Cost Of Crabs

We had our Potomac River Festival down here at the beach a couple weekends ago, that is the official kick-off of summer here for us.
It is when all the " come here's " show up and fill the streets and beaches and waterways, and hopefully the cash registers with some much needed tourist dollars

The steamed crabs are a hot seller, and are sold by the bushell and half bushell, and then spread out on the picnic tables at the majority of the rented beach houses for the weekend feast.

For this main reason, I do not get crabs on the weekend, that is, unless family comes down to hang out at the beach. I have a few friends in the business that I can call in advance and get a good price if needed, but try not to do that to often.

I passed by one of the places I get crabs from this past Sunday and saw a sign outside advertising crabs for $95.00 for a half bushell.

I also saw a lot of cars out in the lot waiting for them to come out of the cooker.

I guess if you work all year up in the city, and only get away for a couple weeks a year, $ 95 bucks is worth it for some crabs, but here it is, Tuesday morning, and I have called the same place I saw the sign just minutes ago.

One of the owners, Timmy, has just got off the water and said " yeah, come on in here about 5:30, I get you a half bushell hot for $45 "

I bet they will taste a lot better than the $95 dollar ones

Sad Sad

Here are the leftovers from our last crab feast of the season.

A sad day.

We have had some frost, and the water temps are dropping, and for the recreational crabber, you can't catch enough in the 2 pots and the short line you are allowed to use to make a good meal now, so it is time to wash it all down and put it up for the winter.

Bow season is in now, and black powder comes in on the 31st, so I will be in my stand Saturday morning.

Later in the week, I will post about my new 50 caliber black powder rifle, so check back in a couple days.

as for now, I did pick some of the leftover crab meat, so It is crab cake time : )

Stormy day

Stormy weather today where I live, so no fishing. Oh well, at least there is a good race today, or so I thought. Tire problems killed the race today. It had to be run under several cautions and slowed the race to a crawl, in my opinion. The drivers did not run hard at all, and this is a "roll the dice" kind of race. I have seen the race run to extremes before, but today it seemed that everyone was driving with their fingers crossed. If nothing else, it was a good time to tie some trot lines. If you don't know what they are, they are used to to fish multiple baits at once. I use 300' sections, weighted at the ends, with a float about 6' from the weight. I tie chicken necks about every 6' to 8' feet, because I crab . They can be used for catfishing, but I would rather reel one of those in with my pole. I have not had a chance to go crabbing all season, but with the weather, rain, and cooler water temps, the crabs around here have not started to hit yet. Many of the commercial guys I talk to think the crabbing will not get good until mid August. My 300' of trot line can get me about a bushell and a half in about an hour, but many of my friends that have started crabbing tell me that 2 or 3 hours of work is only bringing in about half a bushel. I say, hurry up August ! My lines are ready and baited, and in the freezer. When I am ready for them, I will pull them out the day before and drop them in an empty cooler to thaw.