![]() Remember, however, that cabin boats and larger boats can make for difficult crabbing because of their increased windage. Some smaller aluminum fishing boats work well as crabbing vessels, too. Plenty of people also crab from center console boats. Types of Boats Used for CrabbingĪs we mentioned earlier, all it takes to go crabbing is a small, simple skiff. this is the most rudimentary form of crabbing, and while you can certainly catch a few crabs by chicken necking, it doesn’t often produce more than a half-dozen or so keepers through the course of an afternoon. To maximize the return most people will set a half-dozen or so necks out. Chicken NeckingĬhicken necking is the time-honored method of tying a chicken neck to a length of kite string long enough to touch bottom, waiting for a crab to pick up the bait, then slowly pulling the string until the crab is within netting distance. Using traps a catch of a dozen or two crabs is usually considered a win. Still, no matter how many traps you can fit on your boat it’s virtually impossible to set out more than a small fraction of the number of baits you can use with a trot line. Some people will set out as many as two dozen pull traps at a time, vastly increasing the number of baits they can keep in the water. The end of each rope has a float, and once they’re all set out the crabber can motor to the end of the “string” of traps, pull up them up one by one, then motor back to the beginning and start all over again. ![]() When tension is on the rope, the sides of the trap pull up and trap the crab inside. Ambitious crabbers will stack a dozen or more pull traps on their boat, bait them with cut fish, mesh bags of crushed clams, or chicken necks, and drop them in a line along a drop-off or edge where they suspect the crabs are hiding. When you pull them up, tugging on the rope pulls the sides closed and the crabs are trapped inside. Pull TrapsĬollapsible crab traps (also called “snap traps”) have sides that fall open when the trap sits on bottom. In most cases, trot-lining is by far the most effective way to catch big numbers of crabs and it’s employed by many commercial crabbers as well as those crabbing on a recreational basis. Then the crabber motors back to the first float, snags the line again, and makes another run. Often the crabs do drop off and swim to freedom, but with so many baits out all at once, when the crabs are active it’s possible to scoop up a dozen or more in a single run down the trot line - which only takes about 10 minutes. This crabber is scooping crabs with one hand, while he steers the boat with the other! Photo via Lenny Rudow. The red arrow points to the “stick” and the blue arrow to the trot line. ![]() Whenever the crabber spots a blue crab hanging onto a bait, it gets scooped up in a net before it has the chance to drop off or swim away. Then as the boat idles along, the line rises up off the bottom and gets pulled through the U (called a “stick”). Now, it’s finally time to catch some crabs: the crabber pulls his or her boat back to the first float, snags the trot line, and lays it in a U-shaped cradle attached to the side of the boat. Once the entire line is out, another float and anchor gets deployed to secure the far end. Then the captain drives away from the float while the trot line is set out from the back of the boat. ![]() Another line coming off of the float gets attached to a short length of chain, which is clipped to the end of the trot line. Depending on the method used these may be tied directly to the trot line with slip knots, or they may be secured in small loops attached to dropper lines called “snoods.” Once the line’s baited and you’ve picked out your spot, a small anchor line with a large float at the end gets deployed. The process begins with baiting the line with hundreds of chunks of chicken neck, or sometimes mesh bags of clams or chunks of salted eel. And the results can be spectacular, including catches of crabs by the bushel load.Īs productive as trot lining can be, it’s also far more complex and involves a lot more work than either other method. That means a single trot line can present at least 10 times as many baits as any other method. ![]() Trot lines can be from a few hundred feel long up to 1,000-plus feet (even longer for commercial crabbers) and generally have a bait every five or six feet. The most ambitious crabbers of all will learn how to bait, deploy, and run a trot line. Crabs are considered a delicacy in many areas of the nation, and recreational crabbing can be quite popular. ![]()
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