Yes, it's really a little view into an entire different world. Kind of reminds me of being a kid when I could watch critters for hours on end and try to figure out their stories. Thanks for watching!

Same, but now I'm hooked on gopro videos lol. I feel like I just learned more about crabs than I've known my whole life, and it was more interesting than most TV shows.

Nat Geo isn’t real? Wild!

National Geographic isn’t the organization people think it is.

I just started watching livestreams of eagle nest cams lol I would absolutely watch this live too!

On the way! I'm on a work deadline, which happens to be producing a video... but I'll get more up asap. Definitely the end of the 1st highlights this week and hopefully more of the next drop. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thanks, Stephen! Good to get the feedback. I think I'll be posting a mix of times, these longer Pt 1, 2 and so on, as well as some highlight reels. And who knows, maybe some full-length "run the whole thing in one go" posts. Beauty of youtube compared to when I've worked in TV and everything has to be timed to the microsecond!

Love it when fishermen add that "leave it in the sun touch" to crab or shrimp bait! So I call my version that's made with fish guts "Neptune's Butthole" maybe you should call yours "Colonel Sander's Colon." Keep on Crabbin'!

❤😂​@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo

That could work. It would help by adding some weight, too. Downside would be that it would add surface area, so that if there was current the downcurrent doors might be held open by the flow, making it easier for the crabs to get out. But yes, the horizontal bars on this style of trap doors are a weakness that can be improved so the crabs don't get hung up. Thanks for watching!

Watched the series…. Where’s that trap with a fin so we can see downstream?! lol hope you make more, this was great to watch and your commentary was funny and educational!

Haha, yeah working on a solution for that! Unfortunately, recreational crabbing is only legal around here part of the year. Good news is that I do have some other drops to post once I have time to set up the mic and watch them. Bad news is that they're from last fall, so any of the ideas for improvement I gleaned from the first one won't be applied and tested until this summer... so that will be a little frustrating. But guaranteed there will still be some crustacean drama to watch on these others. I may just cut them a little shorter. Thanks for watching and glad you found them entertaining! The comments here are the kick in the shell I need to post more soon.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo I’m subscribed and excited to see what comes next!

Right! They have personalities, pecking order, and beauty routines. It's a real voyeur view.

Was thinking the same thing. Perhaps they are kinda smart.

I never had a barnacle. Crabs itch though.

It's the spot where I dropped plus the effect of a wide angle lens. I dropped one around the corner from there in a spot that doesn't see as much current and I pulled up twice as many crabs but it was so dark and green down there that you couldn't see anything on camera except when one of them bumped the lens! It was great for crabbing, but bad for learning anything about their behavior, so I'll mainly stick to the clearer water when there's a camera onboard. Thanks for watching!

Wow I didn’t even notice that this guy a genius lol crab genius

This is a common modification but the scuttle is the steel creates magnetic fields which discourages crab from approaching. I haven’t seen any studies on this.

Hi Asmodius. I don't think rebar tie-wrapped to a coated steel mesh can create a magnetic field. But the two dissimilar metals can create a mild electric current in saltwater. Commercial crabbers do what all saltwater boaters do to protect the metal parts of their boats by adding sacrificial zincs to their crab traps. But that's to slow down the corrosion, not to help attract crabs. I'm a fisherman, so I'm naturally vulnerable to all the voodoo and superstitions and lucky fishing rods and bananas on boats, etc. But the only science I've seen out there says that certain crabs are actually attracted to magnetic fields. The concern is so great that they've been testing whether underwater power lines from wave or wind or other offshore power transmission lines could hurt crabs because there's some evidence that at least one species becomes "mesmerized" around manmade magnetic fields (which are created by running electric current thru steel cables, not by having steel exposed to saltwater). The study I read was done in a tank, so other researchers have been doing some real-world tests. I haven't seen any of those results yet, though. Here's the original study: www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/9/7/776

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo thanks for the info! I think I’ll add the rebar next season. Where I crab (Puget sound) it is legal to leave pots out overnight, but if you don’t put on weights, the tidal current will take them.

