MD Crabber heading to VA?

[jeremyhunter]

Do i need to get a license to crab in va just for the day if i trailer down there and use a 300'' line and 30 pots whats the rules down there?

[Fishbonzs]

This should help...

http://www.mrc.state.va.us/regulations/recfish&crabrules.shtm

[jack1747]

Do i need to get a license to crab in va just for the day if i trailer down there and use a 300'' line and 30 pots whats the rules down there?

You need a license to use the 300' trotline.  If you mean 30 traps, traps are considered handlines.  You can use as many as you want. Don't need a license to use collapsable traps.

[Fishbonzs]

Key word...Pots or traps...

[antman]

You need a license to use the 300' trotline.  If you mean 30 traps, traps are considered handlines.  You can use as many as you want. Don't need a license to use collapsable traps.

That's interesting

You have to pay $10 to be able to use 300' of trotline but you don't have any additional fees if you wanted to run 200 collapsible traps

[jeremyhunter]

I have a bad habit of calling traps pots....my bad, but i think ill just cut one of my 600 footers buy the 10 dollar stamp and take 30 Traps down. spend a weekend and see how it goes

[Maypo]

My Brother and I are in a similar situation.  We plan to go to the Rappahannock River from August 1-8.

We plan to use (30) 12” Square Topless Traps.  Am I interpreting Virginia State law correctly with the following assumptions:

(30) 12” Square Topless Traps
No License Required
No Special Buoys Marking Requirements
(1) Bushel Per Person on Boat (2) Total
5” Min Male Hard Crabs
Mature Females Allowed
24/7 Permissible

I was also curious about the 300’ Trotline License.  Is it 24/7 as well?


Thanks in advance,
     Steve

[jack1747]

That's interesting

You have to pay $10 to be able to use 300' of trotline but you don't have any additional fees if you wanted to run 200 collapsible traps

Yup. 10 bucks for a trotline.  Limited to 300'.   You can run as many collapsible traps as you want... 

[Tom Powers]

My Brother and I are in a similar situation.  We plan to go to the Rappahannock River from August 1-8.

We plan to use (30) 12” Square Topless Traps.  Am I interpreting Virginia State law correctly with the following assumptions:

(30) 12” Square Topless Traps
No License Required
No Special Buoys Marking Requirements
(1) Bushel Per Person on Boat (2) Total
5” Min Male Hard Crabs
Mature Females Allowed
24/7 Permissible

I was also curious about the 300’ Trotline License.  Is it 24/7 as well?

Thanks in advance,
     Steve

Let's see. . . 30, 50, 100 topless traps are OK. . . no license for them . . . no limit on the number of traps.

24/7 recreational crabbing allowed EXCEPT if you are using a 5-pot recreational license.  With the 5-pot recreational license there is no working the pots on Sunday.

I don't know about the buoys if they were on crab pots then you would have to have them marked with an R and the last four digits of your SS number.  You do need to mark the buoys on your  trot line in this manner.

Possession limit if you don't have any licenses on the vessel is 1 Bu or 24 peeler crabs per vessel.

IF you have licensed crabbers on the vessel then each is allowed 1 bu or 24 peeler crabs.  In such a case one of those Bu of crabs is the above vessel limit, i.e one licensed crabber and six unlicensed crabber on the vessel is still a 1 bu vessel limit.  

No minimum size limit on mature female crabs.

Dark sponge crab restrictions until July 1.

One last thing.  If you do have licensed crabbing gear then you have mandatory reporting.

[tattoo]

as Jack would tell you , there are NO crabs in Va.