A Beautiful Day for the Worst Day of Crabbing

Loaded up the Jetta to start the day

I have been waiting for this day for weeks now. The weather forecast called for 77 degrees and sunny. And I planned on taking on the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The kayak was loaded up by 8 o'clock with the rest of the gear. It was so nice today even the dog wanted to join me for the trip.

I was on the water by 8:30 am and started my crabbing trip. I turned on the fish finder and it was working as it should. Awesome. Having a fish finder is definitely a game changer. It is really nice to know water depth and temperature. But as I came close to passing the jetties, the fish finder stopped working. So, I turned around and planned to dry dock for a quick trouble shoot. Before I could reach the boat ramp, it started to work again. OK? Maybe it is not a fan of salt water. I don't know. I gave up my attempt to crab the Bay and decided to just stay on the creek where I have had caught some crabs before.

The water felt cold. The fish finder was reading 68 degrees. But I suspect that the transducer is picking up the ambient temperature inside the hull. Bummer.

I started dropping traps as soon as I cleared the docks. When I pulled the sixth trap from the tank well, the last trap was stuck to it and it fell of the side of the kayak. Dangit!!! I hoped that the buoy would pop up, but it never did. Now I am down to six traps. It is fine. I was still optimistic that I will pull some keepers today. It only takes one trap to catch crabs. I am determined.

The one on the bottom left is the keeper

On the second run I pulled three crabs on one trap. Great. Now we're cooking. Only one was a keeper, but it is still a good pull. The third, fourth, and fifth run did not yield any keepers. But on the sixth run, I pulled the biggest crab I have ever caught. I culled it and it looks like it is a six inch'er. I used a tong to move it from my trap to the milk crate. It wiggled and fell off the side of the kayak. Aaaarrrghhh!!! Nooooooo!!! Now I belong to the fraternity of fishermen who brags about the "one that got away".

I stayed out in the water for four more hours and caught nothing else but small ones. By 4 o'clock pm, I was starting to get tired and irritated. So I collected all my traps and called it a day. I threw the keeper, I caught earlier, back for a future rendezvous. In the end, all I got was some lessons learned a nasty sunburn. What a day.

                                                     

Before:

Enjoying the sun too much

 After:

Instead of steaming crabs I steamed myself