Pensacola Bay Information Wanted

[Roy]

I'm looking seriously at moving from Maryland to an area just NW of Pensacola Bay. I tow my boat over to the Wye River up here to go crabbing once a week all summer, can I do the same in Pensacola Bay. Does anyone have first hand knowledge of recreational blue crabbing in Pensacola Bay? Are certain areas better than others and do the areas closer to brackish water produce the larger crabs as up here?

[DocSmith]

Roy -

Did you make the move to P'Cola?

Doc

[Roy]

Thanks for asking, not yet; I have a real estate agent constantly looking for what I want though. I tentatively plan to go down for a week in mid to late April with the boat to do some exploratory crabbing, what do you think of that time period (should the bays have feeding crabs by then)?

[steveadams]

Good luck on the real estate, I just moved to Fort Walton Beach, wow, what a mind blower.... 100G's an acre...... Nice....... Note to self, buy the property in Western KY at 500 bucks an acre ASAP.....

[Roy]

I'm looking for real estate in the northern part of the Panhandle, 5 to 6Gs and acre, and I want at least 20 of them. [Sam Hill], land up here in Pasadena Maryland is going for over 150Gs an acre; hard to believe that I bought 1-1/4 acres 15 years ago for $30k.

Do me a favor and let me know when the crabs start running down there; I'm more interested in the upper bays than the Gulf.

Thanks,
Roy

[DocSmith]

Roy -

The commercial guys around here crab all year 'round - there is no season.  Most of the comm crabs are shipped up north. There is no crabbing in the gulf, all the crabs are in the bays, rivers, and streams.  Most folks use pots, very few use traps - I've never seen a trotline.  In fact, there is very little recreational crabbing around here ("You eat them things?") - I don't even ask why - more crabs for me!  But, everybody has a boat of some kind and there are plenty of launching ramps. The only true blue crab house I know of is in Niceville, a few miles up the road.  Land around here is VERY expensive - most of the pine tree farming interests (paper mills) are moving to housing development with thousands of acres under construction.  So, with little competition and a little local knowledge, you should do well catching all the crabs you want!  And, if all else fails, you can buy them fresh and live locally.

See you on the water!
Mike (Doc)

[Roy]

Thanks Doc,
When I was north of Pensacola this past November I saw several pine tracts belonging to the paper companies up for sale for housing. I can see where land in a developed area would be going up rapidly, pasture type land in the middle of nowhere is not going up nearly as rapidly, although it is going up. The fact that I'm looking for a good sized lot and intend to play General Contractor myself gives me a little more control than most have.

I was in central Florida for a week during February of 2000, an extremely cold winter. I had feelers out everywhere for places to go crabbing. That year the crabs went into the mud as far south as Tampa, that's why I've been asking if they will be around in April. When I walk into a tackle shop down there and ask about recreational crabbing, they look at me like I've got two heads. Yes, somebody does eat them thangs.

Roy

[steveadams]

Roy, the crabs will be out in April because they are out now. I found a great honey hole in FWB, been twice, had 15 keepers in an hour working 3 handlines and a dip net, had a total of 30 (went 2 days), didnt keep any under 5 inches and had one 8 and a few 7's in there. I am semi new to crabbing so I dont know if they go to the mud here but I suspect so as the bigger ones had some mud on them like they just came out. If you count the little ones I threw back I caught around 50 total for both days but only kept the bigger ones and only kept 2 or 3 females.

Doc, I checked out the crab house, good food but pricey. Pretty neat little place though, cool pics inside. That little bayou where Turkey Creek comes in looks promising..... Question about crab traps, seen em for sale but dont see anything in the regs about em, can we use em?

[Roy]

Traps are legal in Florida, I have a letter from the Florida Marine Fisheries attesting to that fact. I questioned whether or not I could use 30 collapseable traps like I do in Maryland, their regs don't address the issue. After doing some research they came back and said yes, they are legal and there is no set limit on them. A local guy may cite you for fishing more gear than you can effectively use at some point, that's it.

If you would like a copy of my email from Florida Marine Fisheries, I'll send it directly to your email, I don't particularly want to put it out in the open.

R

[steveadams]

I wouldnt use any more than 5, rules stated below......

