Corpusfishing.com

[reallifetexan]

All my life coming down here, I've only very rarely seen adult stone crabs around this area, and have never done anything with the few I caught in traps except throw them back. With the advent of Youtube, I've watched the folks in Florida go to great lengths to catch and eat the claws. It's currently stone crab season in Florida.

I now live down here permanently, and I put out a few traps off my pier this past week, and twice in a row I've caught one very large stone crab with both claws on them. I finally harvested one claw from each one, boiled it along with the blue crabs I caught, and tried it. Man, have I been missing out all these years. It's really good, better than blue crab, and I really like blue crab. If only I could reliably catch them more often. Now I see why everyone freaks out about them in Florida...

Does anyone know if now is the time of year to try to catch them, or is there some other time of year where they are more plentiful? I figured if it's stone crab season in Florida right now, it must be the right time of year for them here as well. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Indeed, stone crabs are great. Abundant on the jetties and serpulid reefs in Baffin. They come and go in abundance with the salinity.
Unlike FL, we don't have a specific 'season', so if you got a honey hole for them, knock yourself out!

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/shellfish-regulations/crab-and-ghost-shrimp-legal-devices-and-restrictions

[reallifetexan]

This is a pic of the stone crab claw. There's a lot of meat in one of these.

I was also surprised at the size of this blue crab that was with it:



Granted, the top shell is off, but you get the idea even without it. It was also one of the most aggressive crabs I've caught. Guess he got that big for a reason...

[Central Scrutinizer]

That looks tasty!
I've been to Alaska, and had fresh King Crab, Snow Crab, been to Maine and had lobster (-don't knock the slipper lobsters here in the Gulf!!),
by my all-time favorite is still Dungeness Crabs!

[ziacatcher]

Tried catching crabs it might canal the last several weeks and the only thing that's been eating my beats has been hardheads

[Southeast Of Disorder]

I dont eat crabs anymore, but use them for bait.

We found a friend once floating facedown with his stringer wrapped around him several times. His body was like an Island of crabs all over.........