[joeyjosef]

So, Ive been reading posts about crabbing.........and the reports are far from spectacular........makes me wonder about my first crabbing trip in AUG 2005.
My wife and kids towed our (ugh..........its the only boat we have, so....) ski boat down to Charleston to go crabbing in the bay there. Right away, I should clarify...it was my SECOND trip, my first one was 20 years earlier when I was a kid going with my parents.....no keepers........so I dont count that trip
Anyhow, we had our rings and bait and cruised out to where we were told to go......or so I thought..........

We anchored and I told my wife, "The big float will help us retrieve it when we are ready to pull it up. Its basically there to show us where our ring is and to support the line so we can grab it." So we rigged one up with bait and I tossed it over the side, right into the outward flowing current....................................and we watched as the net sank, then the rope, then the float...........all the while heading out to sea.........
I looked at my wife and asked, "what just happened?"

Down to two nets, we decided that we would go in closer (duh) and tie off to the boat. After that, things went great. We were pulling in the rings every 15 minutes and were getting overloaded with crab. The keepers were totally obvious...they were huge! We never measured even one.......I know we threw back keeper sized crab, but it was a buyers market that day.
We limited out for both days we crabbed......keeping only the biggest ones in each ring...........I was very pleased with how easy it was and the high rate of success we were having.

In AUg of 2006, we went to Charleston again, and the story for that trip sounds like all the posts Ive been reading lately.........few keepers........in fact, few crab at all...........much less keepers.

So, was 2005 just a fluke for us? What's normal?

Joey

 

[SouthCoastStu]

2005 was a record year. We are on the downward leg of a ten year cycle :frown: Still crab to be had, but have to work a little harder for them.

Some of the best crabbing in the bay is Oct-Nov :wink:

 

[Dave G]

2005 was a record year. We are on the downward leg of a ten year cycle :frown: Still crab to be had, but have to work a little harder for them.

Some of the best crabbing in the bay is Oct-Nov :wink:

:yeahthat:

 

[Twitch]

Some of the best crabbing in the bay is Oct-Nov :wink:

We got our 3 limits on Sat. and were actually dumping keepers out of the pots as we picked them all up (after limiting part way into pulling the last string). Counting the ones that got dumped out as we pulled the pots to go home, 41 keepers landed in 3 hrs.

Then the boiling and cracking began....assout:

 

[jimsbuddy]

Some of the best crabbing in the bay is Oct-Nov :wink:

crabbing is best in the worst of winter weather... atleast thats my experience and reading... Aug and Sept you can get crab, but I find they are smaller in size and softer shell.... Ahhh if your loosing gear, you should use a big float( I run 2 floats) and also know your depth... I have a depth finder to measure depth, and also know my rope length. If you dont then drop the ring, and rope, if the rope dosent get slack before you run out of rope, then dont throw the float...

 

[iwanttofish]

We got our 3 limits on Sat. and were actually dumping keepers out of the pots as we picked them all up (after limiting part way into pulling the last string). Counting the ones that got dumped out as we pulled the pots to go home, 41 keepers landed in 3 hrs.

Then the boiling and cracking began....assout:

What part of the coast were you crabbing at?