Around here, crabbing is a summer tradition. The rivers and creeks are the perfect habitat for blue crab and everybody, including the local alligators, love to eat them.
Over the Spring, something went a little wrong in one of the ponds — a floodgate to a tidal creek developed a leak that raised the salinity of the water in the pond. As they say, in adversity comes opportunity — and the crabs decided that the pond was the place to be.
As for us, it has created the perfect afternoon adventure scenario: Crabbing!
First, hike to the pond. Then throw out a little bait (chicken necks on a string) … and viola!
So we caught crabs. Not just any crabs….these were HONKIN crabs — some of the biggest we’ve seen in these parts ever! (OK, so “honkin” was weird. Its just came out — there pondside, and we stuck with it. So honkin it is…)
This will give you an idea of just how big these crabs get. Interestingly, somehow, they get larger when in fresher water — even though they’re a salt water species.
The net result…dinner! And more. Far more.
It’s almost becoming cliche to say “unplugged”. But you can see where I’m going with this — it was one of the purest forms of “unplugged” we could have experienced. We’re manning the crab lines like a surf caster on the beach: numerous lines in the water, and trotting between the lines to see if there’s any action on the ends of any of them. Giggling, talking, telling stories — I know I know, it’s all cliche. But it’s not. It’s this mother’s dream.
All those years in the big city morphed into a dream of raising my kids in the country — doing just this: crabbing on a summer day.
Click here for a great crab dip recipe!