Even though I've been living in Maryland for awhile now, I have never gone crabbing before last weekend. And I don't know why not. It is such a fun regional activity!What you do is this. Drive to the pier. Tie smelly chicken necks to the end of the string. Throw the string into the water. Tie string to the pier. Wait. See string move. Grab string and pull upward slowly. See crab eating chicken. Scoop up with a net, and voila, you have yourself a Maryland blue crab.
It really was that easy. We went at high tide during the month of August which is apparently the best time to crab. Almost immediatly after throwing the chicken necks in the water the crabs starting biting. The "crab police" also came around to check if everyone was meeting regulations, namely all crabs must be bigger than 5.25 inches and not female. We were unsure of said regulations and did not want to get a fine of $150 per illegal crab so we dumped them all overboard in a rush.
We then worked on re-catching the crabs and ended up with a nice bucket full. But, just to be sure we had plenty of crabs to eat, we stopped by the fish market in DC to buy more crabs. That was an experience in and of itself. There are heaping piles of fiesty crabs just waiting for you to pick them out and dump them in the steamer. Eating crabs is an experience too. You have to work for your meal! This YouTube tutorial might be of interest to all you newbies out there like me. It's basically snap, crack, smash, and pull. They ought to make crab-eating googles. It's a hazardous task.
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