Article by Capt. Lance Smith
When the fishing is good in the bay, it can be fairly easy to catch a limit of flounder. Other times, the wind, water clarity or tides can keep you from landing a keeper all week. Good fishermen adapt, and anyone who loves the outdoors knows that there is much more to do in our coastal bays than just fishing.
While Ocean City may not be as famous as the Chesapeake Bay for its crabs, and we certainly don’t see the consistent catches of jumbos like they do over in the Wye River, it usually isn’t too difficult to harvest a few dozen legal size crabs in a day or even half day of trying. Manage to ice down some decent blue claws, and throw in a keeper flounder, rockfish or even bluefish, and you have caught yourself a decent dinner! While gathering these ingredients may end up costing you more than a meal at a fancy restaurant, there is no greater satisfaction than sitting down to a family dinner that you all helped to create. Besides having a decent meal at the end of the day, you will most likely end up with a bunch of great pictures of smiling faces.
Crabs are fairly simple creatures. They spend their lives skittering across the bay bottom in search of leftovers or perched on pilings waiting to ambush unsuspecting minnows. Typically, when the water is stirred up and too dirty to fish in, crabbing is at its best. Crabs use their sense of smell extremely well and are much more likely to hang onto a handline or trotline when they cannot see you looming overhead. There are basically 4 methods of harvesting crabs that are legal in our coastal bays. Handlining, trotlines, collapsible traps and crab pots all have their advantages and disadvantages.
Handlining is perhaps the simplest way to crab and also the method that entails user reflexes the most. If you have children, this is one of the most exciting ways to get them involved in crabbing. It can also be one of the most frustrating.
The equipment needed for handlining is far and away the cheapest and most simplistic. In essence, all that is required is some line, bait, lead weights and a dipping net. Crabbing line can be found in any local tackle store and is basically very small gauge white rope. For a dipping net, the wooden handled ones with the green mesh are the most commonly used. If you can find an all-wire one that is basket shaped, buy it! These wire nets hold up the best and make getting crabs out of the mesh much easier. For bait, chicken parts are the easiest to find, last the longest and attract crabs extremely well. Local tackle shops, and even most grocery stores in town, carry inexpensive chicken necks or chicken backs. At these same locations, you can usually find handline weights which are basically large metal, triangle-shaped pins with a weight molded on. If you cannot find these crabbing pin-rigs, you can tie a 1 to 2 ounce bank sinker onto the end of the line, wrap it around the chicken piece a couple of times and tie a few overhand knots in it. How much line to use depends on how deep the water is in which you are crabbing. If you are in around 6-feet of water, use approximately 10-feet of line per bait. This will allow you to tie one end to something above water and allow the crab to move off with the bait a foot or two. When crabbing from a pier, I like to cinch the tag end of my crabbing line into the small split ends of the 2x6 or 2x8 pieces of wood that make up the walkway of the dock. Once your baited and the weighted line is ready to go, drop it straight down or toss it out a few feet, making sure that you leave a foot or two of slack line. Rig up a dozen or more of these, spread them out along the walkway every 8-feet or so and keep a keen eye on each one. When the slack in one of the lines begins to disappear and the line becomes taught, or you notice the line moving off in a direction opposite of the tide/current, you have a crab munching on your bait! Slowly, 6-inches or so at a time, begin to pull the line back in toward the pier. Once the crab is in sight it is time for the net. Water clarity will usually dictate how you should “swoop” for a crab. If the water is very clear, the crab may not hang onto the bait until it reaches the surface and you will need a very fast dip in order to get them. If the water is dirty however, crabs may hang onto the bait right to the surface and you can stick the net in the water and get away with a much slower attack.
Collapsible traps are another very effective way of putting some crabmeat in your belly. These traps can be found at most any local tackle shop and may require some assembly. You can buy them unrigged in plastic packages or pay a bit more and buy them ready to go. If you decide to assemble your own, you will also need some light rope and floats to go along with the metal traps. These traps can be used both from a boat and from shore so 10 to 15-feet of line should be plenty for each one. The workings of a collapsible trap are fairly simple but can often require slight adjustments throughout the day. Whether you buy pre-rigged traps or put them together yourself, make sure that all four “doors” open when the trap is on the floor and the line is slack above it. When you pull up on the line the doors should slam shut in order to capture your crustaceous target. Again, chicken parts are the most readily available and used bait, and they are attached to the center-bottom of the trap with either a rope or wire tie.
Sometimes you may pull a trap to find that your bait has been stolen and needs to be replaced. Using the reusable wire ties that can be cinched and un-cinched is the most practical way to go because they allow baits to be quickly and easily replaced. When using collapsible traps from shore, your best bet is to drop them straight down. If you attempt to toss them out they may land incorrectly and not work properly.
