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Blue crab season florida6/12/2023 For that reason, there are few crabbers to compete with in most Massachusetts backwaters. While the blue crab is the king crustacean from New Jersey south, in New England, it’s a distant second to the American lobster. I miss about one in three crabs on my first trip of the season, but by midsummer, my form perfected, I rarely miss any. I prefer to face the crab head-on, pulling the net from behind the crab toward me. Adding seaweed to your crab caddy will limit the carnage that ensues when packing angry crabs into tight quarters.īlue crabs move very quickly from side to side, so the net has to be faster. Without sporadic layers of seaweed mixed in, the crabs would tear each other limb from limb…literally. The damp seaweed will keep the crabs calm and wet throughout my trip. I reach down and pull a glob of cabbage weed off the bottom and toss it into the bucket. I hear the scrabbling and clicking as the enraged crustacean scuttles about the bucket. I can see the white of the crab’s bottom as it hits the mesh, and after assessing whether it is big enough that I don’t need to measure it, I flip the net over the bucket. I get the net within a foot of the crab and it still hasn’t moved, so I jab forward, aiming for the bottom behind it, and quickly pull back. With the bucket in my left hand, the net in my right, I slowly reach the net toward the crab, keeping my headlight directly on it. Only its mandibles move as it picks away at a smaller, deceased crab. Blue crabs have a “deer in the headlights” reaction at night, freezing as the light fixes on them. Its olive-brown shell blends perfectly with the surrounding mud and vegetation, but its white “face” shines in the beam of my headlamp. The first crab appears almost immediately. My pace is moderate – slow enough that I’m able to thoroughly scan the area, but not so slow that the silt and sediment I kick up drifts in front of me and affects my visibility. (I added a pair of fresh AAs before leaving the house because during a night of crabbing, the headlamp stays on the entire time.) I begin panning with the light and walk slowly along the shore. I wade knee-deep into the water and flick on my headlamp. However, a few (or few hundred) bug bites are well worth it if the following evening finds me cracking shells in the glow of a citronella candle on my back deck. I silently cheer the lack of wind, which makes spotting the crabs easier, but my celebration is cut short by the feeling of a small chunk of my flesh being removed by a no-see-um. A long-handled, small-diameter net with sparse netting is ideal because it can move quickly underwater. This brings them into knee- to waist-deep water, often right against the shoreline or sod bank. They emerge from eelgrass and weeds where they hide during the day to scuttle close to shorelines and snatch spearing and mummichogs or scavenge fallen fish. His tactic couldn’t be simpler: illuminate a crab with the headlamp and scoop it with the net.īlue crabs, like many predators, are more active after dark. He hits the salt ponds with a net, a light, and a container for the crabs. He uses no boats, no traps, not even any bait. I’ve since learned that nighttime crabbing is popular on Long Island and prohibited in Rhode Island-likely due to its effectiveness.Īndy’s approach to blue crabbing is surprisingly Spartan. That’s probably because New Jersey is closer to the blue-crab factory of the Chesapeake, and there’s a more robust population there than in New England, so daytime tactics produced just fine. Like deer, blue crabs stop in their tracks if you shine a spotlight on them.Ĭrabbing at night wasn’t a thing in New Jersey, at least not that I knew of. Eventually, Andy let me in on the secret-go at night. I bought a commercial-grade crab pot and a permit for it and, still, a blue-claw feast eluded me. I toiled away in the marshes during the day for a few scant keepers while my co-worker, Andy Nabreski, filled buckets with delicious crustaceans. When the base of my crabbing operations moved from New Jersey to Cape Cod, I learned that these essential crabbing implements weren’t so essential up here. Once upon a time, my crabbing involved handlines and collapsible traps, frozen bunker, and rented tin boats. I open my trunk, pass over the rigged surf rod, and reach for the long-handled wooden net and bucket. The pull-off at the end of the road is empty, as I expected it to be at 11:00 p.m. Pictured above: The blue crab’s scientific name, Callinectes sapidus, means savory, beautiful swimmer.
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