# Freshwater Blue Crabs



## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

Yep, they are for real. These crabs were caught not far from the Dam in Livingston on the river side. Shadslinger ask me yesterday if I wanted to go, so we met up and he showed me where they were. 

These crabs traveled a long way from the bay and are so clean, it ain't funny. You talk about full of meat, these things are packed full.

I'm just about to boil the wife some and I am also about to make a shrimp and crab gumbo. Enjoy the pics...


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## just plain bill (Jul 8, 2009)

lived in crab country...maryland...i miss those crabs! blue tip everywhere!


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## Dcrawford (Jan 3, 2008)

I have heard that before! My uncle lives not to far from the dam. He fishes over that way a lot. Those look like some excellent crabs.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

And I had to grill a steak when I got home, lol. It was a good time crabbing with you Gator Gar and we made a pretty decent haul for the time we spent out there. We would have done better with a striper head for bait, but I didn't catch any this morning.
Fishinglandman is taking us in the morning in his boat for a striper, and then catfish, trip, always a great time with him, good company and we catch fish. Maybe i can talk him into picking up and hitting the river to finish the day with crabs! the crabs in the river are the best, like GG said, clean as a whistle and filled out with sweet meat.


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## dbullard (Feb 13, 2008)

wtg dynamic duo!


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

Those were some of the best crabs, I have ever wrapped my soup coolers around. I'm talking about good, real good. Kim is still in there chowing down on those crabs. 

The meat just pulls out of the shell so easily. We ate every one of the claws, before we started in on the bodies. Just wonderful.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Best eating in the river!


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

I need to get some of those for redfish bait on Fairfield....should be a killer bait.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

MDLK if your going to feed them to redfish, you can't have any, LOL! 
I bet they could make a good bait over at Fairfield, I often wonder about that, if saltwater fish will take a saltwater bait well when it lives in freshwater.
I know that below the dam a finger mullet is absolutly killer for big stripers, and Ballyhoo, but I don't know if the ones in the lake would take them readily. Because there are both ballyhoo and mullet below the dam and they are used to eating them.


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## RAYSOR (Apr 26, 2007)

Great pics GG,thanks for sharing.


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

Just recieved some great reviews on the crab and shrimp gumbo. Kim and Boo Boo seemed to have really enjoyed it.


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## tecohorn (Jun 16, 2009)

Nice pic's....

I might have to sneak down to the river after I striper fish this morning...


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Must be nice to fish and report then go crabbing and report. Im jealous guys. Sounds like a great time and some good eats.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Hey GG, Looks like they are all males. Did you cull the females? Many moons ago we would crab in the river and most of our catch was males. Strange?


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## Tiny (Dec 19, 2006)

I like me some crabs!! I've caught them way up dickinson bayou, past I-45.. but i guess that is still considered brackish water..


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## tecohorn (Jun 16, 2009)

Sunbeam said:


> Hey GG, Looks like they are all males. Did you cull the females? Many moons ago we would crab in the river and most of our catch was males. Strange?


I always thought the crabs in the trinity were mostly male saltwater crabs that just made their way up the river from trinity bay..

I remember hearing from my days in baytown that females didn't like freshwater very much but males liked low salt levels...?

I know we would normally catch nothing but males in the upper trinity bay.. But near galveston we caught a good mix of males and females..

I bet hurricane Ike washed a billion into the trinity river.... I know the storm surge was 15-25 feet high all across trinity bay and made it up to 5 miles inland..

Now that I think about it, after hurricane alicia there were more crabs than normal in the river that next summer..

In 1984 we couldn't hardly catfish at the back of holiday lakes because you would have so many crabs jumping your bait..

You would pull in your bait and have a crabs on there almost everytime..

I remember it so well because it was like 80 degrees on christmas eve 1984 and we were fishing in shorts and t shirts and just one year earlier the river had ice in it around christmas for the only time I can recall...

I think it was like 6 degrees that 1983 christmas morning.......

One year later 80 degrees..

Oh well just thinking out loud..


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## KIKO (Oct 24, 2006)

We catch them also on the Brazos in Sugar Land. They go a long way upriver. Can't keep them off the bait when catfishing. We also get reds in Sugar Land.


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## Caboman (Aug 12, 2009)

Nice looking crabs, never would have thought crabs looking like that would get that far up.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I have been crabbing the Trinity for 25 years and the males come first, you think they are good size, wait until the females come in November!


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## Caboman (Aug 12, 2009)

Do they make it as far up as the dam?


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

SS,

Fresh dead shrimp are deadly on freshwater reds....I have no reason to doubt that fresh properly presented crabs wouldn't be as equally or even more deadly.


By the way...the old Johnson sprite gold spoon with a red trailer was always my go to lure in the salt for reds...guess what works on reds at Fairfield? Same fish, just different water.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Thanks MDLK, you are right as I have heard that shrimp are great for freshwater reds. i'll try to hook you up with some crabs for bait. When are heading that way next? BTW, another keiller bait below the dam for stripers are the big river herring, sometimes they are thick back there and can be caught on small jigs. We would hook one up to 12" and lob it up there, it would always be a good striper that busted that.


