Message from the Cap’n – The Poetry of Trot-lining
Message from the Cap’n is a compilation of fishing advice, waterman and weather insights, Chesapeake lore, and ordinary malarkey from the folks who keep their feet wet in the Potomac and St. Mary’s rivers.
Trot-lining is a method catching crabs by tying hunks of bait (eels chopped into 2-inch to 3-inch pieces work especially well) every five or six feet along a long line (also known as a long rope to non-seafaring folks). Long as in 500 feet up to 1,500 feet. Keep the baited line neatly in a bucket filled with brine so the hunks of eel (or bull-lips are sometimes used) stay attractive to a crab.
Tie weights at the ends of the line to keep it on the bottom. Some yards up from the weights attach a buoy of some type to keep the line afloat above the weights.
Attach a “chock” to the side of your boat. This is any kind of spool apparatus that allows the baited trot-line to roll over it. Start at one buoy, slip the fully baited trot-line onto the chock and motor very, very slowly toward the other buoy.
As the line comes up from the water toward the chock, your goal is to net the crabs hanging onto the line, too engrossed in eating the bait to notice they’re out of the water.
The Cap’n
Dip the crabs off the line with your net, drop the crab into the basket in your boat, keep the boat running slowly and smoothly toward the buoy, get your net back in place in case the next hunk of bait has a crab, and don’t let the line fall off the chock or you have to go all the way back to the buoy to find the line and start over again.
Of course, for experts like the Cap’n, it’s as easy as a rhyme:
Let me tell you a crab trot-lining story: We need to listen to the trees.
Lessons from a Tree
- *
- 3 am is the normal wake up time
- To beat other crabbers to lay out my line
- I stopped under our Silver Maple tree
- Looking for what it had to offer me
- **
- I was trying to decide where to go,
- Hoping in the dark that it would tell me so
- I used my light to check its forecast
- Simply because the leaves do broadcast
- ***
- Leaves upright tells of fair time.
- Upside down portends raincoat clime
- Wind in the canopy tells me where to head
- Cause we need calm waters where the crabs tread
- ****
- I just hope the old 1 lung Palmer will start,
- And go slow enough so the line does not part
- Slowly, pu-chuckup, pu-chuckup she go.
- If she stays live, we will not have to row
- *****
- We stick our pole out beyond the ledge,
- Cause crabs feed better at the edge.
- Catching those Jimmies from the first light,
- Makes one’s crabbing time a delight.
- ******
- Then down the creek we go.
- Passing Skinny, Ethel and Herman Poe.
- On the Way to Cap’n Dicks to sell crabs by the pound
- And visit Cap’n Edgar for eel bait in the round.
- *******
- Oh, how I linger on those times
- Everything was of simper design.
- But I know there is no turning back
- Just my memory to keep me on track.
NOTICE:
Water temperature is very important when putting a line overboard. Crabs come out of the mud at 52 +/_. degrees, shed their shells shortly thereafter. About 30 days pass they have fattened with a hardened shell. The water temperature is then close to 70 degrees. This is the time to drop a line and catch some good fat crabs. Till then you are just wasting your time. Generally, just after Labor Day one can sufficiently fill one’s “crab tooth”
West wind is best, while East is the least favorable to support your adventure.
Slack water in early morning seems to be an optimum situation to catch your feast.
And take a youngster with you to complete your day!
Till next time, remember “It’s Our Bay, Let’s Pass It On.”
To learn about tours and trips into the Chesapeake, keep in touch with Fins + Claws on Facebook. Catch up on Messages from the Cap’n Member Page. Please visit Cap’n Jack’s lore and share with your social media sites. Or reach him here: [email protected] or 240-434-1385.
