THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030163
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 214 lines
When the stick protruding from the surface of Little Creek wiggled, Kazen Burke of Virginia Beach ran, splashing, to get to the string attached to it.
It was obvious that something was tugging on the string's opposite end, invisible in the shallow green-brown water 15 feet offshore.
The 11-year-old slowly began pulling the string in. ``Bring the net! Bring the net, man! Hurry up, before it gets off!''
He barked his orders at Randy Boston, who took his time picking up the 5-foot-long crab net and sauntering down the shoreline to where the excited boy stood in the knee-deep water.
The string went slack. A fat Jimmy crab swam away after releasing its grip on the chicken neck attached to the business end.
Scowling like a basketball player called for a foul he didn't commit, the boy admonished Boston in terms most 11-year-olds have yet to learn.
``I hope he bites you on the toe,'' Burke said.
His attention span was broken when Marilyn Haynes, standing nearby, yelled, ``I've got one! Bring the net!''
This time Boston, a visitor from North Carolina, was quicker. He eased the net under another fat crab chewing on another chicken neck and lifted both high into the air. The crab quickly went into a big pot. The chicken neck went back into the water.
Scenes like this have been repeated thousands of times this summer as recreational crabbers have swarmed to accessible shorelines in Hampton Roads and Northeastern North Carolina for one of summer's most popular pastimes.
``Recreation? It's not a recreation to me,'' said Haynes. ``I'm not out here for fun. I'm out here because I love to eat crabs.''
The bottom line is that recreational crabbers can have both. It's fun to catch crabs and they are unquestionably one of the world's great delicacies.
If the pure, white meat wasn't delicious, people wouldn't pay the $20 a pound lump backfin sometimes brings in grocery stores.
The crab scarcities of the past three years may have reduced the number of crustaceans available, but it hasn't dimmed the appetite of those who either crab for fun, for food or for a combination of the two.
``We have people calling all the time to see if the crabs are running,'' said Jim Harrison of Harrison's Pier in the Ocean View section, one of the most popular crabbing spots in Hampton Roads.
``If we have crabs, the pier can get packed, especially on the shallow end, where most are caught. We just never know when a run's going to develop.
``We had a great run about three weeks ago. The first third of the pier was almost elbow-to-elbow. People were carrying off crabs in pots, pans, coolers, buckets, even plastic bags.
``It could happen again tomorrow. Or it might not happen again all year. I hope it does. We do a lot of business with crabbers.''
Jim Henley, owner of a tackle shop at 17th Street on the Virginia Beach oceanfront, said he averages selling perhaps 36 crab nets a week to recreational crabbers.
``It's off a little since crabs have been scarce for the past couple of years,'' he said. ``But people love to crab. It's fun. Catch a few crabs, drink a few beers. Beats working.''
While the season's popularity peaks in summer, recreational crabbers who store their traps, twine and chicken parts after Labor Day make a big mistake, said Janie Nixon of Norfolk.
She should know. A resident of the Ingleside area, Nixon is a commercial crabber, fishing a string of 300 2-foot-square pots strung all over the Elizabeth River.
``The biggest, fattest crabs are caught in September and October, even into November,'' she said.
Crabs are a lot like bears. They hibernate, digging into the mud and sand to spend the coldest months of the year. Like bears, they first stuff themselves, storing body weight to last until the following spring.
Kim and Diedra Stephenson of Norfolk, regulars at Harrison's, crab until the crabs stop running.
``It's fun, a good way to spend some time together,'' said Diedra Stephenson. ``My father was a fishermen. He'd bring my sisters and me out here and let us catch crabs while he fished. We were seven or eight years old.
``I love to steam them, pick them and eat them. I love steamed crab and I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't. The meat is so sweet, so good. I can almost taste it just thinking about it.
``It took me a while to learn to handle them, though. If you aren't careful, they can bite and it really, really hurts.''
The only way to pick up a crab, Jimmy or baby, is by grabbing it at the point where the back fin goes into the body. Grab anywhere else and it can get you.
That reminds me of a story.
When I was a kid on the Eastern Shore, I worked in a soft-crab-shedding house operated by the late Henry Parks, a native of Tangier. We bought peeler crabs, held them in lattice floats until they shed, and then packed and shipped the soft crabs to northern markets.
The operation was near the foot of the public wharf in Harborton on Pungoteague Creek. The wharf also was used as a loading site by commercial crabbers who brought their catches ashore in barrels, to be loaded into trucks and taken to crab-picking establishments.
At times, scores of barrels of live crabs would be assembled on the wharf, waiting to be transported. They were a great attraction to out-of-town visitors.
Now, a crab, even in such confines, defends itself vigorously. So when a lady visitor teased a big Jimmy on top of one of the barrels, I cautioned her about how much it would hurt if the crab bit her.
I went about my business, but in a few moments, I was interrupted by the woman's frantic screams.
It was obvious what had happened. A crab had her by the finger. The blood flowed as she wildly shook the beast, trying to get free but merely compounding the crab's determination to hold tight.
I finally got the thing removed and covered the wound with a bandage. I admonished her for not following my advice.
