i feel stupid asking this, but......

[chickweed]

I grew up on the north shore on Long Island (smithtown) and rarely went to the south shore. I spent the summers clamming and fishing in the Sound.  When I got married we lived in Copiague on the south shore and the Great South Bay was down the block. (I am embarrased to admit I never really thought about the south shore and how it worked because I was content w/ the north shore)
any way , the other day I asked some guy fishing off the dock at Cedar Beach (North shore) why no one was crabbing. He looked at me like I was an idiot, and laughingly replied, "there are no Blue claws on the NORTH shore) He may as well have said "you are a f*cking idiot"; and boy did I feel like one.

Well, why are there no blue claws in the sound? I am sure I remember being bitten by one as a kid while clamming. Since then I just assumed they were in all the waters surrounding Long Island.

[vdubgrub]

I also heard that there are no crabs on the north shore as wel. I just assumed its because they would have to go around LI from the ocean side (south shore). But dont feel stupid, I would have thought the same thing. 

Im going crabbing at captree state park this weekend in LI.

[tgreddy]

Well...I'm pretty sure there are blue crabs on the North shore.  They just aren't plentiful.  There have to be blue crabs in the sound because the sound shares water with the East River and I know there are blue crabs in the East River because I've caught them there. 

VDUBGRUB,

Let us know how captree is this weekend.  Was there two weeks ago...lots of gigantic pregnant females!

[SHELLFISH]

Never looked for crabs on the north shore of Long Island but they are there! They are on the CT shore so they have got to be there. I would think that the sound would be deep enough forthe crabs to spend the winter. This does not seem to be the case though. Evidently the crabs spend their winters in the ocean and move up first to the south shore then move east and west around the ends and first appear on the north shore at the east and west ends. Evidently swimming across the Sound to CT they appear at the east and west ends of CT until finally appearing in my area of Norwalk CT. They just got here today! If you check the chronology of posts for crabbing reports, northeast section, you can follow their path! Let me know what you all think. Thanks

[pwaser]

Hi,
I crab in the Hudson near Kingston.  Where do the crabs go in the winter?  When will the crabbing end for the season.  I would love to know what you think.

Thanks,Paul

[SHELLFISH]

They should be leaving about now if they haven't left already. With the cooler weather pushing in it drops the water temp and cues the Blue Crab to move south. Where do they go? That's the question. I think back to the ocean. A Crab has been known to swim 35 miles in 48 hours!

[pwaser]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.  I think the life cycle of crabs is fascinating.  Tomorrow I am traveling to Hatterras Island for a week.  I hope to catch up with some of them.  regards, Paul

[Felinis]

Adult crabs winter by burying themselves in the mud, at least they do here in Maryland.
If the body of water freezes clear to the bottom, or if the winter bottom temperature goes below freezing, then they would have to migrate South.

[DoOver]

I know this is an old post but, I grow up in  Northport LI. We use to swim at Crabmeadow Beach. There was times of the year when we couldn't go in the water for all the crabs.
When I got older I would dig bass worms in the river and set out a killie pot.
The next day the pot would be over run with crabs. I'm not sure about now,
Crabmeadow is probubly fill in and has  $30 million houses there.
You couldn't get me to live on LI for all the tea in China.