water or ice?

[mikeinva]

whatś the best way to get crabs home fresh? water or ice? i always used a bucket of water and rushed home to cook before they croaked. is there any downside to throwing them in a cooler of ice? im hoping for a good haul friday am, but wont be able to steam em up until late in the day.
thanks for your advice.

[fishfinder]

within a day, if you can keep them dry but cool they should be ok. you don't want them in fresh water (i.e. melted ice)...they will die. a bucket full of saltwater might be ok for a short period if kept out of the sun. i'd put them on ice but keep them dry. the cold slows their metabolism and they can survive several days out of saltwater. for transport in a good cooler, i'd load the bottom with ice (in the bag to hold the water as it melts) and store the crabs in paper bags over the ice or you could lay wood over the ice to keep them out of the melt water. keep them cold with some oxygen and they should be fine.

[sportskiff]

Mike, we ketch the blues here, sometimes a 48 qt cooler full, an we pop the cork on the side of the cooler an let it drain, fill 1/3 full of ice an the lil beggers take a cuple hrs ta "wake up" an pinch the heck outta ya. But they will wake up pal!!!!!
, jus my 2 cents worth, dont mean nuthin, but its how we do it.

[Harry]

How we do it at the Jeresy shore is, keep them in a bucket or cooler while crabbing, bucket in shade, plus keep a damp towel on them. Then throw'em in ice for about five minutes to make'm dormat before and when your ready to clean them.

after were done crabbing and since they're knocked out, we pull off the back shell, and remove the inards, lungs,,,,etc, at the dock.
Hose'em off real good and ice them back down, but not soaking in water. Can put them in a big zip lock bag, plastic grocery store bag, or lay new paper over the ice and cleaned crabs on that for transport.

You now have cleaned crabs, ready to steam. Plus they will last a few days in the fridge like that, cleaned and ready to cook. Our friend owns a seafood store and that's how he keeps them.

[Redfish]

I kinda do what Harry does. I put 'em in a regular 48 qt cooler--NO water--like Sport says with the plug out. Dip either a towel or, preferably, a burlap bag in water and lay on top. All you gotta do is fix it so they keep their gills moist. I try not to pile the devils up too deep. If you get more that a few layers of them on the bottom, then that shortens the "keep" time. Put the cooler in the shade as much as possible. I have done this and kept the cooler cool in the shade and have kept them two or three days with only a very few dead-loss.

Now, I don't clean mine before steaming, but I don't see why that would not work since your are taking all the guts out, which is what taints the crabmeat once crabs die. Icing 'em down right before trying to handle them does help a bunch. I always just ice mine a bit to temper 'em down, and then put them right in the steamer. Put a bunch of Old Bay and use half vinegar and water in the steaming solutions. Good stuff.

[tpurvis]

I agree with Harry, my pots are set on the pier at the house, so I throw them in the sink , take a pair of pliers to hold the crab. Slip a short bladed knife under the back of the shell and pop. Remove the fingures and lungs, wash out with the water hose and take them to the house and put in the frig. I can keep them like that for a couple of days, allowing me to harvest more for a big boil. Or when they are chilled I used the crab master and press the meat out of the shell. Love them thick crab cakes.

[Shakespeare]

I got a question. Can you put crabs in the live well? Or would they tear each other up in there?

[CFISHN]

A commercial operation that use to be next door to us keep peelers in A cold refrigerator for days.
They would just sit their like they were too cold to move .
DRY AND COLD ! for the long hull !

[Redfish]

I got a question. Can you put crabs in the live well? Or would they tear each other up in there?

You can put them in a live well. They will live for a while with sea water in it. They just do better, IMHO, in a semi-dry box with a damp cloth draped over them. Plus, they are easier to handle. It is very difficult to get a big Jimmie out of the livewell. You reach in to get him, he backs up in the corner and fends you off with his weapons. He will pinch hell out of you if you don't grab him just right. I have never seen them "fight" or tear each other up once they were put in a close area, but I suppose it would happen.

Here is another thread with some crab info that some of you guys may find useful. Check out post # 6.
http://www.carolinaskiffowner.com/showthread.php?t=6678&highlight=crab

[Harry]

My buddy that has the seafood store is also a commercial crabber. When he hauls in his catch the crabs are sorted for sized and put in wooden bushel baskets, kept moist.

believe it or not they live for a while stacked on top of each other like that. These baskets are packed tight and the lid crammed down on them keeping them tight, and from tearing each other up.....

