WYE RIVER UPDATE

[Howard]

Wow:
Yesterday I ventured to the Wye.  If anyone else went there yesterday, they can relate  to this.  I have seen it foggy in that area....a lot of times.  I have even crabbed when there was ice on the piers, but yesterday when I hit the water, it was very very dense fog.  Usually it burns right off.  This time it just hung over the entire river.

I'm always telling everyone to be safe out there and here I am, plying out of the landing with one flash light in my hand and no running lights on my boat.  Uh...to say the least I was unprepared and that will not happen again.

Anyway, because I think I know the Wye like the back of my a-- , I follow the shoreline,  lay out my line and then realize as the fog slowly burns off the I am in Skipton's creek, about 2 miles east of where I should be.   Pretty embarrassing, eh   ??

Anyway I must have run my trot-line about 11-15 passes and did not even see a crab. By 8:00 am I am pretty depressed and by 8:15 when the fog burnt off, even more so when I realized I was on the other side of the d---n river! As I started back to the ramp for a trip over to crab alley, the sun broke through and I decided to go to my "real spot."  To my amazement no one was even close with a line or trap where I normally crab, and for a Tuesday I did notice a lot more crazy people like me who navigated out to try their luck.

Well the bad news is that I only caught about 15 crabs.
The good news is that these guys were absolute bona fide WYE Crabs!  As most of you know I get a serious rush when I have the chance to dip these colossal monsters.  And yesterday (after waiting more than a year for the thrill) was no exception!  Numbers of crabs sound great and it is always a good sign that the crabs are plentiful, but quality turns me on as a crabber and there is nothing more beautiful then seeing my trotline bow back towards the boat and seeing one of the Wye blues gnawing  away at one of my chicken neck pieces.

If is was not for the fog - I felt like I missed a good 2 hours of crabbing time back in Skipton's Creek - I could have nailed 1/2 bushel easy.   To put my catch in perspective, it was easily 1/3 bushel and I only kept 13 of the largest.  I also snagged a huge 8" female, which of course went back.  No doublers but these big guys I believe are going to be looking for mates real soon. I pretty much stayed in my area but caught at least one just about every run and that was on both sides of the river.

We all know that things are about 2 weeks behind, so get ready for the invasion and day now.  Oh baby, where's my 10" monster at?

Well gotta run, so please be safe out there!  Uh that means you too Howard!!  Sheesh!

R/Howard

[cblu]

Howard, been there, done that. I've been out several times at the Wye where the fog is so thick you can't see the front of the boat, then your spotlight reflects all over the place, which makes things worse. I'm glad to hear you made it back unscathed and were able to bring something back for the pot.
     Now, are you one of those guys that runs around without running lights? Shame on you.

[southswell]

 So Howard, the big boys are coming! A friend of mine was there yesterday as well, running 30 pots. He only caught 12 crabs, big though. Did you see any jellies? With the nice weather we have been having, water should be in the upper 70's by now. Well, I'm heading out Sunday, i'll let you know how I do. 2 miles the wrong way, that is definitely not the safest of conditions! Glad you made it back safe, talk L8ER!  

[Howard]

On the Fog....I normally attach my running lights up forward, but when it is dark out there, like late in the year when the days are much shorter, you know.... September, October.  But during the summer months I never hit the water until sun-rise, and never leave after sunset.  

but believe me that won't happen again.  Going to keep those lights tucked under the bow storage area and bring me a whistle or horn.

Yes, please post your reports from the Wye if you get out there.  I think we are going to really see things pick up in the next week to 10 days.

R/Howard

[southswell]

 Hit the Wye this morning, and just as you said Howard, first time I have been it that dense fog anywhere in the water! I got to the landing around 4:00, and it was already crowded. The fog was bad on the back roads, but not directly at the landing. So, I'm heading out about 100 yards and the river was GONE! Just about hit one boat as the wife had the spotlight shining dead in anyones eyes, they said they had no clue where they were. So, I continued on, knowing where I was going. Right! I am heading out not seeing [shiz] in front, but hearing voices all over, where were the running lights? Couldn't see them. Finally when I think I'm at my spot, lost! There were boats with anchors out and nowhere to go. So, 6:00 finally arrives and I find my spot, still with thick fog,  burned off around 7:00. Well, 7 runs of 30 rings, nada! Talked to three others, hadn't seen a crab. 2 more runs, 1 stinking crab, on shore 9:00. I went for a swim, NO JELLIES, not much salt either. Saw about a dozen dead fish. So, I am done till August sometime, just wasting my time. I love crabbing but not like this. [Sam Hill], I have a day off every week in September so I'll be there then. Came home wanting crabs so bad, spent $40 on a dozen and a half mediums, all they had left, and ate those. They were smalls to my standards. Just 1 dozen jimmies from the Wye would have made me happy. Talk to ya L8ER! ???Can't figure this season out, can anyone?

[Steve]

I invested in a small hand-held mapping GPS for my boat. Bought the optional hard mount kit for it so that it draws power from the boat when in its cradle.

My GPS has saved me several times out in thick fog.  

[cblu]

Steve, I did the same thing. A small GPS can be had for about $100, and it's sure nice when it's foggy. Of course you have to think ahead and get everything plotted out ahead of time. I bought mine for exactly the reason everybody is talking about. You still need to be awfully careful though. Just because you know where you're going, doesn't mean anybody else has a clue, and even if they do, it can gets pretty hairy.

[Howard]

For Southswell:

Wow...bummer....heavy fog and no crabs.  I figured by now they would be getting a little thicker.  Perhaps it is time to switch to a trotline huh?   You get many more baits and you can move the line much easier then picking up (30) traps/pots.

