Crab feast

We bought some chicken necks the other day at the store with the intent of catching some crabs.  The Chesapeake, after all, is known for it's crab cakes, steamed crabs, crab chowder, soft shell crabs, etc., etc.  We have been dodging the floats of crab pots since we started on this cruise.  They are everywhere in the water, especially in the shallows, but even in water 25 feet deep.

Since we don't have any crab pots of our own, the other way to catch them is to tie the bait tightly on a cord, lower it to the bottom to sit for a while, and then slowly pull it up, holding a long handled net handy to scoop up the crab that is often hanging on to his prized possession on the end of the cord.  If he's big enough, he's dropped in a bucket of water to await enough of his friends to make a meal.  If too little, he's released to grow a bit more.

We tried this technique a few days ago but only caught 3 which weren't enough, so they got a second lease on life.  In the Little Wicomico River Monday night things were different.  We had a difficult time even finding a space to anchor in there that was free enough of pots to accommodate our boat.  So we decided if the watermen thought they needed that many pots out, crabs must be plentiful in the river.  We set out several lines with the chicken parts on them and within minutes we had caught enough crabs for a delicious dinner that night.

Wish we had enough time to hang out there a while longer and eat some more of this tasty underwater crustacean, but it was time to move on.  Maybe there will be another opportunity soon.  Or maybe we'll have to wait until we get back to Jordan Creek and put out some pots.  Much less work involved that way.