Fishing with Wild New Jersey: Take A Child Crabbing (and Take Your Dad Too!)
All photos courtesy of Robin Egbert
By Robin Egbert
Far removed are the days from my distant past, when my dad and his buddies from the Robert Street Rovers Hunting Club would organize their annual crabbing trip. Ten, twelve and sometimes even fifteen cars of friends and family would meet up for the trek down to the shore for what became fond memories for many of us young and old.
For several weeks, I have dreamed of returning to these traditions of my past. I decided today would be the day to introduce two of my children to crabbing, and also to re-introduce my dad to one of his own passions. My dad is a gentleman of 84 now, no longer in his prime, but struggling with the problem knees, problem back, and the senior citizen shuffle that accompanies aging.
We started our morning off at the Oceanic Marina in Rumson, where they were more than accommodating to the extra needs of a senior citizen whose body no longer afforded him the agility to go crabbing unassisted. After getting my dad settled in a motorized skiff, my 10-year old daughter Deidre boarded the boat - not too happy about having to wear the required safety vest - and my 14-year old son Matt took his position on the boat as the “Anchor Man.” Although I have had my Boating Safety Certificate for two years, this was my first time in charge at the helm. I was pleased to see my dad so easily relinquish what has always been his responsibility.
My dad had come prepared with all of his tools of the past, and the funny thing is that they haven’t changed in 15, 20 or even 30 years. His drop lines and crab baskets were all wrapped so neatly and preserved so well that we didn’t even need to add new string to any of them. I would have thought the bushel baskets could never have survived so many years either, but they, too, were intact. Alas, his knife, the one I vaguely remember cutting bait with as a teen, had seen its better days.
I had prepared our sandwiches, snacks and beverages the night before. As in days gone by, you would have thought we were leaving for an extended excursion. And so our journey for the day began.
Our first stop put us in sight of the marina, just outside of a channel. Before all of the lines were even in the water, I was yelling, “Net! Net! I need the net!”
It was an exciting beginning to a wonderful day shared with two of my children and my dad. We had three nets aboard for four of us, but we really needed four nets, as the crabbing was unbelievable. Quite often we would end up with two crabs in our net and several times during the course of they day, we ended up with three. I would guess that 80% of the time when one of us brought up a drop line, there was a crab on it, and 9 out of 10 were keepers.
We moved the skiff several times, but caught crabs all day without leaving sight of the marina. The bite was on - and it was on all day. We never even had to set up the crab traps, as the drop lines did so well for us. We laughed, acted silly, and sang our “Here Crab Crab” song, bringing what was an old and forgotten tradition to the forefront once again.
I can only remember one trip in all of my years that even came close to being as memorable as today was. Yet today's trip was shared with family, young and old, so I must say it was the most successful and rewarding crabbing trip I have ever been on.
As for my dad? He wasn’t even home 15 minutes before calling to ask me a question:
"When are we going crabbing again?"
Robin Egbert runs the hunting and fishing website MsGrit.com.
Posted by WILDNEWJERSEY at 7/26/2010 9:00 AM 
Categories: Fishing with Wild NJ
Tags: hunting club oceanic marina crabbing fishing rumson
Categories: Fishing with Wild NJ
Tags: hunting club oceanic marina crabbing fishing rumson
Truly a wonderful crabbing story. Your family sounded like they really had a great time! Thanks for sharing... I felt I was there.
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