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Crabbing Still Red Hot Near Red Bank

2K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  Mattmc70 
#1 ·
I set my two(2) overnighters out on Wed. just be before the rain storms and I baited them with a mix of fresh fluke racks and some frozen chicken thighs. When I retuned to check them on Thursday morning, they were packed with crabs like opies on the Northwestern. :eek: :cool:

After scooping a few riders off the outside, I drug the traps to the water's edge where I dumped the crabs and netted back up the biggest Jimmies while allowing the females and smaller males to go free. Between the 2 traps, I easily put 2.5 dozen big Jimmies in the basket.

I then reset the emptied traps and walked to a few more areas nearby where it took all of 50 minutes for me to fill up the remainder of my bushel basket. I saw a lot of male/female pairs that I avoided netting, but I also found a bunch of big males locked in claw-to-claw combat ... sometimes in groups of 3-4 at a time. I have never found it so easy to scoop multiples of nice keepers as every patch of vegetation, every hole, and every semi-concealed area was crawling with crabs & most were big males scrapping with one another.

I dropped a few crabs off with a few friends & later after work, my friend, Mike, came over for a couple of Yuengling Black-n-Tans to sit and enjoy crabs with me. After gorging ourselves on the loose claws and legs, we each enjoyed a few of the biggest ones from the bunch. The crabs were full, tasty ... & quite possibly, the best I have eaten all year. :cool:

I sent Mike home with a nice box of crabs for his wife and kids to enjoy back at their house. The remainder are going to be picked and vac-sealed for later use as crab cakes, crab imperial, MD crab soup & crab dip. MMMMM!!!

What an awesome year of crabbing this has been!

- Gr8ful

50 Minute Bushel of Crabs:


Blackberry on Top As A Size Reference:


Bowl of Loose Claws/Legs:


Nice Haul from a Bushel:


Old Bay Light, Medium or Heavy?:
 
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#7 ·
Official NJH crab master. WOW, I didn't even know they had such titles. [hihi] [eek]

So far, I've only harvested 5 bushels total. Howcver, in the past month, the crabbing has been faster with more and bigger crabs than I have seen in a long time. I Scooped a bushel in 45 minutes with my nephew last week; I scopped a bushel by myself in 50 minutes on Thurs. Lots of mature male crabs in the 6-7 inch size class. [up]

- Gr8ful
 
#15 ·
Anyone ever freeze their crabmeat to enjoy in the fall or winter?
I do it every year.

I pick the crabs, and then place proper portion sizes of the picked meat(typically about 1 1- 1.5 lbs. of meat) & I stuff it into a small, plastic sandwich-style bag. I roll the top of the bag closed to remove as much air as possible; I then place the bags of crabmeat into vac seal bags. Once vac-sealed, the packages hold extremely well.

My family always gets to eat crabmeat for special holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Years as I always put away a good portion of what I catch during the Summer. It's nice to have crab imperial, crab cakes and stuffed fluke fillets in those cold Winter months of December, January, & February when our boats are all under shrinkwrap taking their winter naps.

- Gr8ful
 
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