Crabs in March?

Does anybody have a feel for crabbing by mid-march in the bays?

Are they deep and caught dragging or can you get them in traps?

Still a bit too early in my opinion. I start looking for them in May/June. But then again I don't crab in the bay. I go to little lagoon, and the surf.

I have caught over a dozen big medium crabs 2 times so far this year in mid and late Jan. I expect I can catch them in the deep water of fish river hwy 98 bridge area in Feb.

I caught some last year in feb. but they were starting to be skinny inside, you know not full and fat inside the shell. They seem to bury up in the deep water as the water temp is not as cold as the shallow water I guess. In may they will be feeding good and you can find a lot more soft shell crabs because the are actively feeding and growing to big for their old hard shell. They may still be skinny in March.

I just used a hand line with a 2 oz weight and a crab net, pulling in the line each five minutes or so, used about 3 different lines at a time, with chicken legs or cut mullet . One time they caught better using mullet than chicken.

Thanks to both of you. I'm toying with the idea of entering the Gumbo contest March 21 and fresh crab bodies and claws are essential to me.

Found info on line about Chesapeake Bay crabs that says they hit the open ocean and bury up when temps hit 50 degrees F. According to that site they start growing at 59 degrees in the spring. Mid bay temps historically look to be right around 59 by mid march and low 60s for Bon Secour.

Water temp 'above' Fish River bridge has moved above 60 degrees recently!
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/plot_met.ph...time_label=CST

Bon Secour is a few degrees cooler @ 56 (or so).

I assume those are mostly mature males that TPop has been catching,
perhaps with some immature females mixed in.
I thought mature females mate ONLY mate during their last shed and then never again???

I think you can catch crabs anywhere, anytime. LOL! Sgt. Phil Esterhaus from "Hill Street Blues" said it best, "Let's be careful out there..."

I'm sorry, I had to say it!

Please don't ban me.