Ah, Mike, it isn’t often I chime in, but I’ll tell you sumthin’ about those blue crabs… Long time ago, when I was a boy growing up in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, we used to just go to the beach and fish for the Blues with chicken necks on kite string. We’d wade out to water to our waists and carry along an apple basket set inside a tire inner tube. I think maybe it took about an hour to fill the basket. And the crabs were big. I mean if we caught the little things they serve now…we threw them back and let them grow some more. We’d bring the basket home, steam them, then sit outside at a picnic table with neighbors, pickin’ and eatin’. Fond memories and tinged with the nostalgia of lookin’ back so many years, but I know we did not bother with the tiny critters they serve now.
The problem is, they won’t let them grow. Whatever they decide the minimum size is that you are allowed to keep, well, that is what you get. No blue is allowed to get bigger. And the rest is economics. If people are willing to spend good money to fool with those bugs, then they won’t raise the limit size. I’m like you, and when I’m back east I don’t bother with them any more (less you pick them for me).
If you want a treat, try a Dungeness if you come out west. Now that is worth foolin’ with.
jay@justkeepthecrabsoutofmypants.gov |