I like to keep 25 of these traps stored under the deck and ready to go. When I get tired of flounder fishing, the conditions stink, the nieces and nephews are down or I just get a craving for crabs, I will break them out and head north of the Route 90 Bridge. When it comes to crabbing in the bay behind Ocean City, I have found that locations further north and near the mouths of feeder creeks are the best. There are a plethora of smaller creeks that dump into the bay and they can all be excellent places to crab. I will typically run my traps in about 6-feet of water just north of the Route 90 Bridge and set them in the straightest line possible. When setting traps over the side from a boat, allow at least 50-feet between traps so that you have time to account for wind and tide when pulling them. I have found that the cheapest and most reliable floats are orange pool noodles cut into 10-inch or 12-inch sections. Make sure that there is enough slack between the float and the trap on the bottom so the doors of the trap stay open. If you do not have enough line (and you may need more if the wind is howling or the tide is running hard), your float will tug on the trap and cause the doors to move or remain closed. Once your line of traps is set, allow 5 to 10 minutes and then begin pulling them from the down-current or down-tide end of your string.
Unlike handlines, traps should be snatched up fast and pulled in quickly in order to keep the doors closed and the crabs inside. Starting down-current/wind/tide will allow you to pull the traps up easier and give you more control of your boat. On my pontoon boat, I simply open the front gate and we take turns on who gets to kneel down and pull the traps. Being the captain can be extremely frustrating while doing this as the slow speeds required between floats/traps makes for an awful lot of wheel turning. Whether or not a trap has a crab in it, try to get it right back over the side to maintain your straight line. Be careful not to throw the traps overboard because the line may become tangled in the trap and the trap will not work properly. Instead, simply drop the trap right over the side after you have set it on the boat’s floor to make sure that all four doors open properly. Sometimes you may not be successful in the original depth that you set your traps in. If your depthfinder tells you that most of your crabs are coming from 8-feet of water at one end of your string, try moving some or all of your pots into that depth range. Once you can figure out which depth is producing the most keeper crabs, try to move your entire string into that area.
If you are without a boat or do not feel like renting one, there are quite a few places in and around town where you can crab from shore. Northside Park can have plenty of crabs crawling around the muddy bottom. Just be sure not to go on an extremely low tide or you may find no water in which to crab! There is also a public pier on the island which connects the two sections of the route 90 bridge. This location is usually uncrowded and while there may not be many fish to catch here, the crabbing can be great. The 9th Street Pier and the Oceanic Fishing Pier are probably the best choices for crabbing downtown. At the Oceanic Pier, keep your traps/handlines in the shallower water at the beginning of the pier as opposed to the deep water near the end.
Off of Route 611 in West Ocean City, just before you go over the Verrazano Bridge to Assateague, there is an excellent spot to park and set out some crab baits. Each of these locations also hold the opportunity for small baitfish to be caught while crabbing so bring along a five-gallon bucket with some holes drilled in it and another with a lid to get your catch back home. I am primarily talking about Norfolk spot here. They can be caught on very small hooks or Sabiki Rigs baited with bloodworms, Fishbite bloodworms or fresh clam and they are perhaps the greatest bait one can use for flounder, rockfish, seatrout and bluefish in the bay.
Next week I will discuss the various live baits available to fishermen in Ocean City, how to catch them and how to keep them alive, so stay tuned!
Trotlining for crabs is a practice often used in the Chesapeake Bay and by commercial fisherman in our back bay. If you REALLY want a bushel or more of crabs, this is the way to go. Running a trotline is also the most expensive and complex way of crabbing. If you decide to go out and spend the money on the line, the anchors and anchor chains and the buoys, you’d better be a die hard crabber who is going to get a lot of use out of it. Explaining the intricacies of trotlining is a bit beyond the scope of this week’s column, but if you decide that this is the way to go, hop on board a friend’s boat who is already knowledgeable with the technique.
The large crab pots available at most tackle shops in town are another way to get your hands on some keeper crabs. Per regulations set forth a few years ago, these traps are only allowed to be set off of private piers by folks who don’t possess a commercial crabbing license. Even so, if you happen to be renting or own a house on one of the many canals in Ocean City, these large pots can be baited and set every morning. I like to keep a separate wooden holding cage so that once a day I can put my keepers in that, throw the small ones back, and reset an empty trap. Just about any bait will do for these pots. I like to use leftover flounder or mahi carcasses, tuna bloodline or regular old raw chicken. For some reason, bluefish tend to actually repel crabs from these pots so don’t bother. If you have decided to rent a house or apartment on a canal in Ocean City, you can actually set a pot (as long as the owners name and address is on the buoy), put out some handlines and use some collapsible traps all at the same time. If it is too windy or rainy to go to the beach, this can keep children entertained all day long.
There are a handful of charter boats available here in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman that would be more than happy to take you and your family out for a day of crabbing or split your day with some fishing and crabbing. After all, it isn’t really about the catch, it is about the adventure! Good luck, keep your fingers and toes intact and please check the local regulations for size limits as they are subject to change throughout the summer.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, the “Longfin”.