Assateague Island National Seashore [Berlin, MD]

Crish or Crishing [v] 1: to catch a fish while crabbing.
(Origin of Crishing- When the wife pulls up a fish instead of a crab. First known Use: 2014)

I personally am not too fond of the beach. Sure it makes a nice desktop background or wall print, but outside of the discipline of photography, the beach is fraught with little tensions for a hyper-paranoid type A personality. First off, who knows what's swimming in the waves that you're wading into? Megalodon! And to dispel the myth of "sharks don't swim close to shore", it's clearly documented on video here and here. That said, we went to Assateague National Park on Shark Week -- perhaps the most inauspicious day to drag paranoia into opaque beach waters. Have I mentioned that bull sharks are also on the rise in the mid-atlantic? Anyhow, back to the crabbing part!

Assateague Island National Park (not to be confused with Assateague State Park, which is on the left side of the fork when you cross the bridge) is a bit of a drag to get into. Long car lines to get into an over-packed parking lot with tourists holding up the queue by leaving their cars to take pictures of wild ponies/horses. I believe it was $15 to get into the park for a 7 day pass. Tip #1: bring your own food. Once inside, there's only a tiny convenience store to get some grub. If you resort to eating at the cafe, I hope you like Cheez-its and Ice cream. there are opportunities to do some pier crabbing. We did not encounter the giant flies like many tripadvisor reviewers noted, but I'd still recommend bringing a can of deet in your car anyway.

After a few hours on the beach, we made our way to Ferry Landing for the crabbing! While not a lot of parking spaces, not that many people come to Assateague to go crabbing. Ergo, plenty of parking availability.

Ratings: (1-5 High)

• Opportunity: 3 - Lots of little crabs and fish!
• Location: 5 - A clean,well kept park pier. Easily accessible with plenty of parking. 
• Value: 3 - Worth it only if you also plan to utilize the beach.

Gear Used:

• 4 x Two-Ring Wire Crab Net (18-Inch) 
• 4 x 50 feet lengths of braided nylon 1/4 inch rope
• Lots of raw chicken legs

Time/Tide:

• We crabbed for about 2 hours in the early afternoon. 
• Low Tide 11:47am, High Tide 6:08pm, 

Where to Go:

We came in from Verrazano Bridge off 611 (Stephen Decatur Hwy).You'll encounter a fork when you cross the bridge. If you want to check out the state park (beach & camping), stay on the left of the fork. If you want to go crabbing, hang a right! 

7206 National Seashore Lane, Berlin, MD 21811

[Credit to Google Maps]

[Credit to Google Maps]

Ferry Land [Credit o Google Maps]

1 - Ferry Landing. This is where we crabbed. 

2 - Another crabbing location opportunity

3 - Saw people pulling up baby crabs on this corner here.

4 - Great pier where you can actually see the crabs and fish crawling/swimming into your nets. Lots of people also wade into the water to crab/fish/clam

5 - Portable Potty. Hand sanitizer gel inside, important!

Crabs Caught:

We caught about 10 baby crabs and a lot of minnows! The waters are pretty brackish so you're not going to get the deep blue crabs here. They'll be more on the brownish side.

First Catch of the day!

Wading through the water for Crabs

And another!

Lots of wild horses/ponies around the entrance of the island 

Tons of these little fish will swarm your bait. Easy to pull up and use as additional bait!

The Inn at Corolla Light [Corolla, NC]

Even crabs look glorious when back lit by the sunset

We continued our crabbing trip by staying at the Inn at Corolla Light. The boutique hotel is a bit run down, but the pier in the back has excellent sunsets. More importantly, there are plenty of crabs and a gas grill you can use to cook them afterwards! While I wouldn't pay what we paid again for our room, I must admit, it was worth it! Lots of tall bay grass in the water near by where the crabs like to hang out. This was also the first time we used a collapsible trap from Promar.

 Ratings: (1-5 High)

• Opportunity: 3 - Lots of crabs, but only few that are legal.
• Location: 5 - A clean,well kept private pier. Easily accessible with plenty of parking. 
• Value: 2 - Paid an arm & a leg to stay there, but worth it for accessibility to many activities.

