Swamp
05-25-2009, 08:53 AM
The trouble with having a large garage is that you end up filling it. So, yesterday, I got started on trying to organize it, and included in that was finally de-baiting the trot line that has sat in the freezer all winter. And when I saw the almost empty box of unused chicken necks from last year, I figured the garage could wait.
I baited about 700' of trot line and headed down to Eastern Bay with my girlfriend late in the afternoon for an evening on the water. On an unrelated note, what's up with the $9 it costs to get across the bridge with an extra axle? Anyway, after launching, we passed a few crabbers battling the wind with traps in deep water, but we opted for the shallows of a cove. I've never crabbed this early and we expected nothing, but ended up with two dozen average size crabs, nothing over 6.5 and nothing smaller than 5.5, and many were packed tight. With a strong southern breeze on a day that felt more like late September than late May, we had lots of drop-offs in the clear water and even a doubler. Is that unusual for this early?
It still may be too early to tell if the strict female regs from last year are really going to help the crab population, but sitting around the night before Memorial Day with a pile of fresh steamed crabs watching and listening to Quint yell at Hooper to keep an eye on the bobbing yellow barrels while Chief Brody keeps insisting to get a bigger boat (it's a "welcome to summer" ritual to watch Jaws around here), it's hard to not feel hopeful for the coming season!
I baited about 700' of trot line and headed down to Eastern Bay with my girlfriend late in the afternoon for an evening on the water. On an unrelated note, what's up with the $9 it costs to get across the bridge with an extra axle? Anyway, after launching, we passed a few crabbers battling the wind with traps in deep water, but we opted for the shallows of a cove. I've never crabbed this early and we expected nothing, but ended up with two dozen average size crabs, nothing over 6.5 and nothing smaller than 5.5, and many were packed tight. With a strong southern breeze on a day that felt more like late September than late May, we had lots of drop-offs in the clear water and even a doubler. Is that unusual for this early?
It still may be too early to tell if the strict female regs from last year are really going to help the crab population, but sitting around the night before Memorial Day with a pile of fresh steamed crabs watching and listening to Quint yell at Hooper to keep an eye on the bobbing yellow barrels while Chief Brody keeps insisting to get a bigger boat (it's a "welcome to summer" ritual to watch Jaws around here), it's hard to not feel hopeful for the coming season!