Holden Beach Crabbing April 21-22

[LKNGreg]

Appreciate the insights.   Using 5 pots with a commercial gear license.   Rented a home on Charlotte St in Holden beach and took our 15 foot jon boat.   Set pots at around 6 pm on Wed and threw one smaller pot off dock on Lagoon.  

5 posts spread out around intercoastal waterway - i have never seen so many spots in a small space before.  typically crab in currituck sound but this is nothing like that.   Set pots at high tide and could not find any oyster beds (tried saxon).  

Pulled pots at 10 am.  

The bad  - two post were were in too shallow water and yielded nothing.  

The good - 3 other pots had 10 keepers and about 12 smaller crabs.  Including one 7 inch crab.  Dock pot had two and one keeper.    

Loaded all morning crabs in smaller dock pot and closed off escapes, we call this the crabby condo to keep them alive. 

Reset pots.  Let them soak a shorter amount of time since we wanted crab for dinner, first  4 pots yielded three keepers.  A bit disappointed 5th pot was jackpot 7 keepers, best pot i have ever pulled.  

22 crabs for dinner wow, lot of work in the cold but happy happy.   Pics attached.

Pots currently soaking hoping for similar results tomorrow.  Heavy rain and wind on Saturday fingers cross for better weather.  

Best,

Greg

[saxon4646]

Way to get em Greg !- I know down south they do have quite a bit of a tide - I'm guessing due to lack of sound area- mainly the ICW and creeks/ river.  Be safe out there and hope you get on them again before you head back.

[seabass]

Awesome, nice report. Those crabs look full, packed with meat. Way to go!



Greg

[tattoo]

nice catch and report

[LKNGreg]

Weekend ended a little slower for the crabs, had 11 keepers on the Friday morning haul after a 24 hour soak, and 10 keepers on the Saturday morning run.   Had about the same number of small crabs.  Caught 8+ stone crabs but none had a regulation claw.  Also caught a spider crab that was a PITA to get out of the pot. 

Same pot delivered the best results for the four day weekend, it was just east of the canal we stayed at on the ICW.  Put pots about 75 yards away from it and neither did as well.  Fortunately got a feel for the tides and all pots looked like they stayed well submerged.   

20+ mph winds and T storms were forecasted for Saturday afternoon and pulled the jon boat before noon.   Storms did not happen but to keep the better half happy pulled boat 

The attached pic does not do it justice but was surprised to see pots all along the corridor of the ICW.  Commercial and recreational pots lined the intercoastal.    Made a huge pile of picked meat on Saturday evening.  Hope to get back to the coast soon.  Look forward to see more NC reports as the weather gets better.   

Best,
Greg

[saxon4646]

Way to stay after em Greg. Its funny how one pot will completely blow away the other pots as far as how many crabs it catches. I can catch 5-6 keepers in a pot and then the next 3 days - never catch another keeper out of it. Strange but always exciting. Places I have done well the past 6-7 years don't seem to produce for me anymore either- cannot figure that out.  Glad to hear you got some and VERY GLAD to see someone else post on here. I'm headed back out Wednesday to Topsail- forecast calls for windy but is going anyway.

[LKNGreg]

Saxon,

Good luck!  Be safe, look forward to hearing how you do. 

Best,
GS