02-22 lake pontchartrain

[IGOTCRABS,LLC]

well, i was told to expect about a crab per trap and i only wish i would have seen that. about 60% of the traps were empty. two traps actually had three crabs and surprisingly, one of those had three number 1's. there was a lot of mud in the traps. i am one of the few that pull by hand and it was quite difficult since i sprained my hand yesterday pushing my daughter on her tire swing.. well, totals were 17lbs of number 1's and 6lbs of number 2's. sold the number ones and kept the number 2's for dinner.. will be back at it next week hoping the numbers get better..

[Night Wing]

Thanks for posting the photos along with your report. I still think the water temperature is just a little too cool for good crabbing.

Water temperature where I crab is up to 61 degrees.

We have another cold front coming sometime Friday.

[KI Crabber]

More than I've caught this year!

[crabbywaters]

Great pics.. Those crabs look really fat. Do you see more heavy crabs this time of year?

[tattoo]

Nice pictures WTG.

[capt. ron]

I know it was tough picking up trap after trap with zeros.  Did you see any little crabs?  Hope it gets better.

Ronnie

[IGOTCRABS,LLC]

the water temp is in the lower 60's but that is still cold. i'm glad i went yesterday b/c today is freaky windy. yesterday went from flat calm to white caps. good thing for me was that the wind was from the SW. another thing, with the cold water temps, the bait from the six day set was almost still whole. i ended up just cutting the pogies in half and didn't have to use near the amount of bait i thought i would need. more people are putting traps out. saw at least three fishermen putting traps out yesterday. i also noticed another line crossing mine. i have a few obligations with work over the next few weeks but after that, i'm going to look at putting out a few more traps.

ron, it was quite disheartening raising trap after trap without a crab and as far as little ones, there weren't as many as i expected after reading your reports. there were some, but not many. i ended up keeping 34 small crabs for an Ash Wendesday boil for the family and they were full up with sweet meat. also, there were some shedder's in the mix. not the real nice red liners but i'd say about 10 between white line and pink. i didn't give them much thought because i'm not ready to get my tanks running yet. i'm getting my shrimping license this year and i'll be doing some of that too. i haven't pulled trawls in over 20 years so this is going to be fun to get back into.   

[capt. ron]

The little crabs are there.  They just fell out while you were raising the traps.  What you caught was almose the same as I did my first run.  Next week you'll do a little better, not much but a little better.  It's tough using your energy pulling line with nothing in the trap.  Hang in there.

Ronnie

If ya need any help just yell.

[Swimmerl Crabber]

It is always good to go crabbing for me, even if I do no catch many. I work day job so that I can crab on vacations or weekends.

I will start next week in coast bend area of texas, corpus christi bay.

I pulled all 100 traps out by January with only 15 crabs out of last 40 traps.

Do you guys get stone crab claws there at the lake?

[capt. ron]

No only blue crab.  Along the gulf coast and inland about a mile or so do we catch stone crabs.

[Swimmerl Crabber]

Thanks.

Do you also run trot line for drum?

I also go a license to run trot line.

I get hardhead catfish from trot line for crab traps. I used fresh dead crabs or cooked crabs for trot line. I do this part time.

[capt. ron]

No don't have time for that.  I buy my catfish heads for $12 a flat (60 lbs).  Sometimes I use pogies; depends on the water temperature.and how good they're biting.

Ronnie