Jax FL 12/6/14

went out for a few hours this past Saturday to my usual spots and a couple hand lines baited with chicken necks. Downtown Jax was a little slow, got out there around 11am, right at high tide. It was a cool day around 60, but pretty windy. I prefer hand lines on windy days, its like the crabs hold on longer because they don't know if its just the current, or if its the line moving them (that's my reasoning and im sticking to it).

Pulled the trap I have off of a dock and 4 ok sized males, 2 at 5" and 2 at 6.5". Nothing biting after about a 1/2 hour, so I moved to my second spot.

immediately had a few take the bait, but it was a little rocky and they would let go when they bumped into a rock. The first line I put in at the second spot, something grabbed the line and took off. I thought it was the current, but realized it swam out instead of with the current. Trying to pull it in, it was very heavy and tugging hard. Honestly thought it was a fish at this point so I started pulling harder and faster just to get my line back. Big boy hung on till the end, but when he broke the surface and I realized it was a crab, I didn't have my net ready. He got away before my daughter could get the net. he was well over 7" without a question, and big claws. scooped up a few others around 5-6 while there over the hour. My lack of patients took over and decided for a 3rd spot. As we were leaving, a commercial crabber was coming in and he threw a couple in our bucket (if you happen to be reading this, it was by River City Brew...THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!).

Went to our 3rd spot on the day and it produced 3 inchers non-stop. A passer-by gave me a hot tip so I packed up AGAIN and headed that way.

4th spot is the tip I got from the passer by, and WOW!!!! it is not a spot I would have even thought to throw a line. There is a little creek that breaks off of the st. johns river and finally dumps back into the river a few miles later. I mean it is a SMALL creek, and right before it empties back into the river, it opens to a little lake. at the one end of the little lake, there is a little [dang] that lets into the river. the top of the [dang] is about 2 inches from the surface of the water, allowing it to run over. I guess the flow of the water is trapping food against the [dang] wall there, and the crabs are going nuts. This [dang] is MAYBE 6 feet across and 2-3 feet deep, again very small and you wouldn't even think about crabbing here. They must be gathered up there from years past. I threw my lines in and BAM....one after another. All males again, with a good bit from 5-6.5", caught a couple two at a time, but those were 3-4'. it started to rain, and was cold out. I went out in shorts and a tshirt so called it for the day at around 18 crabs in 3 hrs (that includes all of my drive time). Also, towards the end I pulled a line in, I had thrown out pretty far (10 ft) just to see what was out there. I had a big jimmy on the line but with my positioning (and lack of patients again), I went for him and just missed. Had I pulled him in just one more foot, he would have been all mine! my daughter with me said he was huge and she didn't want to leave until we caught him, but that's when the rain started. I would say he was about 7-8" realistically.

Moral of the story....the jimmies are still running here in FL and the biggest & dirtiest I have seen all year. I am going back out to the hot spot again this coming sat or sun. hopefully ill have pics next time.