| Show CRAB CEAB CATCHING A popular fall sport on the atlantic coast points for the InItIated in the art of 0 nabbing tho the nimble crustacean an inexpensive pastime tor for old aud ami young out of the wide spreading sack meadows and along r the shrewsbury annew in new jersey in all al the shallow bays and inlets of lou long island and the connecticut shore there nowadays is great fun afloat says the new kew york world every man woman ande and child hild eliat can pole a square ended scow or handle a scoop net is prowling along the creek banks or drifting up the shoal coves li netting etting crabs this is the heart of the crab season the biggest 6 and fattest of the blue claws are arc now hunting tideway and creek capek coming and going with every tide hungry and caper anger as they sail in on the flood and coy and well fed as they lazily depart on the ebb every one who wants to go crabbing and cant is profoundly to be pitied and the few who can and dont want to either cither do not realize what a satisfying all absorbing pastime it is or else they have lost interest in life it is an inexpensive pastime and the bishin fishing grounds nm near boar at hand F for or the matter of that a man may take his wife and children along lie ile has only to look up the time of tide and train schedules buy a net for a quarter a dozen baits bait of tou tough h raw moat meat and and a ball of twine for a line shoulder his basket and start ile he must try to time liis his departure so as to reach the crock on the rising tide for mr crall crab comes in very lame and hungry from the sea and bites carly eagerly c then what a few hours later lie he will turn ap his well fed nose at and imore ignore it if you cannot or do not care to hire a boat the accommodating crab will humor you and let you capture him from the muddy bank dank bank fishing is done by driving little stakes in the edge of the shore at about a rods distance apart and to each cadi of these t tying ing 11 a line about twelve feet ion long on which you have tied a bit of meat meat if the current bothers you voll you should have some small sinkers along alon for if the meat fl floats flit it on top few c crabs abs will notice it ten or a dozen lines are all one party can manage generally for the crabs feed like newsboys at a christmas dinner the man who handles the net will have his hands full running from one line to another as some one yells alere dont wait all day there are arc two old lappers cappers lichel cerep or come quick come quick this one will let go one of the beauties of the s sport p ort is that the children can all help even the little shaver of ei eight ht or nine can be shown how to dra draw ow in his crab gently and slowly slow and then how to tenderly lift him till the net has him fast The women all like it if too I 1 like ike to shout over sli in the mud like to scream when a crab gets out ol of the basket or net and runs run sideways at the their ir feet and like above all to have found an outdoor sport in which they can join their husbands and boys and it is not like wooing the lie trout or fickle black bass when one may toil day after day with little or no profit just because he has not on a darker or brighter fly if one I 1 is not blest with wife and little one and is going alone he be may try a still more exciting form of the sport that is what is technically known as nabbing nabbing consists in floating up with the tide over shallows and scooping up the crabs as they feed or run without the use of bait now from the number of his pedal extremities the quickness of his queer bulging 1 eyes and his ability to start in any direction without turning the crab could not be called by his bitterest crie enemies a sluggish or a clumsy fish when he has a particular reason for going up creek toward a certain bed of eel grass or sea lettice and gives his personal attention to the subject it takes a gentleman of considerable agility to intercept his flight no dreamy absentminded absent minded or profoundly thoughtful person should try to nab the thread of their reasoning is apt to be abruptly severed by a plunge into the black ooze of the creek the stands at one end or if there are two nab bers one at each crud end and they simply let the boat drift with the tide along the shore Is a favorite haunt of crabs crab rather than in the middle of the bay or creek perhaps because floasin floating bits of food are apt to lodge in the be sedge dge the net whose thirteen or fifteen inch frame seemed so large when you bought it now seems as small as an arrow point when you drive it at a 0 vanishing crab and miss him clean too vicious a thrust often of ten sticks the net deep in the mud bottom and if you are am not lively in rescuing it the boat beat passing over will smash tle thu handle or the sudden budden wrench will hurl you into the water then once you are fouled in buch a way the most tempting sort of opportunities always present themselves big ig luscious crabs come slowly languidly guiday by blinking in peaceful security asif as if they realized your predicament and guardian crabs take advantage of that particular moment to scurry past with their hoft wards you are arc wiser and botter otter li and usually tired after after you have succeeded at last in prying that net bouc at high tide one may only skirt the shore catching what nhat stray crabs he may find clinging to the sedge and reeds for out in the bay the depth is too great when the tide turns you may go down with it catching jut just as many or more than you took going up for the midday meal has made his crab ship mo more blow and lazy in his movement expert nab bers can turn with one crab captured in in the net plunge for a second and a third and even a fourth and at last fling the whole quartette snapping and kicking into the bottom of the boat |
