Sunday Oct 4th - wind swept Chester "Island" River crabbing - with some pics

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Just sit right back and you’ll read a tale, a tale of a crabbing trip. It started from a non tropic port aboard a tiny ship. The mate is a mighty crabbing man, the skipper brave and sure. Two crabbing buddies set sail today on a final crabbing tour, a final crabbing tour.

Well the wind started picking up and the tiny boat got tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew the crabbing would have stopped. The crabbing would have stopped.

The boat set ground back at port with almost a bushel of crabs, with 7 inchers and 8 inchers too. Some 6 and a halfs and mostly lights. But most of all, they had a grand, awesome time, crabbing on Chester Island.

For those of you not old enough to recognize my little ballad there, it was written to the versus of the Gilligans Island theme song. And the pictures to follow kind of go with the flow too.

Anyway, us two REC crabbers were not going to be deterred by a light NE wind of 18 to 25 mph. It was a little choppy but we were able to crab just fine. The day started out not so good. My buddy’s truck would not start so I had to take a hour detour to go pick him up so we did not get on the water until after 8 am (which I blame him for us not catching a full bushel of crabs because of this delay). We baited 20 traps with chicken and bunker (10 with chicken & 10 with bunker). The first four traps netted zero crabs and we said “uh oh, looks like it’s going to be a bad day”. But our luck changed and the next 16 traps brought in 12 crabs with all of them over 6 inches with most going close to 7 inches and one 8 incher. Talk about hooting and hollering like little kids on Christmas day. Now us REC crabbers knew we made the right choice to brave the windy weather to get out crabbing. And yes “divedeep”, the crabs are still in the Chester so I hope you get your butt out there this week and get some of those Chester River Monsters.

We crabbed in 10 to 15 foot water with most crabs caught in 11-14 foot. Bunker out produced chicken by 3-1. That is not a misprint. The bunker out produced the chicken by at least a 3-1 margin. The crabs shut off right around 10:30 am, so we ended the day with just about ¾ bushel of crabs. Not bad for just about 2 hours of wind swept river crabbing. Unfortunately all of the crabs were light, which you can all see in the pictures, but for the last trip of the year, we did not care and kept them all. We had several doublers, only 1 throw back, no females, 1 catfish and the smallest crabs were 5 ½. Most crabs were between 6 to 6 ½ inches with many around 7 and 3 crabs at the 8 inch mark. There is no better way to end the crabbing season than crabbing with my best friend, catching almost a bushel of crabs, eating some hot and fresh steamed / boiled Chester River crabs and coming home to the house smelling of chicken and dumpling soup and some home made chocolate chip pumpkin bread (WOW, what a great wife I have).

Hope you enjoy the pictures and the report. Sorry you can’t smell the soup and pumpkin bread, but I think the pictures speak for themselves and I assure you, they were both awesome tasting.

At the end of the day, it did kind of suck knowing that this was the last trip of the year because I know in a couple of days the crabs that I left for the next crabbers will all be full, fat, heavy and eager to come out of the water and into the steamer. Can’t wait until next year. Good luck to anyone who goes crabbing during the next couple weeks. I hope the weather is great and your bushel baskets are over flowing with huge crabs. Only 5 more months until the March crab feast.

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Not so tropic boat port

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The first and only mate on the boat, by buddy Bryan AKA Gilligan

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And me, Ed AKA the fearless SKIPPER

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Two Chester River Monster crabs caught on the first run.

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Frist run of the day

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End of day, almost 3/4 bushel crabs. Unfortunately all light but tasty.

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The "October Witches / Crab Boil" 

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AHHHHH, now you cannot deny how good this photo looks. Even with light crabs, talk about mouth watering delicious looking crabs. 

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What a great dinner to come home to, a nice and hot steamy bowl of chicken and dumpling soup.

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And now for the GRAND FINALE…….wait for it,,,wait for it….can you smell it? I wish you could. Chocolate chip pumpkin bread and a glass of milk and nighty night. 

[crabbywaters]

Looks great. Sucks about the whities. Moving around a bunch wasn't much of a option with that wind blowing. Sometimes you get what you get.

I'm gonna ignore that one picture 

[trackeryak]

Awesome report!

[tattoo]

WTG , GREAT job , catch and pic's

[crewstation]

Looks great. Sucks about the whities. Moving around a bunch wasn't much of a option with that wind blowing. Sometimes you get what you get.

I'm gonna ignore that one picture 

Too much water in the witch's cauldron, eh? 

Great report, ed!!  You gave captwilliecrab a run for his money with that one.  Glad to see you brave the water and get your reward.

[Edaoud]

Great report and awesome pictures, WTG Ed

Now we need report on how to catch chicken dumpling soup and pumpkin bread 

[rdbeard]

you should both have your man cards pulled for the silly report.

[shedhunta]

Thanks for the report!  My boss is gonna hate you because I feel a sick day coming this week.

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I'm gonna ignore that one picture 

I knew that picture was going to set off some "good" or "not so good" responses    .

[divedeeep]

Way to go Gilligan!  Great theme song, report, and catch.  Pics look great.  I hope to give it one more try soon, maybe tomorrow and see what I can score.  Deep seems to be the ticket now.  Glad to hear they are still there.