Choptank River

[slashmaster]

My son and I left the dock about 530 this morning and had 1,000 ft of line and 10 traps in the water by 615. It was a slow day though, only caught a dozen by 1100. We decided to call it a day and brought them home to steam. I really thought it would have been better because the water temp was about 74. But we have been hearing mixed reports for this area, above the Cambridge bridge. I will try another area later in the week.

[LILY]

I went on Saturday morning with my Dad and my crabbing buddy! We go every memorial day weekend and have for many years. We usually hit Thompson Creek but its 2012 and with the Internet the place is a zoo now because everyone has realized that it's a shallow creek and warms faster than most creeks, which can yield some nice crabs for memorial day weekend. However, not only was I not going to deal with crowds but I have heard from some comm. buddies that it's been mostly # 2's and junk now so I decided on a little creek in the Choptank that I found by accident a few years back when my buddy and me went in early May to the Tred Avon but there was no spots so we ventured out in the Choptank where we found this creek!

Well we headed for the creek yesterday and arrived to find 6 comm boats running lines everywhere! We found a spot to drop our 1200 ft snood line with clam bags in 7-8 ft of water on average and the water temp was 80F! We also spread 20 traps with chicken necks! Water was so clear you could see at least 3-4 down! We started crabbing @ 7 am and it started out slow with a lot of typical Choptank sized crabs at 5 to 6 inches. Tide was really high but @ 11 am it started moving out and it was "GAME ON"!! The same thing happened when we found this creek a few years back. We started catching better crabs but the thing that was crazy was just like before they literally had mud and moss all over there shell!! These crabs where coming out of the mud for the first time and they where all mudders and black-yellow bellies!

When we packed up 2 hours later we had caught well over 3 1/2 bushels of crabs! We culled like crazy and kept a nice lid buster bushel of # 1's along with another 3 dozen! We threw back many 5 inch crabs and alot of the big crabs that we caught where Mc Whiteys that went back to become McMudders soon

Had a great time with my Dad and the traps caught better as the sun got high in the sky!

We had so many drop offs it was crazy

Great first trip of the year and the best part was no other crabbers except 5 comm boats that we stayed clear of and respected their space as this weekend is one of there busiest!


Phil (lily)

Good luck too all