The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-02-02
CRAB CATCHING.
A Popular FAN Sport on the At
lantic Coast.


0N~~AA~~
the shoal coves netting crabs. This is
the heart of the crab season.
The biggest and fattest of the blue
claws are now hunting tideway and
creek, coming and going with every
tide, hungry and eager as they sail in
on the flood, and coy and well fed as
they lazily depart on the ebb. Every
one who wants to go grabbing and
can't is profoundly to be pitied, and
the few who can and don't want to
either do not realize what satisfying,
all-absorbing pastime it is or else they
have lost interest in, life.
It is an inexpensive pastime and the
fishing grounds are near at hand. For
the matter of that man may take his
wife and children along. He has only
to look up the time OF tide and train
schedules, buy a net for q quarter. .
dozen bats of tough, raw meat and
ball of twine for line, shoulder his
basket and start. He must try to time
his departure so as to reach the creek
on the rising tide, for Mr.. Crab comes in
very lame and hungry from the sea
and bites eagerly then what few
hours later he will turn mp his well-fed
nose at and ignore. !.
If you cannot, or do not care to, hire
a boat, the accommodating crab will
humor you and let you capture him
from the muddy bank. Bank fishing
is done by driving little stakes in the
edge Of the shore at about a rods dis
tance apart, and to each of these tying
a line about twelve feet long, on which
you have tied a bit of meat. IT the
current bothers you you should have
some small sinkers along, for if the
meat floats on top few crabs will mo-
tice it.
Ten or dozen lines are all one party
can manage generally, :, for the crabs feed
like newsboys at Christmas dinner.
The man who handles the net will
have his hands full running from one
line to another, as some one yells:
Here, don't wait all day; there are
two old lappers here" or: "Come
quick! Come quick! This one will let
go!" One of the beauties of the sport is
that the children can all help. Even
the little shaver of eight or nine can
be shown how to draw in his crab
gently and slowly and then how to
tenderly lift him till the net has him
fast.
Thewomen all like it. too; like to shout
over slipping in the mud. like to scream
when a crab gets out of the basket or
net and runs sideways at their feet;
and like, above all, to have found an
outdoor sport in which they can join
their husbands and boys And it is
not like wooing the trout or tickle black
bass, when one may toll day after day
with little or no profit, just because he
has not on darker or brighter fly.
If one is not blest with wife and lit
tie one and is going alone, he may try
q still more exciting form of the sport.
That is what is technically known as
"nabbing." ''Nabbing"- consists in
floating up with the tide over shall
lows and scooping up the crabs as
they feed or run without the use
of bait. Now, from the number
of his pedal extremities, the quick
ness of his queer bulging eyes
and his ability to start in any direction
without turning the crab could not be
called by his bitterest enemies slug
gish or clumsy fish. When he has
particular reason for going up creek
toward certain bed of eel grass or sea
lettice and gives his personal attention
to the subject it takes gentleman OF
considerable agility to intercept his
fight. No dreamy, absent-minded or
profoundly thoughtful person should
try to nab" The thread Of their
reasoning is apt to be abruptly severed
by plunge into the black ooze of the
creek.
The ssnabber" stands at one end, or.
if there are two 'nabbers," one at each
end and they simply let the boat drift
with the tide. Along the shore is q
favorite haunt of crabs rather than in
the middle of the bay or creek, perhaps
because floating bits of food are apt to
lodge in the sedge.
The net whose thirteen or fifteen
inch frame seemed so large when you
bought it now seems rs small as an
arrow point when you drive 1t
at q vanishing crab and miss him
clean. Too vicious . thrust often sticks
the net deep in the mud bottom, and II
you are not lively in rescui4g it the
boat passing over will smash the
handle or the sudden wrench will hurl
you into the water. Then once you are
fouled in such way the most tempt
ing sort of opportunities always pre-
sent themselves.
Big luscious crabs come slowly, Ian
guidly by, blinking in peaceful security
as if they realized your predicament,
and guardian crabs take advantage OF
that particular moment to scurry past
with their softrshelled wards, You are
wiser and hotter, and usually tired
after you have succeeded at last in pry-
ing that net loose.
At high tide one may only skirt the
shore, catching what stray crabs he
may find clinging to the sedge and
reeds. for out in the bay the depth is
too great. When the tide turns you
may 90 down with It, catching just as
many or more than you took going mp,
for the midday meal has made his crab
ship more slow and lazy in his move
ment. Expert tsnAbhers" can turn
with one crab captured in the pct,
p}unee for = second md third and
even fourth, and It last ding the
whole Quartette snapping and kic2dng
into t1e. bottom Of ~ toet.