Blue Crab TLC - How To Keep Blue Crabs Alive For Days

what's up everybody captain Matt here did you catch too many crabs today can't cook today's catch and hoping to keep him alive till tomorrow or a few days later do you want to keep your bait fresh you don't have to cook them the same day you catch them want to know more stay tuned to find out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right so a lot of things we're gonna talk about the day or good practices just in keeping your crabs after you catch them so if you know you've not going to be able to cook your crabs today these things are even more important to keep in mind so while you're out on the water and you catch your crabs we're just going to assume that you're gonna put them in a bucket or some sort of bushel basket there's three things you want to keep an eye on to make sure your crabs live as long as possible temperature oxygen and humidity for temperature it's usually cooler the better once you get them home and say you actually have a refrigerator you're gonna try to put them in a cooler somewhere between fifty to sixty degrees is gonna be the ideal range once you get below about forty degrees it becomes too cold the crabs it'll kill the crabs why the crabs can live above sixty you know once you get them home and settled to keep them as long as possible you gonna want to be in that fifty to sixty degree range so I'm gonna get that oxygen oxygen is important obviously we see the crabs they live in the water for most of their life but they can adapt and live outside of the water so once you catch them bring them in the boat they have to go through this process of dispelling all the water it's usually what you see bubbling foam so they can actually live outside the water hence they need oxygen to stay alive last is humidity you want to keep the crabs a little damp and you just really don't want them to dry out so let's start first with your catching crabs we're gonna steam you use a bushel basket in some sort of basket or even maybe a bucket buckets aren't great because they don't get as much oxygen circulating through them but you use buckets I should catch the crabs and bring them into the boat you'll want to keep whatever you storing them in covered some people use burlap I use wet towels you just want to keep them covering it does two things a keeps them out of the direct sunlight and will keep the temperatures down B you want to keep the whatever you use in newspaper burlap towels you want to keep it wet a constantly that's soaked mine off side the boat you know if you have a washdown pump you can hose them down just keep wet one thing you don't want to do is take your basket and dunk it back in water so why you think this may help it actually hurts the crabs have to use a lot of energy to get rid of the water in their system so they can start breathing the oxygen by you putting them back into the water yes they're gonna get wet and it keeps them moist but they're taking in all this extra water so they have to go back through the process of expelling all that wall this added stress to the crabs and uses more energy from the crabs let's just say you go through your day you're keeping your basket covered you're keeping your burlap or a towel wet throughout the day and doing keeping them maybe in the shade in your boat if you have a spot in your boat where you can kind of keep them in the shade that's even better now you're gonna take your crabs home with you so most people are gonna be out in a boat they're gonna have a truck or maybe an SUV and maybe even a car can pull the boat and take some home it could also be crabbing off a pier the same three factors come into play temperature this is a good obviously depend on the time of the year you know preferably you would keep your crabs inside your car with the air-conditioning in a stable temperature to keep some out of the wind it's not the end of the world if you sit in the back of a truck somewhere exposed to the air if you are gonna keep them in a truck and you don't plan it I'll cook them right away again you know try to keep them in a wet burlap towel keep them maybe in the forward part of the bed you want to keep them out of the wind turbulence obviously all the wind turbulence as you're driving home is gonna have a tendency to dry them out but the ideal thing would be to put them in a car put them into some sort of cooler obviously the ideal thing if you see any of the wholesalers to come and pick up the crabs from the Waterman they're gonna have a big box in the back that's air-conditioned climate-controlled and that's where they store the crabs so if you can keep them inside your car inside your truck that's great if not make sure they're just covered and try to keep them out of the winds as much as possible me personally once the temperature starts getting about 70 or above on my commute back and forth to where I'm crabbing out of I'll try to keep them in the truck I'll throw everything else in the back of the truck as much as possible I have a spot on my boat where I could keep them in the mode and it keeps them out of the wind and it gives them a little bit of shade once it gets more to early spring and you know late fall temperatures cool or 50 60 degrees as long as you keep them out of the way and the temperatures gonna be great for the crabs so now you get them home what do you do there are several options you don't necessarily need a refrigerator of sorts anywhere outside is fine you want to keep them out of direct sunlight and again you want to keep them covered use a wet towel or burlap to keep them covered you need just need to find a place that's gonna be quiet you know if it's windy outside try to keep them where they're out of the wind and out of direct sunlight this becomes quite challenging again when it's really hot outside and maybe a garage would work probably spring late falls and overnight temperatures around 50 60 degrees that's ideal no problem to keep them outside as long as they're covered to keep whatever they're in you know nice and moist and damp you can also try to use a cooler and there's a couple things to keep in mind when you're using a cooler oxygen comes into play here you can't keep the cooler shut if the cooler shut the crabs use up the oxygen then they just suffocate to keep the crabs cool you're gonna probably use ice you can't keep the crabs directly on the ice if you have a cooler you've lined the bottom with ice you know put some sort of shelving on there to give it a little space where the crabs aren't exposed directly to the ice if you have a cooler if you want to dedicate that keep them crabs maybe you poke some holes at the top obviously hot air rises and cold air drops so it's not the end of the