Re: [Paddlewise] Crabbing in the PNW but anywhere really

I'll take a little pinch on this one.
Can't say I did any crabbing out of a kayak but my dad and I used to run 350
crab traps daily as a means of family support in the Gulf of Mexico.  Of
course our traps were run from a Laffitte Skiff.   My dad handled the skiff
as I hooked the corks, pulled in the traps, emptied the traps and rebaited
the traps and then threw them back over board.  Usualy came to the docks
with a few hundred pounds of crabs.  A lot of crabs but our traps were home
made with a dimension of about a three foot cube ( ain't gonna work in da
kayak).
We  mainly used fish that we caught in the traps.  Trash fish was bought at
the docks for bait also or we had freinds that saved there trash fish from
the shrimp trawls.  I was sent many times to go throw the cast net for mud
mullets for bait.  I remember once we even used some of the chickens we use
to raise when other bait was slim pickings or just did'nt have the money to
buy bait.  I'm glad my dog did'nt die during our crabbing days :-(


>
>Is there a time of day you have found was
>best to go?


Crabs should be attainable almost any time of the day.

> Since my limited experience indicates the best bait is "pretty smelly"
>etc...  Do you use different gloves than those one might use for regular
>paddling?

I'm not a glove type of person but if you were to use gloves I would suggest
basic cotton gloves.  Between getting rid of the bait smell and the crab
smell, I would think the crabbing trip odor will stay on those good paddling
gloves for many trips to follow.  The nastyer the smell the better the bait.
Old chicken necks or melt should work great for recreational crabbing.

 How do you get the crab(s) caught back to shore, without having
>to take the entire trap back, then go out again to place the trap?
>
Providing I was not in any challenging seas I would probably just break the
claws off the crabs and dump them in the cockpit.  Providing you are not
very ticklish ;-)  Of course you would want to keep the claws and boil them
with the crabs.


Personally if it was feasible to carry the Wal Mart traps in the kayak
during a trip (???) I would just set them along shore and wade out to them
to run um and not use the kayak.
Arthur Hebert
Louisiana ( west bank of the Mississippi River)
http://homepages.gs.net/seacajun

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