Slice of Bayou Life (Crabbing)

In this post I will be talking about crabbing if you don't know what that is you will, after you finish reading this post for starters lets look at the top three when it comes to crabbing.

The Captain is the person who by his,or her experience knows where to go,and Knows how to go about doing the work.

The Boat without it we'd be sunk, it keeps us afloat,and allows us to crab further than just

at the dock.

The Traps are to catch the crabs,although they've been known to catch more than just that; flounder, trout, turtles, otters, birds, stingrays, jellyfish, alligators etc...

My Dad(trust me he's in there somewhere), going to throw a few crabtraps.

Next stop is Jughead's seafood to buy bait for the traps.

                  Above is the usual bait we get, it has been pixelated

                           for the faint of heart,and weak of stomach.

                                     


After the traps are baited, It's time to head home,and get the boat ready for the next morning, starting with  loading crates and pans into the boat,and then getting a good nights rest.

                              Crate is on the left Pan on the right
                   Crates can hold more crabs,but Pans are more durable.


Now that we have our equipment it's time to introduce our crabbing gear.

          Shrimping boats also used for Crabbing, Oystering, and so on
          used to keep feet dry,and well insulated during the colder months.


          Below is one of our "Slicker Suits" which serves a similiar purpose

                             

            After we Catch the Crabs we have to sort them by size,and gender
            without the Crab Tongs it would mean picking them by hand
            which isn't always a fun experience.

             This little tool helps keep our hands from being damaged
             May God bless the man that invented it.

And now we have two crabs two show, the one on the left is clearly a female,and the one on the right
is clearly a male in size the male would be considered a number 2 which means that it's not as big as a number one, but it is to big to be consider a small, or factory crab. this one was in a fight before it was caught
as you can see it has lost a claw, which will grow back in time. One of the ways you can tell the difference between these two crabs is that the female has red tips on the claws,and the male has purple tips.

I can still remember after we finished running all our traps we would go to the bank, and just listen to the crabs sing, before we went home we would drop the crabs off, then make sure our boat was securely strapped to the truck,and then we were homeward bound.