CRABS

Equipment needed: Boat, crab pot or rings, bait, measuring stick.

To be successful at crab fishing, a boat and a trap are needed. It is possible
at very low tides to pick up good-sized crabs occasionally, but such tides only come
once or twice a year. A good workable crab trap can either be made or a reason-
ably priced one bought from a ship chandler or sporting-goods store. There are
two types of crabs in British Columbia which are large enough to make a good
meal. They are the Pacific or Dungeness crab and the red or rock crab. Of the
two, only one, the Pacific crab, is used commercially, and there is a strictly en-
forced minimum size limit of 62 inches or more across the widest breadth of the
Shell and a daily bag limit of six. It is a good idea to have a measuring stick along
when out crab fishing to avoid mistakes. There are no restrictions on red or rock
crab either in daily limits or size; the problem then is to be able to unfailingly tell
the difference between the two species. The rock crabs have a brighter-coloured
shell of brick red and are generally smaller, seldom reaching much more than the
minimum size limit of Pacific crabs. The most noticeable point of difference is
that the pincer parts of the claws along the inner serrated edge are black, whereas
in the Pacific crab they are a gleaming white. Rock crabs, as their name implies,
prefer a rocky home, whereas Pacific crabs prefer a sandy one, often with eelgrass.

An important tip is that the fresher your bait, the more likely you are to entice
crabs into your trap. Almost any sort of fish scraps, if fresh, will do the trick.

Place your live crabs quickly into actively boiling sea water and return to boil
for 10 minutes, cool under running cold water but don’t soak. Remove claws and
legs, and crack. Tear off the shell and remove the spongy gills of the crab, then
break the body into two pieces and remove the meat from the shelly pockets.

CRAB COCKTAIL

1 cup cooked crab meat (6% ounces).
Drained lettuce.

Flake crab meat and chill. Just before serving, combine crab meat with the
following cocktail sauce and toss slightly. Serve in lettuce-lined glasses (six
servings).

CRAB COCKTAIL SAUCE

1 tablespoon mayonnaise.

3 tablespoons catsup.

2 teaspoons lemon juice.

1 teaspoon prepared horseradish.
¥Y4 teaspoon prepared mustard.

4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.
2 drops Tabasco (optional).

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Chill.
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