Volunteers needed for crab pot removal

By Rich King
Posted 11/25/21

I’ve raked leaves for the fifth time this week. Luckily, I live in the woods. I just mow them up a little and send them back toward the trees, mostly to keep the leaves out of the driveway, …

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Volunteers needed for crab pot removal

Posted

I’ve raked leaves for the fifth time this week. Luckily, I live in the woods. I just mow them up a little and send them back toward the trees, mostly to keep the leaves out of the driveway, shop and house. Otherwise nature can do its thing, using the leaves for whatever and feeding the native scrub grass in the yard. I gave up on real grass years ago. You just mow the native plants and let them do their thing. Helping nature gives me more time for fishing. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

The short striped bass action has been fun all over Delaware. The Chesapeake is seeing a lot of action. Charters are limiting out in no time. The short action in Delaware you can’t keep, but you can have a blast. There is the occasional keeper in the mix, too. The action on light gear is the attraction. Whether from the banks, surf, kayaks or boats, it is all fun.

Some bluefish action has been seen in the surf and offshore. I like throwing metals at them. I found some old homemade-style Hopkins lures. It reminded me of my grandfather back in the day. He would snag some of grandma’s silver and make his own metals and spoons. Man, she would get mad when a spoon would disappear during the holidays. She really didn’t care — she loved to eat the fish. It was a game to see which one he could snag and use. Then he got us kids involved.

White perch in the creeks has been great action with bloodworms or grass shrimp.

Boats are still going out for sea bass and catching big porgies and gator bluefish on structure.

The tautog action has been decent for the boats getting out, with some keepers at the Indian River Inlet and Ocean City bridges, too. The Ocean City Inlet also sees its fair share. The action around the inland bays for tautog is fun, but little action from keepers. Just about any structure around the inland bays has tautog. We have found them in crab traps in Love Creek in the winter.

There is a project occurring for ghost crab trap removal.

The University of Delaware Lewes Campus and Delaware Sea Grant have set dates for the 2022 Volunteer-based Derelict Crab Pot Round-Ups in Indian River.

Round-ups will be hosted on the first three good weather days between Jan. 13-21, 2022. Activities will take place in Indian River, out of Rosedale Public Boat Launch & Warwick Park, Millsboro. A second staging site is TBD.

The round-ups rely heavily on the support of volunteers who can bring and crew their own boats to help remove derelict crab pots from Delaware’s Inland Bays. Gear such as grappling hooks, gloves and clipboards will be provided. This year, volunteers will be recruited to help out on shore as well.

Potential volunteers can learn more by attending a virtual information session on Dec. 2, from 5-6 p.m. To attend, visit the crab pot round-up webpage at www.deseagrant.org/derelict-crab-pots and find the registration form link.
To ask questions or to request to be added to the volunteer distribution list, email Kate Fleming, Delaware Sea Grant Coastal Ecology specialist, at kfleming@udel.edu.

Be careful with your pets in or near the woods. We had an incident recently that raised the need for understanding of leash laws and trespassing laws.

A simple text message can solve many problems.

Out here in the country, we live a little different than the town folks. We look out for each other and allow our pets some freedom to roam a bit because they don’t know boundaries.

Hunters, a piece of advice: Talk to the people near you.

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