Blue Crab Limits

 No Females With Eggs   
 No Size Limit   
 10 Gallons of Whole Blue Crabs Per Person, Per Day   
     

Blue Crab Allowable Harvesting Gear

Maximum of 5 blue crab traps per person as described in the summary of blue crab trapping rules below
dip or landing net
drop net
fold up trap with a square base panel no larger than one foot square
hook and line
push scrape
trotline
Blue Crab Trapping Rules

Five trap maximum per person
Buoy must have a legible “R” at least two inches high, permanently affixed to it. Buoys are not required if trap is fished from a dock.
Trap shall have harvesters name and address permanently affixed to it in legible letters.
Traps must be pulled manually (not by a trap puller). Any vessel that is rigged with a trap puller will be considered a commercial vessel and the appropriate licenses will be required.
Traps must be pulled only during daylight hours.
Traps must not be placed in navigational channels of the intracoastal waterways, or in navigational channels maintained and marked by any county, municipal, state or federal governmental agency.
No harvest allowed with any trap out of state waters (seaward of nine nautical miles from shore on the Gulf of Mexico or seaward of three nautical miles from shore on the Atlantic Ocean).
A Florida recreational fishing license is required to harvest blue crabs under the recreational fishing regulations.
Blue crab trap specifications are the same for recreational and commercial harvesters. Trap specifications may be found in Rule 68B-45.004, Florida Administrative Code.
Blue Crab Conservation Note

Female blue crabs may be harvested lawfully if they are not bearing eggs. Although it is lawful to keep non-egg bearing female blue crabs, it is a conservation practice to release them unharmed. There has been evidence that the females support the population of the species. Male crabs are capable of mating several times, but females are only able to mate once, after they mature. If a juvenile female is harvested, there will be no chance that she will be able to reproduce. Additionally, mature females may store sperm in their bodies for several months after mating in order to spawn at a later date. If a mature female is harvested, though she may not exhibit eggs, there is no certainty that she has spawned. Releasing female blue crabs enhances reproductive capacity and population renewal. 

[Roy]

The regulation is a little confusing, the 5 traps that they are referring to is what we call pots, the big 2 foot square with rebar weight rigs; that is what is described in the verbiage below. The allowable gear of fold up crab traps with max. 1 foot square base are not included in the 5. The confusion is the reason why I sent the question to FMFS for a ruling. They agree with my assessment.

Roy

[steveadams]

Ahhhh, ok, I was only using 3 hand lines this weekend and it was all I could do to keep up with those 3. I would pull one, get me a crab and then throw it back out, then immeadiatly have to go to the next one and so on, I can only imagine having unlimited. I was already looking foolish enough with my hands full.

[Roy]

One advantage to the traps (any time I refer to traps, it's the fold up variety) is that a large crab usually has time to displace a smaller one. In the wet world, might makes right; big males will push smaller males and females off of food, they only get to eat what the big males leave behind. With hand lines, as soon as it starts to move, you go after the crab which is eating the bait, oftentimes a small one. Trotliners have a similar problem with catching a fair amount of throwbacks, although with that many baits they usually catch the big crab also.

R

[steveadams]

I am tracking with ya Roy, there were oftentimes where I would get a tug only to be a small little guy, I also saw a big dude come in and chase away a small one as I was pulling it in, big guy ended up in my bucket..... Small guy lives another day, makes ya wonder who really got the short end of the stick there. I will try leavin my lines out longer in the future and see how that pans out. I will eventually have to get the boat out and lay some traps but right now the honey hole is saving me mucho gas dollars (only 2 miles from my house and off the shore)

[Crabcruncher]

Roy

I was originally told I could use as many collapsible traps as I wanted. That was last year. Now it seems there has been a coupe de gras in the Marine fisheries dept. and all the sensible ones have been ousted by the Zealots, a kind of microcosm of our present society. So now they say we are allowed five traps max of any style. I am looked on as a poacher of the Kings crabs.
I am going to go to a trotline, but they have a catch22 rule about "tending" that will be interpreted by the officer on scene. Will update on outcome of trotline, one way or another, hopefully the jail cell has a wireless connection.

CC

[Islander]

Good Luck CC!! 

[Crabcruncher]

PS:
If there are any Lawyers out there who can interpret Florida regs, please see if I have a case or not. Specifically Rule 68B-45.004 of the florida administrative code.  Its a dilly.

CC

[mike2u]

Yes I read it.. and it says absoluty nothing about the topless traps... and they do collapse,, right into each other... It doesn't even state how you can put out,,, The 5 traps it's talking about is the [curd] pots,,, If I were you I would go to the Marine Fisheries and show them the traps and then have them put it in writing if there Illegal or not.. Looks like to me,,, that It all depends on the officer that stops you..