Re: Interesting day on the Choptank

tugcapt · September 10, 2009, 10:40:24 AM

The first one my wife pulled up last week you could spot a mile away, it was open, it didn't move when the male dropped it, like it were dead. The other one had slight red sign, but she was popin at the joints and thick in the fin. I had to get her and hold her while my wife put the big guy in the basket.
I have bought a basket of females before, late in the years from guys off the boat, after steaming them up, you would be suprised to see how many were peelers or close to being peelers after pulling off the shell to pick them.

Dreampixels · September 10, 2009, 10:45:54 AM

Quote from: tugcapt on September 10, 2009, 10:40:24 AM
The first one my wife pulled up last week you could spot a mile away, it was open, it didn't move when the male dropped it, like it were dead. The other one had slight red sign, but she was popin at the joints and thick in the fin. I had to get her and hold her while my wife put the big guy in the basket.
I have bought a basket of females before, late in the years from guys off the boat, after steaming them up, you would be suprised to see how many were peelers or close to being peelers after pulling off the shell to pick them.

So you are saying it is quite normal for you to find molting sooks? What area are you speaking about, high salinity?

tugcapt · September 10, 2009, 11:05:19 AM

Over the years, I have seen plenty of large peelers that included sooks. When they were going to put a limit on females, some state were even going to put a size limit on large female peelers, but didn't because there was no impact on the fishery because there was no market for large sook peelers except to picking houses. The better soft crabs are smaller. I'll see if I can find the article about it, I think it was on here a long time ago. It may have been Virgina or down south.
That's what I don't understand about not keeping females, late in the year. How many have already did there thing and will most likely not make it to next year anyway. With so many males being caught and the distance in the bay that the females have to travel to mate, they don't get to terminal until the mid to upper bay no matter how mature they are. < Thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Crabbyd · September 10, 2009, 11:11:15 AM

Quote from: tugcapt on September 10, 2009, 11:05:19 AM
Over the years, I have seen plenty of large peelers that included sooks. When they were going to put a limit on females, some state were even going to put a size limit on large female peelers, but didn't because there was no impact on the fishery because there was no market for large sook peelers except to picking houses. The better soft crabs are smaller. I'll see if I can find the article about it, I think it was on here a long time ago. It may have been Virgina or down south.
That's what I don't understand about not keeping females, late in the year. How many have already did there thing and will most likely not make it to next year anyway. With so many males being caught and the distance in the bay that the females have to travel to mate, they don't get to terminal until the mid to upper bay no matter how mature they are. < Thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Tug

When you refer to mid bay, what area does that cover? I am in the Pax and we almost always get at least a few peelers every day we are out there. Some days it could be as high as a few dozen peelers.

tugcapt · September 10, 2009, 11:29:54 AM

I am just saying in general. I call mid bay bay bridge to pt Lookout, thats just me. I crab around the south river mostly, but I also crabbed west, severn and Magothy over the years. This year I have seen a ton of females, also this is the most doublers I have ever caught that I can think of. When I wanted peelers in the past, I would seine them, or dip them, but this year they are coming up with males in the traps.

phillyfireman · January 18, 2010, 01:12:35 PM

This topic came from last year, but it still seems relevent. Given the large sooks to invade mid bay in august, I
for one would like to see how many of them(based on percentages) still have viable sperm stored, and what
would be the likelihood that they would spawn once more. Finding this out could give us a very important piece
of information. It would also let us know if we are harvesting to many jimmies.

JIMMYCRAB · January 19, 2010, 07:43:02 PM

I would believe that sooks you find mid bay in August are this years crabs, having just finished their terminal molt. It seems incredibly unnecessary for a post spawn, sea run sook to travel back up the bay. For What??? I believe most of them die post spawn anyway.

phillyfireman · January 19, 2010, 09:25:06 PM

A lot of these females are huge 6 1/2 plus, these females are probably from previous year class.

only saying, in dredging surveys they might be able to tell what percentage of females are capable of spawning.(when dredged from the southern part of the bay.) and this might give us an idea of how well the crabs are mating. the answers could tell us if there are enough jimmies to do the job or not. If not, then do we protect them around key full moons.

R D · January 20, 2010, 12:26:24 PM

Quote from: phillyfireman on January 19, 2010, 09:25:06 PM
A lot of these females are huge 6 1/2 plus, these females are probably from previous year class.

only saying, in dredging surveys they might be able to tell what percentage of females are capable of spawning.(when dredged from the southern part of the bay.) and this might give us an idea of how well the crabs are mating. the answers could tell us if there are enough jimmies to do the job or not. If not, then do we protect them around key full moons.

The size of them has nothing to do with when they made the termimal molt but more to do with where.