If you bought or caught live crabs, you'll need to consider cleaning your crab first before making some of those delicious crab recipes you have been reading about as crabs aren't known to be clean creatures. But the questions remains how do we clean a live crab? Method 1 – No Dismantling of the Body Cleaning a live crab could be a little daunting as well as downright scary to some beginners. Those big claws are intimidating, and also you know how painful it will likely be if they get hold. Try wearing…
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Just as a little background information, a bushel, volumetrically, is equivalent to 8 gallons (about 36 liters). In crabbing, a bushel can refer to a basket-like container that looks like this and its size can vary slightly from state to state: For most fishing and wildlife departments in the United States, recreational crabbing has limits on how many crabs you can keep. Some limits are measured in bushels. Hard crabs are almost always sold by the dozen or by the bushel. How do you know how many crabs fit in a bushel? This…
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Now, you may think how to eat a crab is a no-brainer or you may think it’s a time-consuming, tedious task that deters you away from eating crab all together. Whatever the case may be, assuming you are going to devour a whole crab (not crab cakes, crab salad, etc.), there is definitely an efficient way to ingest them. Mainly, this technique works for blue crab and Dungeness crabs. What you don’t need is a hammer or even a fork. What you would need is a crackerand a sharp knife. Let’s start with…
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You may be wondering, “What should I use for bait?” There isn’t a landslide consensus on what crab bait works best for your traps but good crabbing bait usually fits a few characteristics. It should be fresh. The fresher the bait, the stronger the scent. Since crabs find food by smell and not by sight, this helps tremendously in attracting the crabs. It should be natural to crabs. Although crabs are scavengers and will eat a wide range of organic things, they tend to eat things that are in the ocean. This includes…
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Crabbing season is when the crabs are most abundant and meatiest. And although you can catch crabs all year round, this is when you would want to catch them to maximize your catch. Good Crabbing Conditions? As a generality, crabs are more dormant and less likely to be caught during colder climate. Crabs are more inactive in waters that are about 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They tend to hide in the mud as opposed to swimming around, actively searching for food. Crabs thrive in warmer waters closer to 70-75 degrees. There is…
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It is definitely not ideal for a recreational crabber to de-meat your catch so that you may have ingredients for say your crab cakes or crab salads. This process can be severely time-consuming and painfully tedious. Fear not, because you can readily buy crab meat that has been removed from the crab’s exoskeleton and is usually sold in a can or container. Ranging anywhere from $25-$30 per pound, crab meat is high in protein and is a versatile ingredient as you can use it in many recipes ranging from salads to toppings on…
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To make your crabbing experience as fun and as smooth as possible, rules and regulations for your specific crabbing location should be followed. You definitely don’t want to spoil your crabbing expedition by having to pay a fine, or even worse, go to jail. Some regulations limit the amount of crab you are allowed to take home, the type of crab (male versus female), whether or not you need a license, what types of traps you are allowed to use, etc. There are limits on number of traps you can set but as…
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1. Chesapeake Bay (Maryland) This bay is an estuary inland of the Atlantic ocean in the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is a beautiful environment in which watermen, recreational fishermen, and families come to crab or just enjoy the scenery. The climate in the bay is humid and tropical in the summer but can be so cold in the winter that the mouths of some rivers freeze. Therefore, the best time to go visit this beautiful nature sanctuary is between summer and fall. Imagine a 75 degree, sun-shining, breeze-blowing August day to…
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Find Your Next Crabbing Location: Different crabs live in different places. Snow crabs live along the continental shelf in various parts of northern oceans as far south as Maine. Dungeness crabs live in bays, creeks, and estuaries in Washington and along the west coast region of North America. Stone crab are found along the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and the along the east coast of the United States up to North Carolina. Most commonly however, blue crabs are found in coastal lagoons and estuaries from Canada to the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf…
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