Gear Used:

• 1 x Promar Collapsible Trap
• 1 x 50 feet lengths of braided nylon 1/4 inch rope
• 2 x Raw Chicken Legs

While the trap was easy to set up, I don't think it's going to stand the test of time. The nylon netting doesn't seem that robust, but it does the job. I would highly recommend getting a rock or a piece of re-bar to weigh the trap down. 

Time/Tide:

• We placed the trap all morning and afternoon. We also left the traps overnight twice.
• High Tide was 1:05pm, Low Tide at 7:12pm

Where to Go:

Zoomed Out [Credit to Google Maps]

1066 Ocean Trail Corolla, NC 27927 (252) 453-3340

Detailed View [Credit to Google Maps]

1. Favorite spots where we laid our trap. Close to the tall bay water grass where eels and crabs like to hang around. At low tide you can even see down into the bottom.  
2. This is where we laid out our trap the first night. Caught a few crabs overnight.
3. Great hammock seats while you wait for the crabs to bite! 

The owners of the inn set out a few traps along the pier, so if you see the big crab pots with parachute cord, that's theirs.

Crabs Caught:

We probably caught about two dozen small crabs measuring under 5 inches, and just two crabs that were legal.

First Crab ever caught! 

This was the hammock chair, and it's surprisingly comfy!

A bit difficult to get them out of the netting especially when they pinch on

This photo does no justice to the sunset hours

Whalehead Club [Corolla, North Carolina]

First Legal 5 inch catch!

Our crabbing journey began on the fourth of July in the OBX (Outer Banks, North Carolina). We stayed at the Inn at Corolla Light. I couldn't recommend more the Whalehead Club. This is a free public park with ample parking. You'll see a lot of recreational crabbing going on over there, where families are using throw lines along the pier with a few kayakers taking their buoy traps farther out into the bay. The grounds are very well kept and makes for a great first time crabbing experience!

Ratings: (1-5 High)

• Opportunity: 3 - Lots of crabs, just a few keepers though. Many spots to try crabbing from.
• Location: 5 - A clean,well kept public park. Easily accessible with plenty of parking. 
• Value: 5 - It's a free public area. 

Gear Used:

• 2 x Two-Ring Wire Crab Net (18-Inch) 
• 2 x 50 feet lengths of braided nylon 1/4 inch rope
• 4 x Raw Chicken Legs
• 4 x Zip Ties

Time/Tide:

• We crabbed for about 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon. 
• High Tide was 1:05pm, Low Tide at 7:12pm

Where to Go:

We came in from 158 to Kitty Hawk and headed north of there for about 40 minutes. The road is one lane each way. Beware of traffic on Saturdays-- it's move-in/move-out day for the weekly rentals. Plenty of parking around the Whalehead club. It's worth noting that there is a very nice air-conditioned, visitor center with clean bathrooms by the bridge where you can wash your hands after you've been handling raw chicken.

Zoomed Out - Thanks to Google Maps

Whalehead Club is at: 1100 Club Road, Rt. 12 N, Corolla, NC 27927. (252) 453-9040

Detailed - Thanks to Google Maps

1. Favorite spot to crab. It was shallow enough to where you could see the crabs swimming towards your trap before you pull it up. Good shade, with plenty of seating as you take a break. 
2. Right by the prominent wood bridge. This is where we caught the most crabs, but they were too small to keep
3. Tried crabbing here for a bit, but too much seaweed/kelp around the pier. Several people had luck at the end of the pier catching crabs with throw lines.
4. We didn't make it out to this part, since the walk would've taken a bit. The water level seemed too shallow at the time.

Crabs Caught:

We probably caught about ten (10) small crabs measuring under 4 inches, and just one 5 inch male crab. Lots of people are crabbing here so it was a bit harder to catch the bigger ones. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun.

Photos:

Crabbing by the pier

Fancy Wooden Bridge

Pulled two baby crabs gnawing on a drumstick

The Whalehead Club House. Note: this is not the visitor center.