Doc took me crabbing on the Potomac River on Sunday. I have to confess I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I grew up traveling a lot which involved riding ferries and other public transportation, but I'm not used to going out in a small boat. I get afraid of capsizing. The other thing is just crabbing. Crabs scare me, because I am afraid they might pinch me or something.
The whole idea of handling rotten chicken necks disgusts me. Doc insists that's the best way to catch crabs, so that's the way we do it. We have gone out with bull lips before, that he gets from Chuck's Butcher Shop in Bryans Road, but usually he ends up with chicken or turkey necks, Rotten ones. He gets them from the dumpster behind Safeway or Food Lion.
Mostly Doc uses crab traps, and sometimes we just skim them out of the water using a net. I don't enjoy any of it very much. Doc chuckles at me and calls me an English girl. I am not English, but have lived in England throughout much of my life, but to him it's the same thing (He also thinks all Asians are Chinese and all Hispanics are Mexicans).
Putting them in the basket and having them crawl out scares me a bit. I am afraid a crab might sneak out and then pinch me or something I really can't explain.
The food poisoning issue is another one. Everyone says don't cook dead crabs. I don't like the idea of cooking anything alive, but that's how it has to be done, apparently. But I DO like eating steamed crabs and I've never gotten sick from it.
Here is some info about crabbing from Doc.
Doc: I ain't no professional crabber. I just catch a bushel or two for parties and get togethers. Tondy is always scared the crabs what we catch in the morning will die before we get 'em home and he'll get food poisoning. But healthy crabs can live out of the water for three or four days. Not jammed into a basket they can't, but if they is loose and they's gills stay wet they can live for days. He ain't got nothing to worry about.
You wanna keep 'em cool but not too cold or hot. Maybe 45 - 50 degrees, something like that. Too cold or too hot'll kill 'em an' you've just wasted your crabs.
To get 'em home, keep 'em in a bushel basket with wet burlap bags on 'em to keep 'em cool an' wet. Don't set 'em in the sun. I put one of them blue tarps from the Amish Market over them an' strap it down with bungee cords.
You can put crabs in a cooler, but you wanna keep the ice on the bottom and some newspaper over the ice so the crabs don't get in the ice water and drown. If you carry 'em in a five gallon bucket of water you'll kill 'em. Don't ever do that.
Tondeleo: Wait a minute, Doc - crabs are made to live in the water! How does ice water kill them or being in a bucket of water kill them? It seems to me that carrying crabs in a bucket of water would be better than putting them in a bushel basket.
Doc: That's cause you don't know nothin' about crabbin', Tondy. Crabs need to be in runnin' water which is why you don't find 'em in ponds. They need the oxygen in the water, and in a bucket, they use up all the air and then they drwon. Outta the water, all they need is for they's gills to be a little wet and they can breathe fine.
Now if you need to keep your crabs a couple days before cookin' 'em, you can take a drywall mud bucket an' poke a bunch of holes in it so the water can flow through, and keep it in the river tied up to the pier and they can live for near 'bout a week, if you feed 'em.
Tondeleo: Doc, I notice you throw back almost half of what you catch. Couldn't you just put them in cages in the water and feed them until they are big enough?
Doc: NO Tondy! They need to be in the river to grow. This is bout halfway through August. We throw 'em back an' then we come back an' catch mos' of 'em back when we go out in a month or so.