Those are my home waters now, too. Part of my reason for starting these tests is to see how short you can make the drops and still be effective. You know about the 12,000 recreational traps lost in Puget Sound each season. They kill an estimates 180,000 crab. To me, more frequently checked traps will mean fewer lost traps and less needless waste. Currently are so strong around here that I spent hours finding a very well weighted trap that got wrapped and dragged off by a huge tangle of drift kelp. Unweighted traps are more easily and much more frequently lost. So, I don't think you'll regret it al all. More weight keeps the trap stable on the bottom., too, no dragging or bucking, so the crabs are more comfortable entering. If you're concerned about electrolysis dissuading crabs, you can test on where the metals don't touch, or use plastic -coated dive weights

Thanks! Glad you liked it. Will do.

Will do. Will get to another in a few days.

You've got some chilly water there, too! Stay on top of that kayak. Love those NE waters. Spent quite a bit of time out on the Cape and was out there not too long ago working on a story about whales.

Sounds amazing! Island County Huck Finn. I've got a similar story I'll tell one of these days about wading off Camano.

Thanks! I will. Can't wait for the season to reopen. I do have a couple more I haven't gotten to from early winter and will get them up as soon as I can.

Thanks! It's broken into parts. Too short for some folks, too long for others. I'll put them out at a faster pace when we get back into the season and I'm actively running tests. I should have another couple hours of them up over the next two months, though, and then ramp up when the season hits.

Glad you like it!

Hey eh! I can see you guys from my house. Headed up to BC in a week to film the big bird migration. Not the migration of Big Bird, but lots of little birds...

Hi neighbor to the north! Agree, especially in spots where there's lots of tidal current. I have some places inside bays where tides don't seem to matter much. Actually in those spots it seems to help to have some extra water moving, likely pulling them in from further off the pot would be my guess. But yes, in more exposed spots they have to work harder to roam in current so they like to hunker. I have seen them out in pretty strong currents while diving, but they had themselves nailed down good while they picked at mussels. So yes, great tip! And also your slack suggestion is great tide timing for making sure pots don't drag. Love to hear info from BC since you guys get to crab all year.

Yep! Been discussed on here. Good to know a racing guy would be thinking the same. I'm sure you consider dynamics all the time. Aero, hydro... the same except for density, I guess? Never studied fluid dynamics but, as you say, sticking a tail on a trap should sure turn it if there's any current. Thanks!

Aloha. That's all very cool! Glad to hear your good opinion of red rocks. You were at ground zero for blue claws! How would your Cajun buds do up the crab? My Louisiana friends boil their crawfish spicy. The spices and the fact the bugs didn't start boiling until everyone's had a few drinks means I'm not really sure what the crawfish meat tastes like! I'm guess in Maryland you also had plain pick and eat blue claw... so where do you come down on the Dungies v blue claws taste? I've never crabbed real close to a big river, so that's very interesting about them being sweeter there. Makes sense that their diet and the diets of what they eat would be getting more of the land-based nutrients. Maybe that makes them the grass-fed beef of the crab world!

Yep, California, Oregon and Washington have a pretty healthy Dungeness fishery. CA and Oregon have some issues with entangling whales and some shutdowns due to harmful algal blooms (HABs), but you're probably getting some fresh crab! Alaska snow crabs are in trouble, but the king crabs seem to be doing well. Those are some big meaty legs!

There are several up there called "highlights" which are shorter takes. Thanks for watching!

Love 'em and grew up on them... I won't give up my East Coast sports teams, but I've become a huge West Coast crab fan. Send a blue claw out here and we'll have a cage match! Winner gets... well, they'd both get eaten because they're both delicious!

@mooser6309 Me too. I've been fascinated in everything marine life since I can remember. As for length: I'm making separate playlists: One I will narrate, so they'll be crabbing with Bob. Another will be short highlight reels, and another will be Zen cuts with long stretches of just the crabs with no narration. One more playlist may be about hanging out with crab predators... we'll see. And yes, once the season starts again I'll have more camera coverage. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Chub mackerel is the canned bait. Have you done the wrecks at Scapa Flow? Sounds amazing.

Shrimp heads will be another test. We have a great spot shrimp fishery out here, too, so lots of heads in season. I've done okay with them, but not great. I wonder if he grinds or mashes them up first? Can't fit many whole spot shrimp heads into a bait bag. But mashed up.and frozen would likely work very well. I'll add it to the test. Thanks!

