Complete Suckage on the Pax.

[Scott McGuire]

Out of Cuckold Creek. 6am-11am. T-line (1000ft) and 10 tpx baited with fresh chicken necks. T-line was in 3-5ft. Traps were in 3-10ft. Tide was slack for an hour then incoming. Slack tide produced nothing. Total catch was 8 keeper crabs. About the same number of females, and not many small crabs at all.

Despite the beautiful day, this is by far my worst crabbing trip ever. I hope you guys know where to find them. I would have moved around to find something more, but my guests only had so much time - and I haven't heard of anyone setting the world on fire - so I didn't bother experimenting. I wasn't expecting a two bushel limit, and would have been happy with 3 doz.

[stingray]

Wrong place, wrong time. Tons of just undersized crabs upriver with some keepers mixed in. Maybe try heading a little futher north. Still nothing to write home about though

[JB Crabs]

I had to pull the boat today from Len's on the Pax. The last two weeks have not been good for us. We only caught 1 bushel of solid mix #1 and #2. Plenty of lights made it back to the water. Undersize crabs everywhere. We laid our lines starting in 2ft up to 11ft. The crabs were scattered. Oh, necks was our bait today

I talked to the locals while there. They told me that the crabbing has been very slow over the last few weeks so it's not just us.

Good Luck

John

[crabtracker]

not the right spot!

[screwyardwork]

Went out 7/30 a.m. 2000 ft trot line ,set 3 times and only ended up with 3/4 bushell. but still not my worst day.

[JB Crabs]

Crabtracker

You might be right. Good Luck with your crabbing

John

[Scott McGuire]

Talked to a couple of friends that crabbed the Pax and found that they had a similar experiences on Saturday.

[gchambers]

went to the Wico. last Tues. Same place been catching an easy bu. in the early am for the last 5 weeks. Fresh chic. on 1200. Ran 1 time, no keepers, all trash. Tide was perfect[high at 9] Pulled line, went home back to bed at 8. George

[Scott McGuire]

went to the Wico. last Tues. Same place been catching an easy bu. in the early am for the last 5 weeks. Fresh chic. on 1200. Ran 1 time, no keepers, all trash. Tide was perfect[high at 9] Pulled line, went home back to bed at 8. George


Good thinking... I wish I had been that smart!

[Fishamajig]

This is why my crab boat sits lonely in the water just bobbing in the waves. There is no reason to bait the line and waste the time...

[paxfish]

It's been picking up down here over the last week as the moon approaches. 6 or 7 overnight keepers in my two pots is decent. More females this year than I can remember though.

[Mantus150]

I was going to make the 2 hr drive and head down on Tuesday for the first trip of the year. Based on your reports I think I'll be waiting a few weeks before coming down.

[paxfish]

I just went down at lunch and rebaited my two pots - 8 keeper males was the 24 hour haul, 5 of which may fit the the "jumbo" category (What is considered Jumbo, anyway?)

No females today.

[Scott McGuire]

Pax,

Is that good or bad?

[paxfish]

not bad, I'd say. they run about like this within a few days of the full moon, but July full moon was a bust.

[Fishamajig]

FishPax,

Those crabs are "hoteling" or "shacking up" in your pots during th efull moon, waiting for a young female to do the wild thing with...if you had not baited your traps your catch would be similar.

I think that in the name of conservation you should release all those sperm laden jumbos to inseminate all those little ripe females...