battle creek sunday

[captian wilson]

crabbed 1500 foot snod in creek, caught half bushel before my boat quit, probably would have caught a nice bushel otherwise.crabbed from 8:00 to 11:00 moving once . nothing over 6 inchs many througbacks 50% were whitebelly so illwait till after the full moon to try again

[Antman40]

Thanks for the report Captain.

Tony

[Bryan B]

What does whitebelly mean?

[zachl]

whitebelly means they are light junk crabs

[crabby and son]

white belly means that the crab has just molted ( came out of his last shell and has a new bigger shell) but the crab is small in his new shell and needs time to grow into it. The underside of it's shell is white and turns rusty or black as it eats and fills out. It is a junk crab in a way because there is not much meat and is better left to fill in. They are legal though.

[chesapeake honker]

i have found that battle creek is one of those " hit em once real good this year and leave" kind of creeks. jmho.

[Ricky]

I don't mean to hijack the thread... but for us guys who have to travel 2 and a half hours just to smell the bay, a white crab will do just fine. The dark ones are just a bonus. :clapping2:

[rrr]

I don't mean to hijack the thread... but for us guys who have to travel 2 and a half hours just to smell the bay, a white crab will do just fine. The dark ones are just a bonus. :clapping2:



That is a good point. Whitebellies are fine to eat as said earlier. Its just going to be less bang for the buck.

[Big Liar]

I sorry guys but whitebellies or lite crabs should be released. I'm sorry you guys don't live close to the water but sometimes you have to weigh you priorities. I'm a programmer and I could make more money if I moved off the shore, but the shore is where my heart is and being on the water makes me happy. Having said that. I've crabbed recreationally for years and hate to eat a poor or lite crab. The taste is not the same, there is hardly any meat and I'd rather release them to hopefully catch him again in a few weeks. Now I'm crabbing commercially and I still have the same point of view. I could have sold 5 bushel of lite crabs this past weekend but I did not keep them. When I called my buyer on Monday, he thanked me for not bringing him any lite crabs because he bought and sold some of the worst crabs he's ever delt with this past weekend and he knows that he probably lost some customers doing it. I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings or make anybody mad but you have to admit that you would rather eat a good fat crab over a lite crab any day.

[Scott McGuire]

Yep... No need to be greedy with the white bellies. In another month they'll be good heavy crabs. Let them go...