Prior to the use of pots, blue crabs were caught using drop
lines or trot lines, a heavy fishing line with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called snoods. Northern Neck’s Benjamine F. Lewis patented the first crab trap in 1928 but it was not well received among watermen, who claimed the design allowed crabs to escape too easily. His revised trap pat- ented in 1938 was a huge success and by mid century the use of pots spread throughout the Southeastern and Gulf fisheries. In general, a crab pot consists of a cube of wire mesh, galva- nized or vinyl coated, with two funnel-shaped openings on op- posite sides, bait located in the center, and a horizontal divider with openings leading to an upper chamber. An iron reinforcing bar in the bottom provides stability and some watermen add zinc anodes to inhibit rusting. From mid March through November crab pots are placed
throughout Bay waters with the exception of navigable channels with government-installed navigation aids or in any portion of a government-marked channel of a river, bay, estuary, creek or inlet. Blue crab spawning estuaries are banned from crabbing from May 1 through September 15. Pots are currently marked with floating buoys or stakes with a waterman’s identification number burned in. Currently there are no uniform buoy colors required for pots in the Bay as is required of crab and lobster pots in New England waters where buoys must be painted with licensee’s approved color scheme and watermen must prominently display the licensee’s buoy colors onboard.
Watermen at work retrieving pots. Photo by Mathew Stewart, courtesy of VIMS.
Bay watermen have tried a variety of painted buoys and buoy designs over the years with little success. Many complain
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October/November 2012
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