Blue Crabs S. Florida 2-20-2010 4th try

[saltysandman]

arrrgh, keeps saying i'm duplicating but i don't see the msg in the forum so I hope this isn't a duplicate msg again. had some trouble d/l photos as they were to big. if it is, sorry about that. 

hey all, went out crabbing yesterday morning. weather was perfect. uppers 60's to mid 70's, gentle breeze and partly cloudy. went to the only place that i know, my friend's dock on the inter-coastal in deerfield beach. started 3 hours before high tide on incoming tide (seems best). caught 2 right away and thought wow! today is going to be great! didn't catch anymore for the next 1.5 hours. As the current started to move around 11am, we started to get some action. was consistent for next hour. used 5 handlines with chicken legs. caught 15 total. a couple decent ones. all fiesty! must be the warm water. mean SOBs.  broke the handle of my dip net and had to jimmy-rig it with some fishing line. turned out to be lucky.  i can not tell if any of them were peelers. they all seemed to have reddish swimming fins. one, when i was cleaning it had either shed not long ago or was going to pretty soon as its shell was paper thin. not soft but definitely thin. today they are on the menu! gonna deep fry em!

here are some pics!

[saltysandman]

finally! it worked. wow, i really had to reduce the pictures (5% of original resolution). 

[German82407]

nice catch, nice pics, want some snow to go along w/ your 60-70 degree weather?   

[tattoo]

Nice catch , Thanks for the pictures. 

[Mikie]

A "papershell" has just finished sloughing recently - the shell hasn't had time to harden sufficiently and the crab hasn't filled out. Peelers don't have soft shells, don't know where you got that info.

[saltysandman]

ahhh so the jimmy already shed. Yeah i know peelers don't have soft shells. I was just saying that I can't recognize peelers yet. I guess none of them were peelers. This makes sense since I didn't think I had caught any peelers.

[Crabcruncher]

Heres one of my doubler photos, the peelers underneath.

Cc

[Crabcruncher]

a little closer view

[tattoo]

SWEET. 

[Crabcruncher]

This one was posted by Haystack

[Crab A Lot]

      CRAB"S......I've haven't seen a crab for 6 months all I see when I look out the window is SNOW and more SNOW, but the temp was 50 today so it's starting to melt.

I had so much snow on my boat cover it tore it in two!

[Potty Mouth]

guys, first off, nice pics... glad to see people are crabbing, wish we could... my neck of the woods/bay, we got hardcore crabbers and we're not looking at being able to catch a significant amount of crabs for a good few months...

peeler topic, the swim fin being red that you mentioned, there's actually a line on the swim fin that's a tell tale.  The whole fin won't really change color though.  As a crab get full and approach being peeler, a line around the bottom of that fin, turns from white to pink to red as the peelers get more and more "ripe."  If they are "red sign" peelers, they are ready to go and you may even see a crack where the apron meets the carapace (top shell) of the crab.  That's a peeler when you have that crack opened up... he or she is ready to peel...  won't be long after that until you have a soft shell crab (good eats ).  So, whatever, peelers are sold for bait and kept for shedding/sloughing into softies... this site will teach you a lot if you search up and read about crab stuff...  it's cool, just sayin'..... 

[jiakai_ln]

arrrgh, keeps saying i'm duplicating but i don't see the msg in the forum so I hope this isn't a duplicate msg again. had some trouble d/l photos as they were to big. if it is, sorry about that. 

hey all, went out crabbing yesterday morning. weather was perfect. uppers 60's to mid 70's, gentle breeze and partly cloudy. went to the only place that i know, my friend's dock on the inter-coastal in deerfield beach. started 3 hours before high tide on incoming tide (seems best). caught 2 right away and thought wow! today is going to be great! didn't catch anymore for the next 1.5 hours. As the current started to move around 11am, we started to get some action. was consistent for next hour. used 5 handlines with chicken legs. caught 15 total. a couple decent ones. all fiesty! must be the warm water. mean SOBs.  broke the handle of my dip net and had to jimmy-rig it with some fishing line. turned out to be lucky.  i can not tell if any of them were peelers. they all seemed to have reddish swimming fins. one, when i was cleaning it had either shed not long ago or was going to pretty soon as its shell was paper thin. not soft but definitely thin. today they are on the menu! gonna deep fry em!

here are some pics!

nice catch!
glade ur catching somethin
im 1 1/2 hours away
havent seen or caught a crab in 2 month

[saltysandman]

aye, fortunate to have crab-able weather all year round. after reading all the resources i want to build shedding tanks on my buddy's property. i don't think he'll go for it though. i should just build it and when he comes by the next time he'll just go....  . then i'll tell him he's a partner and has to pay for half of the set-up! 

do any of you guys are CAN any of you guys when time comes, take some pictures of the peelers swimming fins illustrating the white line?? till then, i'm going to just put the female doubler in my fish tank and see what happens.

[jack1747]

aye, fortunate to have crab-able weather all year round. after reading all the resources i want to build shedding tanks on my buddy's property. i don't think he'll go for it though. i should just build it and when he comes by the next time he'll just go....  . then i'll tell him he's a partner and has to pay for half of the set-up! 

do any of you guys are CAN any of you guys when time comes, take some pictures of the peelers swimming fins illustrating the white line?? till then, i'm going to just put the female doubler in my fish tank and see what happens.

http://www.bluecrab.info/redsign.htm

[saltysandman]

come on Jack. give me a little credit! i saw that picture last week. wanted to see if anyone had anymore examples. 

[jefftoleft]

You should talk RD into buying a waterproof webcam and putting it in his tanks. Then you could watch the whole process happen live!!!

[irl]

crabcruncher,
Whats with the pink fly swatter?

[Potty Mouth]

flies sure seem to like raw chicken, fishermen, boats and crabs... I'm a firm believer in that     when crabbing sucks, some days more flies on the boat then crabs....

[Crabcruncher]

crabcruncher,
Whats with the pink fly swatter?

We like our pastels here in Florida, doesnt clash when smashing yellow flies.

[jack1747]

Or the pink plastic flamingos on the front lawn.....

[mdjohn]

Or the pink plastic flamingos on the front lawn.....

not many left, since the pink plastic plague killed most of them 

[tattoo]