Got Crabs!!

[phatdaddy]

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.

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

this is the body after steaming

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

my favorite, claws prepped and ready for frying

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

 

[Blue_Runner]

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

 

[phatdaddy]

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

That s why we ve been married 36 years

 

[scook]

Oh man, my mouth is watering.

 

[steplift20]

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.

 

[Giorgio]

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

 

[Destroyer]

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.!

 

[charlie_the_tuna]

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.

 

[charlie_the_tuna]

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.

 

[phatdaddy]

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!!

 

[Giorgio]

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

 

[charlie_the_tuna]

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.