Navesink 7-28 in a Canoe

[crabsindumont]

My son and I got adventurous and tried to jug with our 13-foot canoe in the Navesink yesterday, out of Chris Marina.  Got out on the water around 6:45 a.m., so the tide (outgoing) was not in our favor.

also not in our favor was the cluster "f" of traps that we were equipped with.  A couple of two-door, two flimsy 4-doors and two star traps.  I'll be making an online order of a bunch of those Captain Moose stackable topless traps in the next day or two. 

And we also had our crab pot and a fishing pole onboard as well, as if it wasn't crowded enough.  I was going to ask my son if he could swim alongside the boat, but thought that woudn't sit well with the Mrs. Maybe next time.   

We actually did okay, considering the tide and that it was our first time jugging, and only the second time I took the canoe out crabbing.  We pulled in about 60 crabs overall ... unfortunately about 40 of them were juvvies.  Some them where at 4.5 or just a little larger, so those went back into the river as well.

Handlining from a canoe is difficult (many times, the line gets pulled up right next to the boat) so I tied on a bait holding to an old fishing rod and tried that out as well.  We cast three times, and netted one.  It was around noon at the time and looked like a storm was blowing in, so we just wanted to see how it worked.  Big thing is getting used to the feel of crabs while reeling, as opposed to doing do by hand.  But it definitely was easier netting 1-2 feet away from the boat thanks to the rod length. 

Crabbed from roughly 7 a.m. to noon and finished with 18 crabs.  Came home, made some crab cakes for a crab cake sandwich dinner...

[tattoo]

Nice report ,thanks.

[CODMAN]

 Very nice report,sounds like you had a good time.

[crabsindumont]

Very nice report,sounds like you had a good time.

yes, we had a good time... but i'm a little sore today.  it's about four hours of paddling with breaks for pulling and fixing traps.

[aciffer]

Is Capt Moose still around?  I tried to find his website but no luck.  I bought a couple of wire mesh scoops from him last year..

[Swingo]

Saw you guys there.  Chris's is not a place to launch from when the tide's low!

[crabsindumont]

Is Capt Moose still around?  I tried to find his website but no luck.  I bought a couple of wire mesh scoops from him last year..

Here's the website address that I'm going to use... http://www.captmoose.com/

people on this forum has given those traps very good reviews. 

[biggamejay]

I made this for my kayak to specificly pull droplines. Its basicly a prop stick design like many you see in this fourm. It allows me to deploy multiple droplines w floats attached and pull them keeping the bait far enough away from the hull to be able to net the crabs with out the fear of tipping due to leaning over the side too much. Works great. Should work just as well from your canoe.

[Zee Man]

Nice job crabsindumont!! I was wondering if you had any room in that canoe for a small fridge and a George Foreman Grill 

[crabsindumont]

I made this for my kayak to specificly pull droplines. Its basicly a prop stick design like many you see in this fourm. It allows me to deploy multiple droplines w floats attached and pull them keeping the bait far enough away from the hull to be able to net the crabs with out the fear of tipping due to leaning over the side too much. Works great. Should work just as well from your canoe.

BigGameJay: that looks like a nice setup... I'm going to try to create a similar set-up that is rigged up to the side/ledge of the canoe.  Or maybe I can secure the set-up to the bottom of my seat.