When I was growing up, one of my dad's hobbies was crabbing.
Summertime in NJ was peak time to buy chicken necks, set it as bait inside the crab nets (they were technically cages, but Dad called them nets), and then hope the crabs were biting.
Dad taught us all the art of crabbing and we all love it to this day.
Spring break for us this year was all about going to the beach at Edisto Island, South Carolina, with the hope of crabbing maybe once. Austin found some crab traps on eBay and I bought them.
On day two, I took him crabbing for the first time. We caught 1 blue crab which was too small so we threw it back. It's body has to be a minimum of 5 inches.
Austin got the crabbing bug, nonetheless, so we went back day after day.
There is great joy in the catch. When you pull that trap up from the bottom of the water, snap it closed quickly as you begin to pull, you anxiously await whether or not a big enough crab will be accompanying your chicken neck.
Another very sneaky method of crabbing is using a drop line. You put more of your chicken at the end of a line, drop it down in the water, and a few minutes later you slowly pull it up. A second person is waiting with a scoop net already at the surface of the water to scoop up any greedy crab that is being tugged while munching away. Much to its dismay he is sitting in a net not knowing what just happened. You then drop him in a bucket to bring home a little later.
We were somewhat successful throughout the week catching 9 blue crabs, 5 stone crabs, and 5 shrimp. We waited until we got back to Michigan to cook it all up Bobby D style- he always made spaghetti and crabs.
That's what we did last night.
The girls and I are not lovers of seafood, but I did enjoy a little of it.
The men in the family were blissfully happy at the dinner table cracking away at crab legs and building a personal pile of crab debris to be cleaned up later.
Edisto Island was wonderful in many ways. More pictures and stories to come of our family's spring break 2012.
