Lower Pax Friday

[Swamp]

I'm not sure where rj was on Friday, but I was in the lower Patuxent on the St. Mary's county side. It's a long drive for me and I wasn't in too much of a hurry since it was a weekday and the water wouldn't be overyly crowded, but I was in the water and running the line by 7 - 7:30.

Crabbed in various depths with 1000' ft of line. Unlike rj, I was deep in a tributary, some 5 miles from the Pax, and ended up with just over a 1/2 bushel. Water was clear and although the sky was somewhat cloudy, I had a lot of drop-offs. I know I was running in the wrong direction (crabs could see me) but the wind was a problem when I ran the other, so I sloooooowed down and dealt with it. I'm pretty sure I would have filled the basket if I could have run the line correctly. A really nice older gentleman on the dock saw me havning success so he ran to the store for some necks and was having some mild success when I made my last run at 11. It was a low production for a lot of driving and time, but it's not always about the numbers. I just like being out there.

Most crabs were of legal size, like rj said, there was nothing huge but everything that I caught was rusty brown on the bottom. Someone with more experience than me may know if that means they're last season's crabs or if they are part of the migrating herd. Haven't had them yet, but they should be good this evening.

Oh, and snapping turtles were plentiful. I could have CAUGHT at least four. Damn, they're ugly. They'd have the whole snood in their mouth and simply would not let go.

In another week I'm going to head back to my more familiar site in eastern bay, but it is definitely starting to heat up.

Swamp

[C-Hawk18]

Swamp,

I think you may have done the wrong thing when the crabs started dropping off. When I have crabs dropping off early I speed up. It gives the crab less time to decide what to do. You may want to try it next time. I works for me. Learned this way back from an oldtime trotliner.

[Swamp]

You know, I thought about doing that, but when I get an idea in my head...

I'll try it next time. Thanks.

[castnblast]

I run a trotline with my bassboat and the 225 idles very fast. My dippers have to be quick because I ended up running the line in a hurry. I find that if I get just the right amount of slack in the line where I'm not dangling the crabs at the top for too long but tight enough to see the line and run it straight, I get very few drop offs. When they do drop off, running the line quickly allows my dippers to go down after them and catch em while they're getting away. I second the recommedation of speeding up when you're getting alot of drop offs. Slack the line up just a tad also.

We also saw a huge snapping turtle on Thursday. I think he was pretty ill because he stayed at the surface and wouldn't go down. We followed him with the boat and I was able to get close enough that I grabbed by the tail and brought him onboard. That shouldn't happen...I expect he was dying of old age? He was about 40 pounds. After checking him out and letting my son get a real close look at a large turtle, we set him free. If he dies, the crabs will have something to fatten up on.

[Capt. Dale]

WTG Bob,
Snappen Turtle Soup yum,yum[grin]
Nothing is more frustrating than
in early season clear water crabs droping off.
Sounds like you still had a good day. You are right-on about the just getting out. the catch is just iceing on the cake.