimmie already!

I can't wait till tomorrow...

The Dome Crabcatcher Crab Trap

The Dome Crabcatcher Crab Trap made by "The Crabcatcher" looks to be a nifty way to fill your bucket with crabs.
I just visited the web site and read about how the trap works and am impressed with the simple design. For pier crabbing it looks like a sure fire way to land more crabs than the bait line or old style folding traps that work most of the time.
On the Crabcatcher web site they show their trap in action. You can even see how they steam crabs in Maryland and yes... how to clean them and remove the crab meat.

New Crab Board

Here's our new crab board prototype.

Catching Blue Claw Crabs In Pamlico County NC

3 and 4 crabs at a time and the cooler is full within an hour!
This amazing video will get any crab fishermans heart pumping.

Here's Hobucken on the map...

View Larger Map

Crab Recipes

We have crab recipes saved throughout the years that will be posted every so often.
For now check out "The Crab Lady".
She's got a few great crab recipes you may like :)

Water is heating up.

As the inshore shallow bays, sounds and other crabbing waters heat up we find the larger crabs seeking deeper water and are replaced on most piers with smaller crabs.
It may be a good time to go fishing and wait till late September when the inshore waters cool off a bit.
Crabbing remains good in the cooler waters of the north east throughout the summer months but declines dramatically south of the Chesapeake Bay region.

NODC Coastal Water Temperature Table

Building crab traps

I have some plans on building a simple crab trap and will post images and catch results when they are available.
Tomorrow will be going to the Bogue Inlet Pier and will bring a cast trap for blue claws. I never knew you could catch blue claw crabs in the ocean until last year. A fellow fisherman was doing quite well with a buttryfly style trap. Later... I came back armed with my own and did OK myself.