Ice cover of the Southcoast Rivers

[masspi]

I know there are some of you who could care less with Winter.  Long time observers will note that ice covering (even though it does not last long) has covered more area than in the past two years.  I have found that years with open water tend to diminish the harvest in the Spring and Summer.  Based on what I am seeing this year I have some slightly optimistic feelings that we will do a little bit better than last year.  Our friends in Connecticut had a bumper year...something that has not been seen in quite a while, (Just ask Shellfish Jim).  I was even surprised that Rhode Island did pretty good.

Keep watch and let the rest of us know how you feel.  My experience says.....More ice = More Crabs

Enjoy the rest of the Winter by keeping warm.  We had at least 28 inches of the white stuff the other day and morning temperatures were below zero.  Today it is 38 degrees and raining.................go figure.

Dave

[king crab 48]

Hopefully you are right Dave.  We have had several good years down here in C.T.     2014 was very good and 2013 was absolutley awesome.  The years previous to that were pretty darn good too.  I think Shellfish, Jim wishes he could have taken a few ct crabs down to FL with him.  I would trade some for some wild caught shrimp!! .    NOW, the only thing that worries me about 2015 is,  Blue chip from the sound school wrote about the black sea bass devouring the juvenial crabs. The long Island sound was crawling with sea bass, so we'll have to see how it plays out .  As long as I can have enough for every Saturday night dinner and a few crab cakes and sauce now and then,  I 'll be in FAT CITY

[SHELLFISH]

I haven't asked my northern buddies how the crabs have been the last few years.
I do miss the sizes on the CT crabs. Down here they are a lot smaller. 5.5 to six inches is average and a 6.5 inch crab is a jumbo!
They taste just as good though!

I went out shrimping the other night and got 28! Bummer! they just weren't running strong. We are getting into the better season now though. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes. We are supposed to have a shrimping meet up on the river on Feb. 7 but a cold front has put a damper on things here. The river water is cold too! No crabs to be seen and I pulled my traps out of the water for cleaning. I'll put them back in around April. All is good down here and I don't miss the snow at all! Wishing you all a good 2015 crabbing season!

[SHELLFISH]

I talked with my CT buddies about the 2014 crabbing season.
They said the crabs never made it into Norwalk for 2014!
Only two small crabs were seen all year!
The 2013 season was OK. I was still there then.