all the crabbing spots i know in ny

[crabeater]

hi everyone, it's crabbing season again, the following are all the spots that i know of, they will be listed in a order from good to bad:

1: Silly Lilly Fishing Station: I've been going to Silly Lilly for about 2 years, and this spot never fails. If you're going crabbing at the dead-end pier, please pay attention to the tide table, you won't catch anything except seaweeds when it's low tide. My best score was catching 60 decent size blue claws with my friend within 1 hour or so, just kept throwing my crabbing cages with bunker and kept pulling after 2-3 minutes and everytime there would be 2-3 decent size ones. I prefer bunker over chicken legs since they smell hundred times worse than chicken legs. It would be charming if you get a rental boat from silly lilly and just drive far enough from the pier, anchor the boat and do your work there, you'll be amazed how many blue claws you can catch.

2. Bay Park: crabbing in bay park is a bit different from other spots, i personally prefer scooping the crabs at night. Again, high tide will alway bring you more crabs. Bring a flash light, make sure it's bright enough to see through the top water, and drive all the way down till you see the boat launch ramps, there should be 2 ramps if i remember correctly, walk onto the bridge right next to ramps and use your flash light to check the wood panels on the sides, usually that's where the crabs are resting and use your net to scoop them, it takes a few practice to get them if you never scoop the crabs before, but you will get it after a few tries. Unfortunately, bay park was polluted 2 years ago, not sure if it still is, but you will still catch crabs even if when it's polluted, just not sure if you can eat them though.

3: Captree State Park: Captree was a lengendary spot for crabbing when i first went there (maybe 5 years ago), blue claws were everywhere back then, it was an easy 50-60 per person within an hour and there used to have big stone crabs too. But today, captree is so empty comparing to what it used to have, if you still prefer captree, then go to the broadwalk where the boats are, you'd have much better luck there comparing the long broadwalk, or you can try the fishing pier past the boat launching ramp.

4: Field 10 Jones Beach: Field 10 was a decent spot for blue crabbing a few years ago, but i haven't been there for a long time, i heard there only has green crabs and spider crabs now, well don't take my words for it because i haven't been there in person recently.

5: Point Lookout fishing pier: If you're looking for green crabs for black fishing bait, point lookout is definitely the spot for it, the last time i went was 2 months ago with my crabbing cages, easy 100 decent size ones within 1 hour, but never saw any blue crabs at all. I heard if you get a rental boat from ted's or scotty's and drive it past the bridge, there has lots blue claws, but i never tried it because i was too busy fishing instead of crabbing, will give it a try next time and keep ya'll posted on this.

6: fishing pier in brooklyn: Geez, i forgot the name of that place, but i sure know how to get there, went there twice at night and saw tons of blue claw swimming on the top water, used my cage there but no luck at all, looked like the crabs never go down there and take the bait, but the ones who used the net were getting charming, the sizes were good too. but make sure your net is long enough since it's quite a distance from the rail to the water.

The above are all the places i can think of now, but i'm always looking for new places to try, if any of you guys want to know the details how to get to any of above spots, feel free to let me know. I'll be happy to share my spots and directions. oh well, good luck to all you crab hunters and will update more news when i get any. 

[jng]

Thanks for posting this info.
I plan to go crabbing for the first time next weekend when visiting the inlaws.
Just a quick question, are these all free, public access areas?

[crabeater]

captree state park charges parking fee of $6, all others are free.

[robo624]

New to this forum, but appreciate the info... just started crabbing again, havn't done
it since i was a kid and still enjoy doing it and eating them..

Did Baypark 2 weeks ago, the tide was going out but did manage 15 crabs, only kept
8 decent size ones.

I have two questions that i get different answers on:

Is using a light at night legal? always heard it wasn't

Is there a size limit? I've been going by the 4 1/2 inch tip to tip

Tks

[crabeater]

  using flash light is legal because one time two cops came by and they helped us to catch crabs and wished us good luck, and there's no size limit on crabs on long island, but do have a quantity limite which is 50 per person per day. good luck!

[Fish4Fun]

As of June 2006................... NYS law is 4.5" point to point.

Check DEC website.

[dleeza]

wow this is good stuff thank you..........

[crabeater]

As of June 2006................... NYS law is 4.5" point to point.

Check DEC website.

Yep, rules been changed this year and fish4fun is right, it's gotta be 4.5" point to point, sorry about the old rule.

[crabbingny]

hi everyone, it's crabbing season again, the following are all the spots that i know of, they will be listed in a order from good to bad:

1: Silly Lilly Fishing Station: I've been going to Silly Lilly for about 2 years, and this spot never fails. If you're going crabbing at the dead-end pier, please pay attention to the tide table, you won't catch anything except seaweeds when it's low tide. My best score was catching 60 decent size blue claws with my friend within 1 hour or so, just kept throwing my crabbing cages with bunker and kept pulling after 2-3 minutes and everytime there would be 2-3 decent size ones. I prefer bunker over chicken legs since they smell hundred times worse than chicken legs. It would be charming if you get a rental boat from silly lilly and just drive far enough from the pier, anchor the boat and do your work there, you'll be amazed how many blue claws you can catch.

2. Bay Park: crabbing in bay park is a bit different from other spots, i personally prefer scooping the crabs at night. Again, high tide will alway bring you more crabs. Bring a flash light, make sure it's bright enough to see through the top water, and drive all the way down till you see the boat launch ramps, there should be 2 ramps if i remember correctly, walk onto the bridge right next to ramps and use your flash light to check the wood panels on the sides, usually that's where the crabs are resting and use your net to scoop them, it takes a few practice to get them if you never scoop the crabs before, but you will get it after a few tries. Unfortunately, bay park was polluted 2 years ago, not sure if it still is, but you will still catch crabs even if when it's polluted, just not sure if you can eat them though.

3: Captree State Park: Captree was a lengendary spot for crabbing when i first went there (maybe 5 years ago), blue claws were everywhere back then, it was an easy 50-60 per person within an hour and there used to have big stone crabs too. But today, captree is so empty comparing to what it used to have, if you still prefer captree, then go to the broadwalk where the boats are, you'd have much better luck there comparing the long broadwalk, or you can try the fishing pier past the boat launching ramp.

4: Field 10 Jones Beach: Field 10 was a decent spot for blue crabbing a few years ago, but i haven't been there for a long time, i heard there only has green crabs and spider crabs now, well don't take my words for it because i haven't been there in person recently.

5: Point Lookout fishing pier: If you're looking for green crabs for black fishing bait, point lookout is definitely the spot for it, the last time i went was 2 months ago with my crabbing cages, easy 100 decent size ones within 1 hour, but never saw any blue crabs at all. I heard if you get a rental boat from ted's or scotty's and drive it past the bridge, there has lots blue claws, but i never tried it because i was too busy fishing instead of crabbing, will give it a try next time and keep ya'll posted on this.

6: fishing pier in brooklyn: Geez, i forgot the name of that place, but i sure know how to get there, went there twice at night and saw tons of blue claw swimming on the top water, used my cage there but no luck at all, looked like the crabs never go down there and take the bait, but the ones who used the net were getting charming, the sizes were good too. but make sure your net is long enough since it's quite a distance from the rail to the water.

The above are all the places i can think of now, but i'm always looking for new places to try, if any of you guys want to know the details how to get to any of above spots, feel free to let me know. I'll be happy to share my spots and directions. oh well, good luck to all you crab hunters and will update more news when i get any. 

The Fishing Pier in Brooklyn... could you please specify where it's around like the area or like how to get there??