Rappahannock River / Chesapeake Bay Area

[Steve]

Immediately prior to Hurricane Isabel's arrival, I threw the eight ( crabpots on my pier overboard (no bait) to ride out the storm. Went down to the river over the weekend to do some post-storm cleaning and pulled up the pots... to my surprise, each pot had 8 to 12 large jimmies inside! There were no crab carcasses/shells in the pots, so I'm not sure how they survived two weeks in the pots with no food. Pretty bizzare.

[Howard]

Steve:

Sounds like an episode for the "Twilight Zone" huh?

That is something.  I know you said there was no evidence of carcasses/shells etc. but was there any evidence that they were feeding on each other?  Like claws missing, etc? maybe they pulverized the shell after eating the meat and the tiny pieces of shell fell through your pots(??)

We are still nailing up here in the middle/upper part of the bay, but getting worried about this dose of cold weather, although the Ocean temp is still about 68 degrees.

Take care,

R/Howard

[Steve]

A few had missing claws, but nothing out of the ordinary.

One thing that I did notice -- the water was very cold.

When I pulled the pots, none of the crabs was moving. When I shook each pot to empty it, suddenly the crabs came to life and were very fiesty.

I'm thinking that the cold water put the crabs into a dormant state. After all, crabs can survive all winter buried in the cold mud without any food.

[swamphox]

A few years ago I went crabbing on a Sat. The following weekend I dragged my boat up to Deep Creek Lake. I did not put the boat in to the water until Monday. The weather the entire week prior to going to Deep Creek was HOT. The was no real rain to speak of the entire week. I was cleaning the well at the stern of the boat, removing beer cans and tree desbris, and a crab that was an escapee from the bushel basket was down in the well. This crab was full of life and trying to pinch the s out of my. This crab was in the boat for almost 9 full days. The plug was pulled and left out right after crabbing the week prior, so there was no water in the boat. I guess the shade at the transom an the well helped out a bit but..... No water no food and hot weather for 9 days... go figure.  

[Joe Crabs]

Did you reward him for his endurance or did you eat him?

[swamphox]

I set him free in deep creek lake he swam like a champ. One problem, Deep Creek is fresh water.....

[CUTTER]

LOL, well if im bass fishing and catch a crab, I know whats going on.