I grew up spending my week-ends on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay where eating crabs is a religion. You could be ex-communicated for boiling crabs up there. The prefered method is to steam them in a pot with a tight fitting lid. At most, a beer can of water is added to a 20 quart pot. The crabs contain plenty of water to steam them right. On the Baltimore side of the bay the prefered seasoning is Old Bay. Wye River seasoning is popular on the eastern shore. However, the most traditional recipe is to use mixed pickling spice (www.lontano.com).
Crabs, fresh sweet corn and tomatoes with cold beer is a true feast in that part of the world!

Chuck

Hey Chuck, I spent 5 years in Bowie Md between Annapolis and DC and have experienced the nirvana that is a Md crab feast. Only place I've ever seen that puts on a food feast similar to my own crawfish boils.

We are heading to Galveston Island State Park this next week. Any suggestions on where to take the kids to catch a few crabs?

seanf - I just came from down there this past week and several folks had been catching quite a few crabs off the piers on the beachfront. Since you're going to be at the state park, you might want to try the canals or bay front across the highway (other portion of the park) since it has a little deeper water.

Use fish heads for bait...I always had better success with them. If you can find someone cleaning fish, ask them to give you some of the backbones/heads for crabbing bait. Quite a few folks use chicken necks also.

Good luck and drink plenty of water.

Chris

a good place to catch crabs is around the fish cleaning houses aroung the public boat ramps just my 2 cents

Thanks for the suggestions guys. One other thing, can I use my regular fishing net, or do I need a net specifically for crabs?

Check these helpfull websites:

http://www.blue-crab.org/catching_crabs.htm


http://www.beach-net.com/crabs/Crabnet.html

http://www.heff.net/crabbing/

http://crabguide.t35.com/crabmethod.htm