Jump to content

A few hours crabbing with the GreatGrandsons


Old Boggy
 Share

Recommended Posts

Our son and daughter-in-law were looking after their Grandsons for the weekend so decided to come our way yesterday for the lads to go crabbing on our local pier.

Armed with a baited drop net they were soon hauling up two or three at a time which, bearing in mind the net had hardly touched the bottom, than it was halfway up again, as is the impatience of youngsters, there must have been plenty of crabs about.

It was great to see many Dads, Grandads & in My case GreatGrandad along the pier watching their youngsters excitement as another net of crabs was hauled over the side of the railings and gingerly put in their buckets full of sea water.

What a pleasant and cheap way of spending a couple of hours out in the fresh air for kids to enjoy such simple pleasures well away from their modern gadgetry which seem to dominate their lives these days, if allowed to !

After a while, along came a guy in a Hi-Viz jacket, looked in our lads bucket and asked "How many have you got?"   "Hundreds" was the youngest one`s reply. A slight exaggeration as I think at that time there were probably around twenty, but you couldn`t knock the lads enthusiasm.

"You know that you`re only allowed 5 at any one time in a bucket, haven`t you read the notice?" barked the `Official`

Now, I was totally unaware that there is a Crustacean section of the UCHR which dictates that only 5 crabs are allowed to live in harmony in any one bucket. :mad:

All was revealed when said `Official` turned away and boldly emblazoned on his back for all to see were the words `CRABBING MARSHAL`:w00t:

What an absolute Jobsworth. 

Someone on the council certainly had a sense of humour when they came up with that little gem of a title. It`s certainly not a job or position that I would want or wish to aspire to.:lol:

At the end of our session all crabs were carefully returned back into the sea at the waters edge, much to the delight of the lads watching them crawl back into the water and to safety.

It was a lovely few hours out in the fresh air and not something the lads get to do very often in deepest Buckinghamshire.

No crabs were harmed in the typing of this post. :yahoo:

Thanks for reading.

OB

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, mossy835 said:

nice you spent time with them,bet they had a great time, nothing like being with the grand kids,im waiting for my son and 3 grand kids to come, we are out on the quad bike soon .

We did all have a great time, then went on to play `Ducks & Drakes` on the shore. Of course, GreatGrandad won, not because I`m any better at it, but that I was choosing the flattest stones that skimmed more. It`s not worth getting old if you can`t get crafty:whistling:

 

3 minutes ago, 7daysinaweek said:

What a brilliant way to spend a few hours for the grandchildren.

Someone should drop a few crabs down that marshals pants. :lol:

:good:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahh yes now were you catching the common green 🤔

Or the rarest of rare red ones as we all know them is tricky devils to catch 😉

well they are around here infuriatingly harder to catch than the common green 😂😂😂

great to know I’m not the only one who enjoys taking the grandkids out to enjoy the simpler things 😊👍

we use a net bag hero stuffed with bait and you have to haul them in without them dropping off far more skilful than a drop net 😂😂😂

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Eastern Europeans used to catch them by the thousand off the sea wall around the south west side of Poole Harbour using multiple drop nets.

Then they chuck the buckets containing the crabs into the back of their cars in the late afternoon and drive off with them.

I have wondered many times what they do with them? Can you eat them?  There hardly seems enough meat inside such a tiny shell to make it worth the effort?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brilliant way to spend a few hours with the grand kids , plenty of fresh air and a good possability they will catch something , as for so many Crabs in a bucket :hmm:, never heard of that , I don't think the warden, or whoever he would like to be called would last long telling the ole boys at Cromer they can only put so many in a container , interfaring with there way of life would be asking for trouble and he could end up being used for Crab bait in Davy Jones locker , in a oblong container that is only suitable for one person of course :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/09/2023 at 15:42, Old farrier said:

Ahh yes now were you catching the common green 🤔

Or the rarest of rare red ones as we all know them is tricky devils to catch 😉

well they are around here infuriatingly harder to catch than the common green 😂😂😂

great to know I’m not the only one who enjoys taking the grandkids out to enjoy the simpler things 😊👍

we use a net bag hero stuffed with bait and you have to haul them in without them dropping off far more skilful than a drop net 😂😂😂

 

Yes, OF they were the common green crabs. In my younger fishing days (probably 50 odd years ago) we used to find the `peelers` (green crabs that had shed their shells) under the rocks where they hid whilst they were most vulnerable with their soft shells to any predator. This was the best bait at the time (and probably still is) for thornback rays, bass and any of the smaller shark family found in our waters, namely spurdog, bull huss and dogfish etc.

Happy days

OB 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...