Crab Trap Crabbing

The great thing about the various kinds of crab traps is that they work well with little effort and expense. You can purchase crab traps at tackle shops and some hardware stores for 8 to 12 dollars, depending on the size and type. Most traps have one feature in common; when they are in the water on the bottom, they collapse so that the sides are open to allow the crabs to enter...and leave.

Crab net rings and the different shaped collapsible traps all operate in this way. When the crabber pulls on the cord, the sides are pulled up and if the crabs are eating the bait, they will be trapped inside.

Chicken necks are a good bait for crab traps. Necks are inexpensive and easy to find in the meat department of most grocery stores. You may use fish parts for bait, but the bone in a chicken neck allows for secure attachment to the trap, and it holds up longer against the ripping and tearing as the crab feeds. Tie the bait to middle of the bottom part of the trap with wire or heavy cord. Lower the trap in the water with enough cord or rope so that it sits on the bottom. Then tie the other end of the cord to the pier.

Families with younger children, out for a day on the waterfront, will find that crabbing with crab traps and crab pots from a pier is simple and fun! The use handlines requires different skills. Adventurous parents can enter the contest between their skill with the dip net or handline, and the crab's natural and wiley instincts.

Crab traps also work well from a boat. Tie your traps to lines long enough to reach the bottom, with floats tied at the other end. The traps are lowered overboard about every sixty feet in the water. As each trap hits bottom, the four sides open to expose the bait. The floats at the surface of the water mark the course, and alert other boats to avoid the area.

Know the law, collapsible traps should not be set within 100 feet of a trotline. Wait five to ten minutes, then check each trap from one end of the line of floats to the other. Pull the trap quickly to the surface, such that the side panels do not open to release the crab. Once the trap is in the boat, move it over your basket and let one side panel open. The crab should drop in the container, especially with a little shaking.

Some crabbers set their crab traps early in the morning and then also set a trotline as well. Just about the time they finish checking one, the other is ready to be tended.