Summer is The Time For Crabs & Fluke

[Gr8ful Fish]

Did a couple days of fluking in/around Sandy Hook Bay over the weekend; we managed to find some quality fish.

Yesterday, I headed down to Ocean County after work to try for some crabs. I crabbed the "bridge to nowhere in Manahawkin.

The crabbing was slow, but I managed to pull 18 nice jimmies along with a 14" fluke and a blowfish. I used 10 traps baited with bunker; I probably had at least 30 or more throwback shorts and sallys.

The crabs were an even mix of clean ones and rusty ones with most of the larger crabs being clean "one-clawed warriors."

Hope the crabbing picks up a bit in the Shews and the Sink in the next week or two as it has been a big disappointment for me so far.

- Gr8ful

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[jmurr711]

nice we went down dividing creek last week picked a lil over 1/2 a bushel not alot of rats or broads either but alot of 1 claws so i am assuming the magics about to happen

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

Hello Jimmy, see you soon buddy!! Lenny/Mario

[nutleysigns]

My brother has 48 nice crabs today in Rumson so far

[Gr8ful Fish]

We finally found the crabs in good numbers yesterday after work. Together, my friend, Jeff, and I collected almost a full bushel of big jimmies while tossing back dozens of females and juveniles. We crabbbed with a mix of handlines and traps baited with both bunker and chicken ... neither bait worked better than the other as the crabs ate both readily. The handlines definitely out-produced the traps.

The crabs were a mix of mated pairs and singles with singles outnumbering pairs 2 to 1. Most of the crabs were rusty ones, although we did toss back at least another dozen tinbacks, so it was apparent plenty of them shedded with this last full moon. We also found most of our bigger crabs in much deeper than where we normally find them this time of the year. We were catching crabs in 5-10 feet of water; there were very few crabs hanging shallow on the dock and bridge pilings.

After collecting our bushel, we did some walking and scooping in the marshes which produced 6 really nice softshells that Jeff took home to make softy sandwiches.

What an awesome day; I was glad I was able to secure at least 1 full bushel of crabs for my seafood feast this weekend!

- Gr8ful

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