THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030145
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS WRITER
LENGTH: 45 lines
Because crabs have an almost insatiable appetite and will eat practically anything, there's almost no limit to the way they can be caught recreationally.
Here's a quick look at the more popular traps and how much it'll cost you to become a recreational crabber:
The simple twine with a chicken neck or wing. You can add weight with an old steel bolt or other piece of heavy metal. You can use several, attaching the end of the string to a stick shoved into the mud. If the stick wiggles, you probably have a crab. Cost: almost nothing.
A twine-and-weight crabbing rig. This one works best from shorelines, especially when you want to toss your bait well out into the water. It features a length of twine with a lead weight on the end. There's a small pin for attaching your bait, be it a chicken part or a piece of fish. Also works with the stick-in-the-mud. Cost: about $1.50.
A steel ring or 2-ring net, about 15 inches in diameter, bridled on top, with a cotton bottom, popular with fishing-pier and bridge crabbers. This can be baited with anything from a chicken neck to a whole fish. You merely lower it to the bottom, wait for a crab to come calling on the bait and lift it out of the water. Cost: around $4.50.
An all-metal collapsible wire basket with an open top, also bridled. This is also popular with pier and bridge crabbers. The bait attaches to the middle of the floor and the sides collapse to total flatness when it's lowered to the bottom. Cost: about $5.
A commercial-type crab pot. These are 2-foot cubes, usually left overboard for several hours, during which they can sometimes entrap two dozen crabs. The bait, whatever your choice, goes into a center wire container. Crabs crawl in through a funnel opening and can't escape. When you remove a pot from the water, one side can be opened and the catch dumped into a container. Each pot most have two 2 5/16-inch ``cull rings'' to allow small crabs to escape. These can be worked off bridges and piers but are best when tended by boat. Cost: about $25.
You should have a 5-foot crab net (cost about $5) or a 10-footer with an extendable handle (about $10). With twine crabbing, these are a virtual necessity. Then there's a container, anything from a basket to an insulated cooler. MEMO: Sidebar to main story on page C1. by CNB