Any East Coast crabbers?

[kwaltersmi]

We're taking the kids to Hunting Island in South Carolina for spring break (should be launch time when we get back!) and I hear there is good crabbing/shrimping in the area.

Anyone ever use recreational gear to catch east coast crabs? I used large crab pots when I lived in California, but have never tried to catch the critters out east.

I have a couple of these:

[sailingdog]

My father-in-law used to use something like that to catch crabs. Works pretty well if you're paying attention.

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by kwaltersmi

Anyone ever use recreational gear to catch east coast crabs?

As kids, we used to pick up some chicken legs from the market, tie one to a long line and then toss it off a rocky bank. Before long, we're pulling up rock and blue crabs that clutch onto the chix parts. Those suckers just refuse to let go.

Now I resort to using this gear and just snag them out of their crevices, along with their lobster cousins . . .

[kwaltersmi]

Believe me, I'd prefer to don my SCUBA/snorkel gear too, but it won't happen on this trip. Sounds like we'll mostly be using the traps off of the fishing pier. So long as I can get a meal or two out of it, we'll be happy.

[newguy8387]

Don't know about South Carolina but your diagram looks like the traps that I've used for years in the Chesapeake, Hampton Roads and N.C. The trick with the traps is letting them sit for a while (and putting them where the crabs are). Chicken necks on a string with a long pole net to bring them onto the pier or boat is what requires the attention in my experience. There's more action for kids with the strings, too. Just like fishing, unless they are really running, the kids attention often wanes before you get enough for a meal.

[camaraderie]

Down here we prefer the unattended type trap where the crabs can cawl in but can't crawl back out. Put a chicken neck inside...throw it overboard tied to the piers in the slip. Go sailing. come back to dinner!

[jrd22]

I do a lot of crabbing here in the PNW for Dungeness crab, chicken has never worked as well as herring or salmon(local fish) or commercial bait, but I'd go with local knowledge. I second Cams' idea of fixed pots, put em down and come back 12-24 hours later, but the ring traps or the one in your diagram are good to keep the kids occupied and can work well if you are right on top of them.

Have fun, John

[Joel73]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Down here we prefer the unattended type trap where the crabs can cawl in but can't crawl back out. Put a chicken neck inside...throw it overboard tied to the piers in the slip. Go sailing. come back to dinner!

That's the style we use too... We tie 4 of them to the ends of the pier and let the crabs do the rest of the work. Chicken necks are good and fish heads work well too.

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