Crabbing With Pots & Trotlines

Crab floats on the Annemessex River
Photo Credit: Ron Fortin

If you want to start catching more than just a few crabs for you and your friends to enjoy, you will need more than hand lines and nets. To really catch enough for a sizeable feast you will need a boat and at least two or three crab pots or a trot line.

Crab Pots
Crab pots are metal mesh boxes used to trap crabs - you can get these at most local bait shops and discount stores. They have a built in compartment for your bait. A recreational crabber may not use the cubical wire mesh crab pot in Maryland unless you are a waterfront property owner with not more than 2 pots tied to your dock or tied to a pole or buoyed within 100 yards of the property. Virginia allows recreational crab pot use.

Tie one end of a rope line to your pot.
On the other end of your line tie a floater. This is a marker so you can find your pot again. Commercial pots usually have an identifying number attached to the floater. You can make a floater with an empty milk bottle with the lid screwed on tight. Write your name on it with a permanent oil paint (markers will fade).
Fill your bait compartment.
Throw your pot from your dock or boat.
When you retrieve your pot, open the top and shake out the crabs into a bushel basket or a cooler with ice.

Trotline
Undoubtedly the most efficient means of crabbing, using a trotline requires more equipment than the preceding methods. Maryland recreational crab trotliners need a rec crab license. Equipmant you'll need:

boat
2 short lengths of chain
2 small boat grapnels or any heavy weights
4 20-foot lenths of line (In Maryland the trotline cannot exceed 1200 feet.)
3/8 inch cotton or hemp rope less than 1000 feet long
Floats (In Maryland floats must be of the same color, size and shape on each end and round ones must be at least 12 inches in diameter and floats of other shapes must be 10" in width and 12" in length.)
1 or 2 bushel baskets (2 bushels per boat per day is the limit)
1 long handled net using 1 or 1-1/4 inch poultry wire preferably, or a regular net will do
Tongs

Constructing Your Trotline
1. Use your single long line as a bait line. Attach the chains, one at each end.
2. To each of the chains, attach one short rope. Attach a plastic float at each end.
3. From each of the floats, attach the remaining lengths of rope with an anchor (weight) tied securely to each
4. To bait your line, use chicken necks, salted eel, beef tripe, bull lips or other tough bait that can't be eaten too quickly. Attach the bait to the line at 3 to 4 foot intervals.
5. Carefully coil your bait and place it in a plastic tub with a strong brine solution (4 pounds of salt to 5 gallons of water). This is a good way to store bait if you're not going to use it right away.

Commercial crab boat returning with their catch.
Photo Credit: Charlie Petrocci

Fishing Your Trotline
1. You can fish a trotline from a row boat or small power boat. Throw the first end of the trotline overboard and play out the line as the boat moves. When you reach the other end of the line, drop the second anchor overboard. Return to the first buoy and begin crabbing.

2. Check your bait from time to time and replace any that has been eaten. Store your bait and your baited line in dry salt to cover or in a brine solution. This prevents the bait from spoiling.

3. Grasp the bait line and pull it slowly to the surface. Bring the crabs close to the net without scaring them. Net them and toss them into a bushel basket. As you work the line and are waiting for more crabs to bite, size your crabs. Tongs are helpful for handling crabs. Release undersized crabs immediately. Toss legal ones into your bushel basket. Keep a wet cover (canvas or burlap) to keep the crabs alive and prevent them from escaping.

It is best to throw in your pots in the morning and empty them in the late afternoon or early evening.

If you leave your pots unattended for too many days the crabs will run out of bait to eat and will eat each other and/or die. This will leave you with very few left
that you can cook.

Unless you plan to begin catching crabs commercially it is unlikely you will need a lot of pots or trot lines. But if that is your aim, be sure to read the latest commercial regulations for crabbers.

When boating always do your best to avoid the lines attached to crab pots and their markers. You will be glad your boat propeller does not become tangled and the crabber will be glad that you have not moved their pot or cut it loose
from its marker.

Never ever take crabs from someone else's crab pot.

This site was designed, illustrated, and compiled by Dana Kester McCabe of Moonshell Productions with some content provided by Kate O'Mara. The site content was edited by Kat Harting of Skipjack.net. All questions and comments about the site should be directed to the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore: email dskuennen@mail.umes.edu or call 410-651-6183.

This site is funded by the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore through a grant from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.