Good looking crab! Where is that one from?
We use to do this when I was younger, although off the docks at the bottom of the Seaside Bridge before you enter into the town, there are some fishing / crabbing pier there. We would go at night with our flashlights and nets and just scoop them up.
Just out of curiosity since in the pic the crabs are on a baking sheet, did you bake them? Or did you just dump them on there for cleaning? (They look fully cooked)
Those are steamed already. They are just drying and cooling. I prefer to eat them cold. We put them in the fridge. The meat is firmer and doesnt stick to the crabs body as much. They aren’t bad hot either, but I like them chilled with old bay and some hot butter.
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When you can catch and steam them yourself, that is what I miss. Last couple of years have been off so I took to buying. $80 dozen large in Baltimore or $35 dozen at Keyport fishery. Even the Asian markets are getting ridiculously high. I now buy NJ lobsters when they are on sale @ $7 lb. But nothing beats the blue crab - eaten hot or cold with a plain white vinegar dipping sauce and plenty of cold beer.
23 today. It is weird. We got 22 and 1 more at the dock hanging onto a trap, not even inside it. Last trip we got exactly 22 as well…strange concidence.
We got some jumbo males! I can’t wait to tear into these.
Beer can shown for size reference :
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My bf wants to go crabbing with me. My question is, do you need a license to catch crabs like for fishing or can I just go and do it?
You don’t need a license.
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Great, thanks.
Np. If you need any tips, lmk.
Cleaned, steamed and seasoned! This is shaping up to be a good day. I’m looking forward to hearing about your lobster rolls.
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You sure need one in Texas and saltwater licenses are forty dollars.
We always assumed the game wardens left crabbers alone but I was watching an episode of Lone Star law when a warden rolled up on a guy crabbing with chicken necks on a string in an estuary near Corpus Christi.
The guy had at least twenty solid lively keeper blue crabs and no license. The warden dumped all the crabs back into the water and gave the man a forty dollar citation.
The man looked like his crabbing was still going strong and I’m sure he missed those crabs a lot more than the forty dollars out of his wallet.
Lone Star Law is a show on Animal Planet the follows wardens and showcases the wide variety of Texas landscapes from east Texas piney woods, bayous, rolling grasslands, the Hill Country, southern Great Plains, plus the deserts and high mountains of west Texas, plus miles of Gulf shorelines and lots of lakes, and all the fish and animals that inhabit them. Don’t think tumbleweeds and oil wells, think diversity.
There is another show called North Woods Law showcasing New Hampshire and Maine. Both are must see especially if you love the outdoors as I have since I was a kid.
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Yes I watch both shows once in a while. It seems like they go after more trivial stuff up in maine and nh…kids on dirt bikes and snow machines with aftermarket exhausts, etc. It seems they aren’t after people poaching but anyone that they can easily bust.
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Man those are beautiful!
Thanka Joon. I’m out again today. Sloooooooow. I will report back.
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You are a crab catching/eating machine.
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Those jumbos look great. Just returning from my brother in law’s place in Brigantine. He throws his cage off his dock before going to bed and usually nets 12-15 by morning. Some good eats!
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I’m trying buddy! Tis the season.
@jsfein he gets a dozen keepers a night from a single trap? That’s very good!
@corvette_johnny – So he says. I witnessed one morning’s catch of 14 decent size crabs (none quite as large as your jumbos, but all keepers).
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C_J: How do you get the crabs so clean and white? It is a pain to scrub them, which is not easy as they’re squirming and biting. Do you have some trick?
They are like that naturally. I didn’t clean a single one of those. Some have darker coloring on the belly from the shell being in the mud for so long. We call them “rusty” and they are better eating. They have more meat since they have not recently shed their shell.