[mikeinva]

damn - someone else helped themselves to my crab-pot. i'm not worried about the cost, but explaining to the kids about thieves is a bummer.

[sportskiff]

Dang Mike,
Ya really hate to ruin the trust the younger folks got natural like. I hear ya bro. Some folks just aint worth runnin thru a wood chipper, I hope the crab pot causes him a LOT of grief.

[CSO4LIFE]

On Deadliest Catch they put the crabs in a giant live well :) ?

[Willie]

Ice and keep the drain open....I have also used the blue ice thingies, the reusable ones.....keeps them cool, but without the melting water.....*thumbsup*

[Jeep A Knocking]

Hey Willie guess who? Awesome site! I wish they had this for Aquasport owners.

[Harry]

Hey Willie guess who? Awesome site! I wish they had this for Aquasport owners.

I had an Aquasport, Sold it and bought a CS.....;D

Welcome aboard.*Cheers*

[Bayster]

I keep my catch in a bushel basket with a wet towel over the top. Every once in a while I'll carefully dip the basket overboard to wet them.
On the way home I'll put them on ice in a cooler with the lid "open"
or just leave em in the basket in the back of the suv with the ac on. Never in the trunk! Never in water!
I'm usually an hour from the dock to the house and I average losing 2 crabs per 3/4 bushel. Done that for longer than I care to remember.

[Willie]

Hey Willie guess who? Awesome site! I wish they had this for Aquasport owners.

hey Jeeps, you don't have to own a CS to belong here, we wont hold it against you......*laughing* great bunch of people here with both boating and fishing know how from all up and down and across this country of ours,.... *thumbsup*

[Jeep A Knocking]

Thanks for the welcome guy's. The more I look around the site the more i like it. Bushel basket inserted into a small car inner tube draped over the side is excellent for keeping fresh!

[boncrshr]

We always keep ours on ice...we don't even drain the water. It is rare for us to have any die. The good thing about the ice is that it calms them down pretty good!

Blue crabs will live in freshwater, but will not reproduce. In fact, there are many freshwater lakes here in Texas that hold blue crabs. Most of the lakes in Texas are man-made, and the ones on the coast are used as drinking water reservoirs. During the summer months, they invariably pump in saltwater, hence the blue crabs. They get really big and taste sweet!

Tomorrow I am going to our honey hole...it is in brackish water. Last time we went, we caught 110 in six hours....the moon is full, can't wait to see what happens!

[Willie]

boncrshr, thanks for the info, I will be heading out your way to Katy, TX in about 2 weeks.....gonna be a grandpa.......1st coffee or *Cheers* is on me if we can get together......along with Bushwacker and some of the other guys out that way..... now back to crabbin......got a dozen keepers last wekend in Patcong creek....1st of the year for me.......now gotta get some more..........

[boncrshr]

Hey Willie...sounds good. I am out in the skiff every weekend....either E. Matagorda Bay, or our brackish water crab honey hole. Are you bringing the skiff?

We went crabbing yesterday....only stayed out 5 hours, it was brutally hot and still. Final tally was 74 crabs with some decent sized ones. This place is always an interesting experience...it is basically where the intercoastal meets up with a freshwater bayou. The alligators are THICK and not shy...always shadowing the boat to see if you drop anything. You can see catfish and alligator gar, but tons of saltwater baitfish. I got three large mullet caught in my crab net and when I freed them, they were quickly snatched up by a gator. Kept all crabs on ice.....no dead crabs by arrival at my house.

Anyways, here are a couple of pics of the crabs....gave some to the family, fried up the rest....crabbing is hard work IMO, compared to fishing, but it is hard to beat a big mess of crabs!

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2870329590094325786XIXMky?vhost=outdoors

BTW, do the blue crabs grow bigger up north? Also, the conventional wisdom down here (meaning I have heard this but never verified), is that crabs are fuller with meat and more active on a waxing/full moon....have ya'll heard that?

[pyrateofonslowbay]

I agree with the box and wet cover method.

I used to fish 300 crabs pots in the Neuse River when I was a teenager. We dumped them in cabbage crates until full then covered them with wet burlap bags. They stayed alive all morning until we could get them to docks in Oriental and off load at Fultcher Seafood.

*thumbsup*

[chuckP]

I recommend no water as I have drowned crabs that way. To keep crabs ovenight, try just keeping in a vented crab basket (not the closed type vegaetable basket), I find its best to keep them in a cool dark place. I have also put some crumbled news papers on top with some ice to soak into to the paper to create a cool top over the crabs.