On the Eastern Shore, the calendar runs on different rhythms. School calendars matter less than the tide. The first crabs of the year are pulled from the traps somewhere around the third week of April, and from that point on the season belongs to them.
If you've never crabbed the Chesapeake way, you should know it's the antithesis of high-effort sport fishing. You bait the trap, you drop it off the end of the pier, you walk away. An hour later — sometimes much sooner — you come back with a long-handled net and a five-gallon bucket, and you see what has accepted your invitation.
What to bait with
Chicken necks are the local orthodoxy. They are cheap, they hold up underwater for several hours, and crabs love them with an intensity that approaches violence. Fish heads work too, particularly if you can find a friendly neighbor returning from a charter who has them to spare. We keep both on hand for guests.
When to go out
Mid-morning and again in the late afternoon are the productive windows. Crabs are most active around the tide changes, and our pier — which runs nearly a thousand feet out into the cove — catches the current at exactly the right depth.
"Sit on the dock, wait, talk. The crabs will sort themselves out."
Sometimes we set traps in the morning and forget about them until evening. The catch is always there. There is a kind of Shore patience that the activity teaches you, in addition to providing dinner.
Cooking what you catch
A bushel of blue crabs is one of the simplest meals you can prepare. Steam them with Old Bay and apple cider vinegar in a large stockpot for twenty minutes; lay them out on a newspapered table; provide mallets and a roll of paper towels; let the conversation take care of itself. The best dinners we've hosted at Moofy have unfolded this way, lasting hours after the table was cleared.
Crabbing season closes officially around November 30th, though the last good catches are usually in mid-October. If you are planning a stay between April and October, ask us to set traps for you in advance — we'll have a bushel waiting when you arrive.
Written by The Moofy Family · April 20, 2026
