Hi --
I am a brand new member to this site!! I just registered yesterday when I found this forum. It seems like a great place for crab fanatics to share ideas, results and tactics! I live near Gaithersburg, MD and crab on the Eastern Shore (often near St. Michael's). I use traps, mostly, plus a few handlines.
I took the wife and two teenage daughters to St. Michaels on Saturday (7/5), where Oak Creek meets the Miles River. We caught ZERO crabs from 7AM until 2:30PM. I usually get a dozen or more in this area. Is crabbing still that bad or was I missing something? A nice boater gave us 3 big Jimmies but I had to stop a buy a dozen on my way home to satisfy my spicy crab addiction! Ouch! I only felt one crab on a handline -- all day. It gets frustrating when you pull up empty traps for almost 8 hours.

At least it was a nice day with the family, great weather, nice scenic location. If I could have gotten a few dozen, I would have been a real happy crabber! I tossed traps from the pier and even used a rubber boat to put 3-4 at the mouth of the river, near the bridge. Do I need a real boat to be consistently successful? I did see boaters coming in with a 1/2 to full bushel!
Any thoughts or ideas why I got shut out?? Any ideas on where I can go next time?? Any help for a new member of the Blue Crab Discussion Forum would be greatly appreciated!!!
TBirdCrabber (my other hobby is a '55 Thunderbird)