world if you're putting you know few holes in the top to keep your oxygen circulating obviously it's not idea for the temperatures but the crabs do you need the oxygen most people just keep the lid crack somehow just to keep that oxygen circulating anyway again aside the poke holes you don't have to worry about the crowd crabs possibly sneaking out and getting out of the cooler so now if you're in a position where you have space and want to devote some money into a refrigerator or maybe you're given refrigerator there's a couple things you need to know about keeping crabs in a refrigerator or walk-in walking is basically just a big frigerator and if you're lucky to have one they're awesome bushel baskets take up lots of room but you just can't go in with a regular refrigerator from the get-go most fridges are designs a temperature is anywhere between say upper 30s to low 40s and that's not what you want for your crabs like I said earlier the idea of range is between 50 to 60 degrees you know thoughts and opinions kind of vary on this but that's what pretty wide range now if you have a refrigerator too tempting to use and has a freezer section to it the refrigerator actually gets its cold air from the freezer section and this is why it's hard to keep the temperatures in a more and a higher level so to really find out I'd recommend trying to get a cheap say infrared thermometer they're pretty cheap I'll try to find some links and put them in the video basically it's a little gun you point get a good little red light and give you the 10 sure where you're at so while if you're frigerator doesn't hit that 56 degree range there are ways to modify the fridge to get to that magic temperature so the other two factors also come into play when we're talking about Ford raters and walk-ins we're talking about humidity some refrigerators have settings where you see it says more moisture or more dry you wanted it moist as possible you don't want those crabs drying out again the good practice of keeping your wet towels or burlap or whatever you use in your newspaper you know keeping that wet on the crabs why they're in there and it helps so frigerators are sealed you won't get any fresh air so if you lack a lot of humidity in the refrigerator and you don't open it on occasion eventually you're gonna run out of oxygen in a frigerator and the crab some died obviously and you keep practically you really can't keep a frigerator door cracked well with enough water and occasionally opening the door here and there you know the oxygen is typically not a problem when it comes to the refrigerator most people gonna go look for a dedicated refrigerator to store crabs and a great thing if you actually have a nice frigerator you can actually store your bait in it as well if you're using clams you can store your clams in there if you use chicken you could temporarily just keep your chicken a little more fresh in there it's not a lot chicken wouldn't be a long-term solution for a fridge but it could be a short-term solution especially in the summer months when it's super hot just to keep your bat bait as fresh as possible maybe you want to thought your bait not have it frozen but you don't want it sitting out in the Sun either frigerators great option to temporarily store your chicken but because of the mess and the germs that having live animals and rotten chicken and clams you know you're probably going to want to look for something and you're gonna dedicate through that ideally you're gonna want one without a freezer section unless you actually need a freezer and you want to store your cut chicken up there in the freezer most common frigerators you can find in a house you'd be lucky you can fit one bushel basket in there you'd be hard-pressed to find two unless it's a full refrigerator and doesn't have a freezer section so if you are shopping around trying to find something cheap you know a lot of people look for these commercial frigerators here I happen to find this one on the blue-crab forums from a real nice guy that I got to meet he graduated to a nice walk in it was super nice I was really jealous but since I didn't have anything really dedicated to this you know he gave me a great price on this I believe he said did this thing would hold up the six bushels without the shelves in it it's basically just a double frigerator it does have controls up above where I can set the temperature to my magic spot it's why we're on the topic conversation about fridges we could talk a little bit about freezers as well so while we're talking about frigerators maybe you do want one with a freezer on top when it comes to chicken and trotline a lot of people like the freezer bait and freeze their lines and make it easier for their next trip as long as your baits not all chewed up dependent if you're a store in your line into say a five-gallon bucket some sort of bucket or even a bushel basket you're just gonna have to find a freezer with enough height in it we just hold a whole bushel there's pro tip if you're using chicken your freezer lines and freezer make sure it's fall all the way before you try to go to use it I made that mistake my rookie year through my bushel basket into a chest freezer I had pulled it out I think I'll even let it sit for 812 hours think it was totally fall I looked at it looked bald like anything you put in the freezer typically the center of whatever you're freezing is gonna be the last thing to fall I didn't realize that the center of my glove line and chicken was actually still pretty frozen went out the water went to deployment line hooked up my lines the boy banker started running when you know it the center was still frozen and as I was watching my line go out nice linking is awesome boom the whole thing decided to go into water it was frozen solid means to say I lost probably about an hour today getting that big knot in and trying to undo all the knots that had never we've heard make sure it's fall all right that's me a wrap for today's video you found it helpful please hit that subscribe button if you got any comments tips or tricks if you like to share please put them down below [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mumbo Meister

Views: 137,472

Keywords: how to keep blue crabs alive for days, how to keep blue crabs alive until cooking, how to keep blue crabs alive, how to keep blue crabs alive overnight, mumbo meister, blue crabs, best way to keep blue crabs alive, catch cook and clean blue crab, chesapeake bay blue crabs, commerical crabbing maryland, how to transport blue crabs, how to keep blue crabs in a refrigerator, blue crab tips, blue crab catching tips, maryland blue crabs

Id: fsSvqhdD2Bg

Length: 11min 31sec (691 seconds)

Published: Tue May 12 2020