Got Crabs!!
 

In the redfish post, I said we had picked up some crabs, but not enough to make a meal.
Well, yesterday we went out for a couple of hours and while I fished, wife picked up 10 more so had enough to pick out.



https://i.imgur.com/2LyiYgrh.jpg

these are the bodies after cleaning top shell,guts and trimming mouth and legs

https://i.imgur.com/iDXKUPah.jpg

this is the body after steaming

https://i.imgur.com/5tzOGPBh.jpg

this is the body cut in half horizontally, exposing the inner chambers of legs

https://i.imgur.com/qdbxA7Xh.jpg

my favorite, claws prepped and ready for frying

https://i.imgur.com/cQcAlipl.jpg

the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, about a pound of fresh crabmeat

lotta work, but so much better than the pasteurized canned stuff

Beautiful phat, I never perfected that technique but it looks like you have it down to the T. Nice job

Not me ,Blue. I clean,steam and prep them
My wife catches and picks them

That s why we ve been married 36 years

Oh man, my mouth is watering.

Phat, you should never post pictures of crabs on this site especially when I'm hungry , you should give a warning
These pictures are for mature people who are not Hungry. If you look at these pictures. , do it at your own risk, you have been warned
P.S. Where is the cross and Blackwell seafood sauce?
My mouth is watering, thanks phat.

I love crabs and yours really looked delicious. :clap: I was going to post this yesterday, but got caught up doing something. Those crabs made me hungry for my crabs.:love:

Alright ....STOP IT... Just STOP IT ALL OF YOU!! I'm on a diet and the last thing I need to see is a plate full of crabs, butter and seafood sauce.!

old buddy of mine had a little flat bottom skiff with a 9.9 on the back. we used to put along the marsh (we have tons of marsh) with a car headlight hooked up to a 12 volt and you'd see the biggies swimming in a foot of water. just scoop 'em up and finish the night with a hundred crabs or better. there were no regs back then but we never took an egger or anything too small.
his wife was a brilliant cook and she would make the sauce while we were crabbing. usually finished up with a solid 6 to 10 pounds of beautiful, clean lump.
cakes.
salad.
stuffing for flounder.
in red sauce.
just any way you could think of to make fresh crabs. i miss those days.

still can't figure out how to post a photo but he had a crabmaster meat extractor. best dam crab meater you ever saw. you could pick a dozen crabs in less than 2 minutes. they're not cheap, if you can still find them.
the crab master crab meat extractor. check it out, if you have a spare $hundo sitting around.

Charlie, are u talking about one of those big roller things, if so, I ll pass. I bought one and tried it, did not like the consistency of the meat turned it to mush. I didn***8217;t t like that the crab meat was uncooked.

I ended up giving it to a buddy and he passed it on to someone else

Our crab population has suffered a lot in the last 15 years, like most fisheries In Florida.

Too many people!!

Phat, you are 100% right, in those last 15 years the crabs have really declined, I use to go out a get a bushel without a problem. Then I noticed the amount of people crabbing had almost tripled and as the years went on it got worse, it was hard to even get a couple of dozen and I was crabbing in Staten Island, Brooklyn, but mostly in New Jersey.
G

Phat, yeah. that's the one. big white plastic thing. it was perfect if you were making a crabmeat stuffing. one just sold on ebay for $405 bucks!! i couldn"t believe it.
beat the crap out of picking 6 or 8 dozen crabs.
and yeah, the population has turned to sh!t. we used to walk the canals by where i grew up. i was a couple blocks away from 3 good canals with navy bulkhead. we used to walk the bulkhead and scoop them right off the wall. sometimes as many as 100 crabs in under an hour. big a$$ crabs too. now? half the size and 1/4 the numbers.