HOW WE DOING in 2024?- St Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach- my first quarter report...

[Jimmies and Sooks]

Well, It feels like the crappy crabbing bug has this South Florida this winter.
I have noticed a significant difference since January in my personal crabbing adventures.  Here are a few differences we've seen on the Treasure Coast:  
1. I've noticed considerably more rain than our typical dry winter.  
2. ITS BEEN COLD, much colder than usual and for longer.  
3. The Lake O discharge has really impacted the crabbing negatively in the St Lucie.  

Heck, I even tried changing my trap color to see if that would help. I switched to White Wire traps to see if that helped> I posted videos on Youtube showing the results, if curious.

-I'd love to know... HOW IS EVERYONE DOING in 2024?  Feel free to sound off on any success or shortcomings you've had thus far in 2024.

-- Personally, I went from catching over 40 crabs each trip to catching about 10-20 crabs per trip. I'm still finding the blues but the size has been small and the numbers are low. It has forced me to find new spots beyond the St Lucie river.  For reference, I use full-size commercial style crab pots from the Kayak, typically baited with chicken- 2-3 day soak.


Again, Feel free to check out JIMMIES AND SOOKS on YouTube to see how my winter has turned out. I post videos year-round!
If you enjoy my channel and if you want to, please Subscribe. HAPPY CRABBING and thanks for reading my long post

[SHELLFISH]

I haven't started yet but will soon. I have only seen a few crabbers out in my area and they haven't done too well.
I did get one report by the fishermen who know I am interested that one lady got 15 one day. Her next try a week later she only got two. She uses ring traps and occasionally castable folding traps

As far as trap color goes I prefer black. I use metal ring nets and if they start getting rusty I will spray them black.
When new sometimes they are bright silver probably to get you to think they are stainless. They are not!
These I get at Bass Pro when they have them and they usually don't!

In the shrimping reports here they say the water temp is 72F. Sounds about right.
I checked the water temp in the river in my area and got 86F. This was in the shallows at low tide but it seems too high!
In either case the water is warm enough!

[Jimmies and Sooks]

I haven't started yet but will soon. I have only seen a few crabbers out in my area and they haven't done too well.
I did get one report by the fishermen who know I am interested that one lady got 15 one day. Her next try a week later she only got two. She uses ring traps and occasionally castable folding traps

As far as trap color goes I prefer black. I use metal ring nets and if they start getting rusty I will spray them black.
When new sometimes they are bright silver probably to get you to think they are stainless. They are not!
These I get at Bass Pro when they have them and they usually don't!

In the shrimping reports here they say the water temp is 72F. Sounds about right.
I checked the water temp in the river in my area and got 86F. This was in the shallows at low tide but it seems too high!
In either case the water is warm enough!

Thanks Shellfish!! Looking forward to hearing about some of your adventures this season. Happy crabbing my friend.