Wye River 11/7/24 - "CELEBRATION" crab trip

[Wallco99]

Start: 7:10
Water temp: 61.6
Wind Speed: NW @ 2 MPH
Key Depth: 15'-17' (At our final stop)
Gear: 1200' trotline w/ CN, 17 Perfectionist rings w/CN
Finish: 12:40


66 degrees @ 5:00 AM, a high of 76 during the day with lots of sun and minimal wind, you could not ask for a better day. Wait a minute, I stand corrected, I had the BEST possible day I could have on Tuesday when I got those election results, so I guess this would be a close second instead. I figured with the colder water temps I would move a little further down river, and perhaps a little deeper. I was surprised to see the water temp almost 3 degrees warmer this week than it was last week, but we still boated down to our late season spot, for the first time this year. We laid our line in an area that started at 14', ran as deep as 24', then back down to 18'. Totally different than what we have been doing all year. We laid our traps in depths of 10'-20', in two locations. Something had to hit here. WRONG!!! After 2+ hours, and 12 runs of either lines or traps, we only had 7 crabs. One was enormous, and the rest were just average. Decided to wrap it up, and move back upriver to where we had been doing great all year, including last week. We re-laid in water at 14'-18' depth, and set traps parallel to line on both sides. Again, hardly anything. After another 1 hour and 20 min., we had only added another 8 crabs to our total. That's 15 in 3.5 hours. My crabbing partner was leaving for vacation today, so he wanted to get home at a reasonable hour last night, and we had a long commute home to figure in as well. We decided to try one more spot, and either hit or miss, we would wrap up at 12:30. We shot down river, past our original spot, to another cove that has produced for me in previous years. We deployed line in 12'-20', and set traps nearby. We started running immediately, since we were short on time. BAM. 12 crabs on first run of line. Only one was giant, the rest decent but not big. All of them were black and heavy though. First run of traps, 0 crabs. Slightly deflating. Similar results on next run. 8 on line, one in traps. So traps were packed up, and we finished the day "line only". The runs slowed down to 3-5 crabs per run, then eventually 1-2. Because my buddy was going away, he didn't need any crabs this week, so we didn't need as many as we usually did, which happened to work in our favor in the end. We weren't able to fill the basket this week, but we still managed to get 58 very heavy, black mudders, with 7 of them being very very nice size. I was extremely happy with our final results, especially with how the first few hours of the day went, and all the work we had to put in to finally find them. That actually is the fun part though, finding the bastards when they're scarce.  It was also one of those "Thank God we have a winder" days. Otherwise, we would have only had about 15-20, and never would have hunted them down. We can't go next week since my first mate is away, but I may make one last trip to Eastern Bay in two weeks to give that area a shot. We were one of only TWO boats on the entire river yesterday, on the most beautiful November day I can ever remember. That was awesome in itself. Only three crabs total were caught in traps all day, the rest were all hauled in on the line. And "YES", there were lots of dropoffs, but that's to be expected in late fall.  Chuck said no one was really bringing in more than a dozen or so lately, so we felt pretty good about our numbers.
       
Some of the crabs getting ready for the first cook in photo #1. And at one point, we were netting more leaves than crabs (photo #2). A pretty cool "Fall" crabbing photo I thought.

[Logical1]

Congratulations on your catch Rick. You have proven once again why I say " it's hard to beat the knowledge of someone who has years of experience working a particular area".

[DEB crabber]

Sounds like a great day on the water. If this weather holds the eastern bay should be a good area for a few weeks yet 

[discover]

I think two victorious days were had by you. haha. Congrats on another fun fall trip. 

[Wahoo]

Congrats are in order!  Nice work...

[Tins-]

nice work 

[Harford Crabber]

Beautiful pile of crabs!  Shame you ruined em cleaning before cooking!!!















Just kiddin....  Did I rile ya up?   I know that's the way you like em.  

[NOREAST]

What a season you had Rick, the last two trips you had, you busted your tail to put a good catch together. But for most of the season you smoked them. This had to be one of the best seasons you have had in a long time. What I want to know is many years have you been crabbing on the Wye? You know this place like the back of your hand. Congratulations on a banner season my friend.

[Wallco99]

Beautiful pile of crabs!  Shame you ruined em cleaning before cooking!!!
Just kiddin....  Did I rile ya up?  I know that's the way you like em. 

 LOL. No, I've heard a lot worse. But they are stellar this way though.

[Wallco99]

What a season you had Rick, the last two trips you had, you busted your tail to put a good catch together. But for most of the season you smoked them. This had to be one of the best seasons you have had in a long time. What I want to know is many years have you been crabbing on the Wye? You know this place like the back of your hand. Congratulations on a banner season my friend.

28 years on that river. I love that whole area. I just wish it was a little more productive in June and early July, but I have my go to rivers for that period too.

[Crabslayer]

Beautiful pile of crabs!  Shame you ruined em cleaning before cooking!!!















Just kiddin....  Did I rile ya up?  I know that's the way you like em. 

That is a mortal sin for sure!

[SHELLFISH]

Super late season report!

[Mutzy crab man]

Way to go brother...