Don't bother me... I'm crabbing!

My cousin and her husband invited me out to Maryland to go crabbing! For you midwesterners, that means we take the boat into the bay to catch Maryland Blue Crabs. I love to eat crabs and have become quite the seafood snob. After having fresh steamed crabs from Maryland, nothing else really comes close.

I had to take a little vacation from my vacation in Denver, and headed to Maryland to hang out with my mom's side of the family! I stayed with my cousin Laurie and her husband Mike and their little munchkin Mikey! My Aunt Pam, Uncle George, and other cousin Scooter came to hang out too! We hung around by the pool for most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday was the big day! Wake up call at 0500 and we were on the water at 0600. This was my first time crabbing and apparently one of the biggest tricks to catching lots of crabs is drinking beer while crabbing. I wasn't going to be the reason that we didn't catch a ton of crabs, so I happily cracked my first beer about 6am while we were looking for the perfect place to drop the line.


I had the best teachers!! Mike and his friend Chris helped me master my crabbing technique. We dropped a 1,000 foot trout line in the water with eel tied on every few feet as bait. The idea is that the crabs start enjoying a little breakfast on the trout line as we hook the line on the boat. The boat slowly drives along the line and the "crabber" stands near the front of the boat with a net to scoop up the crabs that attached themselves to the line. The crabber scoops the crab out of the water and into a basket on the boat.

Then, the crabber needs to sort the crabs. You aren't allowed to keep any of the small crabs (I can't remember the exact measurements) or any females. This was my least favorite part of the day because those little buggers are pretty pissed about being in a basket on a boat and have pretty sharp claws! You get to wear gloves, but they can definitely pinch through the gloves... and it does hurt;) This was probably the most entertaining part for everyone else on the boat because I was screaming and dancing around like an idiot!



It was sooo much fun! We were out there until about noon! Every time I missed a crab, or threw it over the front of the boat back into the water, everyone else on the boat insisted that crab was "the biggest crab they had ever seen" (every time I missed one!) Then we headed back to Laurie and Mikes house to steam the crabs and eath them!


This is the buschel of crabs we caught...



...and here is about half of them steamed and ready to eat.

This was an amazing experience that I can't wait to do again next year, but the time I got to spend with that side of my family was absolutely priceless!!!!