NANFA-- RE: Blue crabs in Freshwater

Shinerscoop_at_aol.com
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:13:54 EST

Referring to Moon's Blue Crab thread,

In the late 70's, my father and I placed some crab-traps in Bayou Sorrel,
Iberville Parish which is a part of the Atchafalaya Basin. The time of the year
was late June, if I remember correctly, I know that is was extremely hot!!!
The traps were converted crawfish traps which each had a bait hook hanging from
the "top" of the 3/4" galvanized chicken wire. We baited each hook with a
catfish head and set out a dozen traps.

During a rest period of 30-45 minutes between running the traps, we ducked
into the generous shade of the prevalent willow and cypress trees to get out of
the strong sunlight and seek the cooler retreat of the shade!

After approximately 6 hours, we had a total of 48 huge male bluecrabs. Some
of them reached a claw-tip to claw-tip span of 21 or 22 inches, which probably
equates to a carapace width of 12 inches or there-abouts! This site is
approximately 80 miles (as the crow flies from the nearest brackish water in the Gulf
of Mexico) and the water is completely fresh. We picked up our gear and
returned to my Dad's house. We had placed 18 adult males in one of the traps for
the trip home and decided to stop off for a "cold-one" at a local bar and deli.
While there, on the spur of the moment, I decided to weigh the 18 crabs on
their scale.........

The crabs weighed 30 pounds of which the chicken-wire net maybe contributed
less than 16 ozs! That equals an average of 2 pounds per crab or very close to
it!

I will never forget that day, I haven't been able to catch them as well as my
Dad and I did since then!

Best Regards,

BG
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