I just happened upon this video that covers a strategy for picking Blue Crabs by CalvertNews.info. I think every picking “expert” has their own approach to picking crabs and the key is to get someone to teach you theirs (if you don’t yet know how) and adapt it to your own preferences over time. There are no wrong ways to pick a crab – only faster ones and more thorough ones.

I, like the guy in the video, do not use a mallet when picking crabs since I give away the claws.  However, I do require one apparatus that, to me, is true-blue Chesapeake tradition – the crab knife.

Over the past 30 or years I’ve used Carvel Hall knives from Crisfield, though I am aware they are now out of business.  You can find some remake knives here.  These knives have an unbelievable balanced feel to them and are like precision surgical instruments.

Although I am unfamiliar with them, I’ve run into crab knives by Casson’s as well.

Regardless of the maker, crab knives aren’t cheap and you will pay $10-$12 for each knife so I plan to find a set on Ebay as the opportunity arises.  Used ones are generally as good as new ones since these knives were built to last.

Note to Fairbank Tackle – we need one of these on the Island.

When fishing season is here, I find myself regularly dropping the 7, or 8, or 9 dollars or whatever remarkable price they’re fetching, on bloodworms.

I’ve seen these live bait machines over the last few years, but have never had the opportunity or occasion to use one.  I had always imagined that someone had relabeled a soda machine and rigged the innards to be able to dispense bait containers instead of cans or bottles.  A hack-job is what I had suspected.

These machines got their start from the modification of a single sandwich machine in 1993 in Northeastern, PA by a fisherman named Joe Meyer.

In 1995, Vending Consultants Incorporated designed and manufactured the first machine specifically for the purpose of dispensing bait and today they are all over the country and retail for $3,500 to $4,000 apiece.

I took this photo of a bait machine in North East, MD while headed to lunch at one of my favorite Chesapeake Bay restaurants in that area, Woody’s Crab House.

More info on the history and operation of the machines at the Milton Academy website.