is (temp.) keeping crabs in a floating closed cage legal while crabbing?

[thedutchtouch]

somewhat of a strange question, i feel like i remember this being discussed but i must not be searching for the right key words and don't see anything about this in the rules and regs.  I'm wondering if a floating crab cage (likely attached to the buoy at one end of a trotline) would be legal. to be clear this would not be a cull box, and would not have any active entrance/exit, just something to give me a bit more room in my small boat while i'm actively crabbing.  would this be interpreted as a commercial style trap even though it wouldn't have any entrance/exit? or do the crabs have to stay physically in my possession on my boat, not in my possession by being in a closed cage attached to my gear? the 12' tin can gets a bit tight sometimes, and i'm guessing the kayak crabbers may benefit from something like this as well, no?

[Harford Crabber]

Couple years ago I was kayak crabbing in the Severn and a DNR fellow  checked me out.  I had my keeper crabs in a basket with a noodle around it to keep it afloat with a line tied to the anchor at one end of the trotline.  Not sure what the law is on this but That DNR officer was fine with my setup. In fact he said he was checking me out because he was thinking about doing the same thing and wanted to see my setup.

[reds]

Couple years ago I was kayak crabbing in the Severn and a DNR fellow  checked me out.  I had my keeper crabs in a basket with a noodle around it to keep it afloat with a line tied to the anchor at one end of the trotline.  Not sure what the law is on this but That DNR officer was fine with my setup. In fact he said he was checking me out because he was thinking about doing the same thing and wanted to see my setup.

Used to be an everyday thing, to put a bushel basket in a tire inner tube and float it behind, while soft crabbing in the shallows.

 In the basket went peelers, soft crabs and hard crabs. Now female soft crabs and males hard crabs can't be in the same basket.

[indoe]

The only issue I could see with that is if they wanted to see how many you have and that your don't have more then your limit. Getting crabs into a bushel basket when they are not settled down can take up a lot more room.

[thedutchtouch]

The only issue I could see with that is if they wanted to see how many you have and that your don't have more then your limit. Getting crabs into a bushel basket when they are not settled down can take up a lot more room.

thanks for the replies all, i was actually thinking of doing something like putting a bushel basket in the "cage" specifically for this reason, however i don't trust a bushel basket on its own to not have the bottom drop out after a few uses. perhaps something like use one of those plastic fish baskets (that are slightly bigger than a bushel) as the outer cage, bushel basket inside, pool noodles around the outer edge to float it.  i figure the bushel basket lid is probably good enough for the top. if i ever get around to doing this ill take a few pictures and post them up.

[ericm107]

If you're doing it in a wooden bushel basket...don't. I just last week had a seemingly "new" basket and picked it up. Bottom fell out. Luckily the basket was over top my giant plastic tub.

[Harford Crabber]

I've used a wooden produce bushel basket many times and never had a problem.  They are "woven" and seem to be a lot tougher than the slat baskets.  However it does get a little squirrely keeping crabs from crawling out while lid is open when the basket gets over half full while floating in the water.  Only had that problem one time so far.