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## tecohorn (Jun 16, 2009)

shadslinger said:


> I have been crabbing the Trinity for 25 years and the males come first, you think they are good size, wait until the females come in November!


I wonder if that the same in the bay.... I'm not sure If I've ever been crabing in the fall.... Just the summer...

The only crabs I caught in the river where the ones I caught catfishing and never made a point of it..

I think i'll try it out since my farm is so close to the river...

It would be nice if they would migrate up my creek, it's just 1.5 twisting miles to the river... But I've never seen one...

Alligators and shad every once in a blue moon.... but no crabs...


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## dbullard (Feb 13, 2008)

Wow I never thouht a couple men with crabs would cause such a fuss!!LOL


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## Redfishon (Nov 10, 2005)

I like these beter
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/cowboytongue/P1010155.jpg 
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/cowboytongue/P1010153.jpg

Video crab noodling


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## Kenner21 (Aug 25, 2005)

I had no idea they traveled tha far north, interesting. Yall catching them from a boat or the bank?


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

Kenner21 said:


> I had no idea they traveled tha far north, interesting. Yall catching them from a boat or the bank?


From the boat. Kinda ghetto style, but it worked.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

"Kinda ghetto style", my self I was wondering what the po folk were going eat that night.
Once when a really mean old blue was being real hard to break off the bottom and start towards the boat, GG said it "might be a rock crab!", LOL!
Cowboytounge I have not seen but a handful of rock crabs North of Rockport. Those big ones look like they came from the tropics!


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## Redfishon (Nov 10, 2005)

shadslinger said:


> "Kinda ghetto style", my self I was wondering what the po folk were going eat that night.
> Once when a really mean old blue was being real hard to break off the bottom and start towards the boat, GG said it "might be a rock crab!", LOL!
> Cowboytounge I have not seen but a handful of rock crabs North of Rockport. Those big ones look like they came from the tropics!


All out of PortA area..No joke..


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## RAYSOR (Apr 26, 2007)

Hey GG, I will trade you some PVC, for some crabs. LOL


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## jferrell1211 (May 18, 2006)

I live near the Trinity, near Hwy 105, we have had crabs doen here forever, the thing is, is it legal to take them? the TPWD booklet says it;s illegal north of I-10...just wondering....not slamming at all, I would love to go a half mile from home and fill up with 'em...


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## jferrell1211 (May 18, 2006)

AHA!!! got impatient so I looked up the regs....it only says that you can;t use a traditional crab trap in fresh water....sweet, going to get me some crabs!!!


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

jferrell1211 said:


> AHA!!! got impatient so I looked up the regs....it only says that you can;t use a traditional crab trap in fresh water....sweet, going to get me some crabs!!!


I was checking it out too. I knew we couldn't set the crab traps out, but was pretty sure we could crab with hand lines.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Want crabs? See new post.
SS


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## CableDawg (Jan 26, 2010)

where do you catch the crabs at and how(traps? fish heads on line? chicken?) thanks


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Drop nets with fish heads, or chicken parts, or the best, free range chickens. you can also tie them to a line on your rod and cast out, get them with a long handled net when close, takes skill!


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## duhunter (Nov 17, 2009)

Anyone ever thought of using a piece of sewer drainage pipe with holes in it with a cap on one end with the bait on the cap end and lower it in to the water for crab fishing?


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## essayons75 (May 15, 2006)

shadslinger said:


> Drop nets with fish heads, or chicken parts, or the best, *free range chickens*. you can also tie them to a line on your rod and cast out, get them with a long handled net when close, takes skill!


I bet it does take skill to net them *free range chickens*, mad for being cast out and flapping like crazy because a crab is eatin' on 'um. Not to mention not being fed any yummy hormones all their lives. :wink::rotfl:


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## LaPorteDon (Jun 23, 2009)

shadslinger said:


> Drop nets with fish heads, or chicken parts, or the best, free range chickens. you can also tie them to a line on your rod and cast out, get them with a long handled net when close, takes skill!


One thing my wife and son like almost as much as I do is blue crab. I never thought of crabbing the river. Is there a "prime time" part of the year to get out there and give it a try? I'd like to mix some catfishing in with the crabbing. Catfish and crab; sounds like a dinner worth working for to me.:cop:


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## RiverRat1962 (Mar 23, 2009)

Blue crabs used to be thick in the river around Romayor. Hard to fish because of them, they built some sort of salt water barrier down around Anahuac south of I-10 and the crabs are not so dense now, I still catch a few, even cought a few flounder in the river back in the early 80s. There's a picture of a flounder that was caught below the dam back in the day at Browders marina.


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## RodneyReeL (Oct 23, 2009)

i need some of them crabs ri-there


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