Sep 10, 2011

Bait for Crab Traps

Driving down to the low country, Doug saw a dead possum in the road and came up with another one of his bright ideas:  Would possum be better than chicken as bait for crabs?

"I want to find out,"  He said as he scooped the possum up and tossed him in the back of the truck, "if possum is good bait in the crab traps.  We're going to set two traps with chicken and one with this here dead possum."  And so we did......




A day or two later as we were net casting in the tidal creeks, we idled up close to check on our traps.  B leaned over the boat and began tugging on the trap's rope.  "Don't pull it too high 'cause that possum's gonna stink!"  Her father cautioned.  Boy, did it stink!  B dropped it back in the water real quick.  We checked on the chicken traps next.


"I believe chicken's better bait."  Doug said as we powered up and moved away from the bank.

On Labor Day morning, we pulled all three traps out of the water and collected a basketful of crabs.  The possum attracted 15 crabs while one chicken trap got us about 30 crabs.  Doug's hypothesis proved correct.  Chicken is better bait than possum.  And I liked that because the possum produced a powerful bad odor.  Enjoy the video.

1 comment:

~ Connie said...

Ha! Love the song selection ... 'specially the last few notes at the very end while reading about the stinky situation! That ... & how most are standing around holding their noses!