If you fish upper Charlotte Harbor around the Myakka Cut Off to the bridge over the Myakka River at El Jobean, FL, you'll find the following links, tide charts and fishing reports most helpful.
Blue Crabs in the Bayshore Waterway, Port Charlotte, Florida
Your Trapped Crabs
Crabs are happy to sit a couple days eating the meal you set out for them but I try to collect them every morning. If you love crab like I do you can just boil them right away and sit down to feast. But I often only catch 1 to 5 at one time and prefer to store them until I have enough to make everyone happy. So if you're not going to boil and serve them right away you must prepare them for freezing.
Cleaning Blue Crabs
I've heard of 2 methods which are very similar. Boil and clean or clean and boil. I clean my crabs first then boil them. I dump the bucket of crabs into the sink on my fish cleaninng table. It can be done in the kitchen sink but my wife really appreciates my outdoor cleaning table at times like this. As a matter of fact my crabs never get indoors until they are sealed in a plastic container.
Dump them in the sink, I think you've notice by now that you want to keep fingers clear. You need a knife with a long blade rigid enough to not bend or break while piercing the crabs shell with it's tip. I have an old hunting knive but a dive knive or heavy butchers knive will be great. Get one of the crabs pinned down with the knife tip in the middle of the top of his shell right between his eyes. Then poke it through, quicky, hopefully killing him right there. He won't sit still but It's hard to believe he feels anything after that.
Using the knife as a handle I lift the crab to a cutting board and pin him to it. Grab one of his big pinchers right up near his shell, do this from behind because even though he seems incapacitated you don't want to get pinched, twist the claw a couple times and it will come free, throw it in the sink and do the same with his other claw. Now he can't get you. Remove the knife and put it aside. Grab one of the points of the shell with one hand and just behind and under the shell (right over the swim fin) with the other. You will be able to pry the whole shell off the body of the crab. Then take the knife and cut the crab in half from front to back. I try to do these 3 steps as quickly as possible because it does seem some what cruel but you will be sure they are dead by this point.
After your crab is cut in half you can take your time cleaning him. Pull off the gills which are the brownish gray, cone shaped things attached just above the little legs on both halves curving up to pointed ends towards the center of the crab. Then rinse out the yellow and green stuff from the head and body area. You should be left with mostly white meat divided into little compartments by thin shell with the remaining little legs and swim fins sticking out. As you finish cleaning the halves place them in a pot with enough water to cover all your crabs and claws. I give the claws a little wash under water using my fingers to wipe off any algae that doesn't rinse off.
Preparing Blue Crabs for Freezing
Put the covered pot of crab on high heat on a stove. Our grill has a side burner so I use that keeping the fishy smell (my wife's description) out of the house. Bring them to a boil and reduce the heat to hold a good rolling boil for about 5 minutes. The shells should be red and the meat very white. Then stop the cooking quickly by running cold water into the pot. Over cooked crab gets very dry, plus most recipes will call for further cooking so you want to be careful not to over cook it now. Let them sit in cool water for a few minutes to be sure they're cool then drain the water and put the cover back on the pot.
If you want to serve the crab in these large pieces you may put them into good quality freezer bags and freeze them now. They should be quite good in the freezer for a few months. When you're ready to serve just drop them into boiling water (with your favorite crab boil or spices) and let them boil for another 5 minutes just to get them good and hot. Then your guests can do all the work (and have all the pleasure) of cracking the shell, picking out the big chunks of sweet delicious crab meat, dipping them in melted butter and . . .oh, my mouth is watering too much to continue.
Or, you may want to crack the remaining shells and separate the meat before freezing. This makes use of the crab meat in crab cakes, crab stuffing, crab salad or any other type of recipe that calls for deshelled crab meat, much simpler. Just sit down at your outdoor table with pliers (to crack the shells) and a small bowl lined with plastic wrap (to collect your crab meat). If you're careful at first you'll find there is a way to slowly crack away the shell retreiving the meat in rather large chunks. Each little leg has a pretty worthy piece of meat in the first, largest section and, of course, the big claws are the prized portion of meat. I say be careful at first but you'll find your way and speed will come later. I wrap about 2 crabs into a piece of plastic wrap and then put 4-5 plastic wrapped packages into a freezer bag and into the freezer.
I know this seems like a lot of time spent but I can get 3 or 4 crabs cleaned, cooked, shelled and in the freezer in less than an hour. And you'll begin to enjoy the work when you try your crab in these crab cakes...
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