``I was watching his mouth,'' she explained, ``and his arm bit me.''
I think that's what Kazen Burke wished on Randy Boston. MEMO: Related stories are on page C5.
HOT SPOTS< In Virginia and North Carolina, you can catch crabs just
about anywhere you find tidal or even brackish water. But they're not in
all places at all times, and you might have to test several spots
before you settle on one to your liking.
Remember, too, that some spots are better at certain seasons. For
example, the Lynnhaven Inlet Fishing Pier in Virginia Beach can be
really good in the fall, when many crabs are migrating out of the
Chesapeake Bay.
Here's a look at a few of the more productive spots. Some are private
and fee-charging, others accessible to the general public. Some are
supposedly accessible by permission only:
Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads fishing piers, including Willoughby
Bay and Harrison's in Norfolk's Ocean View section; the Lynnhaven Pier
just east of Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach; the Grandview and
Buckroe Beach piers in Hampton; and the James River Bridge pier in
downtown Newport News (regular admission fees are charged, averaging
around $5).
The Narrows, 64th Street extended, in Virginia Beach. This is in
Seashore State Park and off the oceanfront.
Either side of the Lynnhaven Inlet Bridge as well as at the southwest
tip of the big mound of sand inside the bridge on the Norfolk side.
The shoreline near the small boat ramp on the Lafayette River. It's
behind Virginia Zoological Park off Granby Street in Norfolk.
The area adjacent to the public boat ramp at City Park in Portsmouth,
off Portsmouth Boulevard and City Park Avenue.
The foot of any bridge across the Elizabeth River and its
tributaries, including the Lafayette River, Broad Creek and Western
Branch.
Either side of the bridge across Little Creek in Norfolk, on Shore
Drive just north of Little Creek Road.
Anywhere you can find access on Back Bay in Virginia Beach, with the
shoreline directly across from the Little Island Fishing Pier, a
favorite and productive spot.
Any access point on North Carolina's Currituck Sound.
Chicken Neck Point, so named because of its popularity with crabbers,
in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on the road to Collington Island. There's a
parking lot at the west foot of the first bridge. This is one of the
most popular crabbing spots in either state.
NAME GAME
A crab by any other name is still a crab. But if you're a
recreational crabber, you still need to know the various crab names and
their differences.
Blue crab: The common Chesapeake Bay crab.
Hard crab: Any mature male or female crab.
Jimmy or Jimmie: A mature male crab, distinguishable by a sharply
pointed apron flap on its white underside.
Sook: A mature female crab, distinguishable by an almost half-round
apron flap. Immature females have a triangular-shaped apron flap.
Busted sook: A mature female on which an orange to brown-black egg
cluster has formed or is forming under its apron flap.
Lemon sook: Another name for a busted sook, used on the Eastern Shore
and on Tangier Island.
Peeler: An immature crab, male or female, which is preparing to shed
its hard outer shell and become a larger soft crab.
Soft crab: A crab which has shed its hard outer shell. A delicacy
when cleaned and fried or sauteed.
Buster: A peeler crab which has started to shed, or ``bust'' out of
its hard shell, preparing to become a soft crab.
Buckram: A soft crab which has started to harden or stiffen and
become a hard crab.
BOB HUTCHINSON
THE RULES
Recreational crabbers are limited to keeping one bushel per day.
Hard crabs must measure at least five inches from point-to-point
across the top shell.
Pregnant female (sook) crabs are legal if they have a yellow or
orange egg cluster; however, if the egg cluster is brown or brown-black,
they are illegal.
Each full bushel of crabs may contain a tolerance (not an allowance)
of 10 females with brown or brown-black egg clusters.
Each unlicensed (recreational) person is limited to two pots or
traps, although you may have two for each member of your immediate
family accompanying you.
You may purchase an annual $29 recreational crab-pot license and use
as many as five pots per license. The limit is still one bushel per day.
Sunday crabbing is illegal if you hold the above license. It is not
if you are unlicensed.
A crab pot or trap may be the collapsible kind you buy at a tackle
shop, hardware store or other retail outlet, or it may be identical to
those 2-foot-square wire pots, employing crab-pot floats, used by
commercial crabbers.
Conventional wire pots must contain two ``cull'' or escape rings, one
in the top section, one in the lower, measuring at least 2 5/16 inches
in diameter.
There is no limit on the number of twine or string baits an
individual may use.
Recreational crabbers may not crab from private property without the
landowner's permission.
If you have additional questions, you may call the Virginia Marine
Resources Commission's Hampton Roads (local) number: 247-2200.
- Established by the Virginia Marine Fisheries Commission: ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Ten-year-old Alex Koufus of Herndon, Va., pulls in his line from a
piling recently in Collington, N.C. A fellow crabber is poised with
the net to scoop up any dandling crittters.
Tiziano Margnini of Milan, Italy, pulls a blue crab from the netting
in Collington, N.C.
Photo by DREW WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Ken and Janet Pittman of Richmond wait for a crab to take their bait
as a mototrboat's wake passes. by CNB