My Obseravtions

[Dreampixels]

From memory

It seems each year once the water warms enough to make the crab active things turn on like wild fire for as short period of time and then seem to dye of for a time. The Termed Crabbed out become very popular over this slow period of time.

During the first HOT Early times many nice crabs are reported caught and the female crab infestation seems to be low. Tiny crabs even seem to be of a low relative count.

Thinking about this it leads me to an idea which may or may not hold water but it does seem to hold answer to some of the Early Season Catch Parameters.

Since the Female Crab returns to high salinity water each year for spawning I would expect a lower female population in the Early Season. Now much of this idea is related to the mid and upper bay areas where lower salinity exist.

Along with this I would also expect a lack of Tiny Crabs during the early part of the season since their birth is also in High Salinity Waters.

Which brings us to the Male crab. Male Crabs are known to prefer water of less salinity and also to dig in and become more dormant when the water cools down below their activity temperatures.

We all know there is not a male crab run like there is with the females. To me this means the males find a suitable spot to winter that is not all that far from where they spent their summer months.

Every year just before the 4th of July there seems to be a slow down on the crab catch. Then a few weeks later things appear to pick up but the quality and size of the crab never seem to match that of the early season in general. Also at this time Tiny Crab and the Female population both begin to pick up.

In fall those packed tasty Crabs begin to make another showing as the females begin to make their run south again.

So in the Early Season you are catching the Wintering Resident crabs as the water warms, when the Tiny and Female population begins increasing you are seeing the upward bay migration of NEW crabs moving into the area which appears to just after the 4th of July with normal weather patterns.

This year I would expect things to 2 to 3 weeks earlier because of the water warming earlier.

So yes I do believe the Rivers get Crabbed out until the return of the New Brood.

With the reported crab survey I would expect 2012's Early Season to be a banner one unless some type of weather or mishap where to play out. The condition of the harbor area is an example of this. Should it stay in the condition it has been in I would expect new sea life will not move in. That which is there will move out or die trying.

Just one persons observation of his memory. Please feel invited to post yours.

Dp

[Grizzly36]

I'm not working of memory just the things I read (reports and crab behavior) but this seems like pretty good reasoning to me.

[Big Liar]

One more item that you did not mention, but I believe holds true of the slow down that we are having right now.  There are still quantities of large male crabs in the river right now.  One of the reasons you are not catching them is because you have a very large influx of small females ready to mate coming up the rivers right now.  We saw a big increase in doublers this past weekend.  Most big males don't eat as much or hold on to a trotline when doubled up.  (Just imagine a huge highschool with nothing but lots of senior boys in it.  Then you introduce tons of horny freshmen girls loose in the hall ways)   The males are too busy to eat.  The only males that are eating are the big males that are too poor/light to mate.  That is why you are seeing a increase in big light crabs.  They are trying to get fat so they can mate.   

[cja313]

Also seems to be more people out on the water crabbing than last year... In my river anyways.   couple that with X amount of crabs and people crabbing hard the last 6 weeks, theres a lot less crabs in the water.  Just have to wait till they migrate back...