Kayaking for Maryland Blue Crabs, 1st attempt!

[JTingley]

Anyone who lives in or around Maryland or grew up in this area knows all about Blue Crabs and Old Bay. The tastiest treat native to these parts.

I attempted last weekend for the first time to catch Crab from my Kayak. The Idea was to rig up 16 box traps and drop them in an area I know to produce crabs.

I found out the hard way that this was not as simple as I had imagined.

I attached the 16 assembled traps to the back of my kayak. 8 to each clip attached to the back gear area of my Ocean Kayak Drifter and paddled out to my spot.

I found out all too late that getting the traps rigged to the kayak on dryland was ALLOT easier then detaching them on the water. That was my first mistake. The second came when one of my snaps broke and 8 of my traps went down to the murky depths with no floats attached [pirate]

Then a further 2 more slipped out of my hands and into the drink while I was trying to rig the floats. Allot of time wasted and 10 traps in the drink later I managed to get 6 of them in the water for crabbing. At this point I was allready in a terrible mood from the wasted money thanks to my lack of forsight on the matter.

The next 2 hours were spent figuring out how best to drop and retrieve traps on the go. LOTS of trial and error there.

All in all I ended up catching just 1 keeper crab before I was so exausted and ticked off that I decided to pack it in and paddle home.

1 stinkin crab for all that!!!

I kept my 1 stinkin crab... took him home... cooked him and ate him.

Damned if I was gonna walk away from that travesty empty handed.

It's not the loosing traps or the skimpy catch that upset me about this trip. It's the fact that had I taken more time to think it through I could have done allot better and not wasted traps.

I have since put more thought into this concept and have designed a very simple system to solve all the issues I ran into on the water.

My worst problem was limited space for working with and storing the Foxy Mate traps on the Kayak. I found a simple $3 solution for that.

I'm lucky enough that I live just 5 miles from a BassPro Outdoor World Superstore []. I went there and found a pair of strong bamboo sectioned fishing poles. I'm putting the bottom sections in my rod holders on the kayak and putting the traps out on the rods. That way everything is balanced and out of the way. I'm going to pre-string and bait them before going out this time as well to save the headache on the water.

I'm going to be making my second attempt tomorrow morning. I'll post Pics and maybe some video over the weekend and let yall know how it goes.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Whassamatta you? Don'tcha watch TV (Most Dangerous Catch)? You need hydraulic winches and deckhands and all that stuff. Sheesh. Whatta rookie.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I can understand wanting to get those crabs. I have fished for them out of a float tube both in California and in Louisiana. The Louisiana crabs are the same blue crabs as you have on the upper Atlantic coast. I caught them in several places on baited lines. Once you locate a few you can just drop a well hooked hunk of fish meat down and wait until you feel them pulling on it. Then you bring it up slow and slip a landing net under them before they let go. If you need some extra "holding power", rig a hook and sinker in the middle of a big ball of used monofiiament. The crabs get their legs and claws tangled in the mono and can be more easily brought in. I used to catch lots of big California king crabs off the piers that way.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bummer about losing the traps. Were they home made or store bought?[/#0000ff]
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[tubeN2]

You are silly JT. Out here in Cali, we use the hoopnets. For about 20 bucks each, the come rigged with the lines, bait traps and float already attatched.

They are easier to drop but can be a pain to pull up without the electric wench option.[cool]
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[Tincanfsh]

How did your second try go. Do you work out the Kinks.


Tincanfsh
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[JTingley]

Whelp, I managed to work out the kinks in my system. I was able to drop and retrieve traps pretty smoothly. Unfortunatly due to an unexpectedly strong current on Saturday I was limited in how far out I was reasonably able to paddle. I had to crap a spot closer to home which turns out to have a bad oxidation level not hospitable to crabs.

3 hours on the water.... and again. 1 stinkin crab. As before... I kept my one stinkin crab and ate him. I'll not be deturred. I shall try again.

I do have to say that Crabbing from Kayak is 10 times more complicated and physically stressfull then fishing. Allot if it has to do with all the precise manuvering you need to do. You have to get traps dropped in a certain places while trying too work with the current. You have to manuver to retrieve them. If you've got a strong current in the area it makes it even harder. When I fish I just tend to drift into an area I like and fish it allong the current. Then paddle around and reset for annother run.

I'm getting quite a qorkout from my crabbing adventures. I've got pain in muscles I didn't know I had.

I'll try and post some Pics this week of my rig.
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[tubeN2]

What is the water temperature like over there?? I know that crab usually like cooler water. I usually do better when the water is below 60 degrees.[cool]
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[JTingley]

From what I know of Maryland Blue Crabs they begin to run when the temps get over 70.

They run in good oxy levels on shallow (less then 8 feet) sandbars.

My problem of late has been the sandbar I was working with. I need to paddle out annother couple miles for the good spots.
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