Steve: Roger on the GPS, but in this case, I should have used PLS ( Plain Logical Sense) !!

How are the crabs running down in the southern part of the bay?  I hope better than up here in the mid-northern sectors.

I got a feeling my next time out will be "big city".  Yowser!!
 

Take care and be safe out there!

R/Howard

[cblu]

Howard, I'll be curious to see if the trotline is the trick. I switched to traps because I thought it would be easier to move around with them as opposed to the trotline. But, I sure do like dipping better than pulling. Good luck.

[Howard]

Well, I think it gives you more baits and I think you can move it around a lot easier.  Dipping is a lot less strenous than pulling, eh?
Just and FYI, I'm heading out tomorrow  (probably the Wye).

R/Howard

[southswell]

 Howard and Steve, Thanks for the info. I'll look into that. That fog sucked. A trout line may be better, but I know a few friends that use trout lines and they don't catch that much more than me. I don't mind pulling, but see your point Howard. Still, this year has really been bad, nothing like last year. Hope you report a good catch tomorrow. I'll be waiting for the report.
Be safe!

[swamphox]

Either way you do it, its gonna be a lot of work. Good work though.
I run about 1200' of line with clips so that I can break it up into three seperate lines if I need to. On the Wye, if your line is not on the bottom somewhere around sunrise, you may as well forget about finding enough room to lay 500' let alone 1200'. It can just get too [dang] crowded. This is the time when traps can really be beneficial. I don't have traps, but I sure sure wish I did on many occassion when I had gotten a late start and tried to drop a long line in the water. It may seem easier to run a line until you stand there concentrating on1200' chicken necks with no crabs attached. The Wye sure is an unpredictable place to crab. It is still what I call "a great place for a boat ride" when things don't go well!

[Howard]

Well...I got down to the Wye again yesterday and now I am of the feeling that this might be one of the spottiest years in recent memory.   :-\I really thought that I would see a big pick-up in the action by now.

I left with 15 crabs (12 were monsters) and for me that is fine but man I had to move 6 different times to find these guys.  I did net some small boys ( 4 or  5 in the 5 1/2 to 5 3/4" range)  These were the first small crabs that I have seen at the Wye all year.  No females and no doublers.

So where have all the crabs gone?  Did this bad winter really destroy perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the population? Fish predators? Who knows, huh?  I'll just keep going out there and hunting for them.

P.S. A friend of mine who lives in DE but has a commercial crabbing license in MD,  hauled in all of his commercial traps last week and gave up for the season.

Unless we have a crab invasion soon, this is not going to be a banner year for us "recreational crabbers!"

Take care and be safe out there.


R/Howard

[Big AL]

Hey Mike, I have eaten in the BLue Claw, and left unimpressed.I can't explaine it.but it just did not live up to what I call  a real Crab house.Maybe it was just me but the crabs that were served were not up to snuff. Seemed to be warmed up garlic crabs. PerhapsI caught them on a bad day but I'm not going back to see. GOOD EATING TO YA, Big AL                    

[southswell]

  Howard,
Sorry you didn't fair that well. Atleast you had something to eat. Just don't know myself. We had a hard winter and bad spring, so, that definitely is a factor. I am going to the Chester side of the Narrows next week, see if it's any better. The guy who has a crab house down the street from me says all his MD. crabbers he buys from are feeling it really hard, nothing out there at all some days. L8ER!

[robbster]

Crabbed the Wye on Friday.  Kept a dozen 7+ inchers (4 of which were 8+), all were very heavy.   Released all those under 7 inches, caught around 2 dozen total.  Used 18 traps, 4 handlines and  1  crabhawk.  Crabbed in 4-6 feet of water from 10am - 5pm.  The crabbing was very slow until the incoming tide started, stayed consistent after that.
I was surprised with how well the crabhawk worked, much easier  than handlining.  This was the first time I've tried handlining by myself and couldn't quite get the hang of the one-handed dip netting technique, watched 5 crabs climb over the side of the net    
I used a regular fishing rod with 30lb spiderwire for the crabhawk, the recommendation is 50lb.   Didn't have a problem until I had a big turtle in the crabhawk, lifted it to the surface and then had my line snap...sad to watch $20 sink to the bottom.   Will be ordering two more crabhawks this week for my trip back to the Wye in two weeks, will also be using two of my extra fishing reels and equiping them with 50lb test line.

I would have to say this is the worst crabbing I've seen at the Wye this late in the season.  Still no jellyfish in the water.  By this time I normally see 30-40 crabs keeping the largest dozen or dozen & 1/2  (when I have my family & friends over).  Two or three 8+ inchers with corn & bread is all anyone really should need.  It is sad that when crabs are scarce people (commercial & recreational) just crab harder/longer,  no wonder the resource is in so much trouble...stepping off the soapbox now  

Good luck fellow crabbers

[Crabpop]

Thanks for the report, robbster.  Before you go out next time, get yourself the largest treble hook you can find, tie it to some of that 50LB test you're gonna get, add some weights near the hook, and you might be able to recover the Crabhawk should the line snap again.  Of course, with a large turtle in it, no tellin' where it will end up.  

Crabpop

[Howard]

Southswell:
Roger that.  Debating on where I will head the next time out and when also.  Still holding out hope that things will pick up somewhat at the Wye.  If not, I'll try Crab Alley again.

However, I must admit once I start netting a few of them big blue monsters, I'm hooked on hunting them bad boys down!  And the last two times at the Wye, these were just beautiful, heavy blues. (Oh BABY!)

Did you make up a trot-line ? or are you staying with the traps/baskets?

Good luck and be safe out there.

R/Howard