Kid crabs these days. All clean shaven, bugging parents for barnacle-removal surgery...

Great, thanks! Yes, there's something compelling about being able to see what's normally hidden.

Pulling up a whole chicken every 20 minutes sounds like great exercise! Good to hear you could do well on those short drops. I like the visual of setting up a whole chicken in there for the video...

Very interesting! I'm have to set up some of those blind taste tests myself this season. We've halfheartedly tried before, but by the time the crabs are done the crew has started drinking and all testing validity went out the window.

Agree on both. I took the weights I had on the doors off for the first camera tests. I use pieces of metal strapping wrapped around the lowest horizontal bar as the weights. Which stainless pot do you use? All the designs I've seen have solved the door issue plus have the ramp system which I'm sure cuts down on escape attempts. Plus the SS have enough heft to them so you don't have to add weight. These less expensive ones are more storable, but not much since I keep my line and buoys inside, so i dont store them collapsed.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo yah I use the round stainless traps the same ones commercial guys use that 1 half of the top opens. Easily catch twice as many crab over the blue dine and dash traps. I watched a cool thing can't remember where saw it but they did study and round traps are way better one of the reasons is dungeness run and when they came up on square trap they kept running past trap because it ended but the round trap didn't have corners so it kept running around it till found a way in was amazing to watch sounds fake had I not seen it I wouldn't believe it of course some go in but was amazing how many didn't over and over again.

I'm putting each drop in a playlist so they should play one after the other and be about an hour long total. Thanks for watching!

Should I be hunting elephants or selling timeshares?

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo bar tender/middle age male life coach.

Haha. Sounds good! I got my bartender's certificate back in PA a long time ago. Need to wring some use out of that like I'm trying to do with my college degree. Come to think of it, I've probably made way more drinks than I've done science.

Ahhhh, that's a trade secret! For regular underwater filming with the gopro I mount them on a tray where I can attach video lights. So for the first drops I just jammed that in the corner and used the flexibile light arms to hold it in place at the right angle. Now that I've been having some fun with it and want to do more, I've been experimenting with rigging easier/better using some pvc pipe and tripod screws.

Sure, you could add scent. I don't do it for crabs, but out her we add scent to our shrimp baits. But that's because it's a much higher stakes fishery. For shrimp we drop 300 or more feet deep and have a very limited time to soak them because the best shrimping spots are all exposed to big currents and you can only drop around slack. So, we add scent or anything else that might help. I have an old-fashioned crank meat grinder that I use each shrimp season to make up batches of secret bait that smells so bad I call it Neptune's Butthole. Hoping someday to find a combo of low-light camera and heavy duty housing so I can drop it in a deep shrimp pot. Sorry long answer, but yes, you can always add scent, but it's usually not needed for crab. I think I mentioned in one of the videos that I'm partially freezing the cans of mackerel. I do that so the juice inside takes a little longer to dissipate. If I ever had a couple bad drops, though, I'd start adding scent!

Great question about whether they sense other crabs foraging! I've never thought that one thru. Now going to spend part of my Saturday reading some papers on crab senses! Great catch that you noticed they came from upcurrent. Another commenter said he puts his camera in a pole above the pot. If that was high enough we could check to see if some circle the pot first out of precaution. Or are they just drawn by sight or, as your suggesting, do the sounds and vibrations of other crabs feeding attract them... like the sand thumpers in Dune. Great question. We can test that theory with a hydrophone.

Yep, ghost gear an issue all over the world. Stuff happens, storms etc, that loses gear, but too much of it is just senseless waste by folks who don't know or don't care enough.

Yes things happen but get your license and read your rules. Rig with the proper line, terminal tackle and please, please no laundry detergent container markers.

Great thought. We had a little discussion about that earlier in the comments. Certainly possible. At least one study has shown that crabs react to the sound of predators. They have the hearing so why not use it to find food... All I need for the experiment is to record a few crabs saying numnumnum and then play it inside an empty cage.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo shouldnt be too hard. Or maybe something that spins in the current and rattles the cage. Crab 3 came from upstream so sound is all I can think of.

Haha. I don't remember exactly, but if it was a she, then definitely by the next time she molted! If it was a legal-size male, then... yeah, it wasn't bothering him any more by later that evening.

Cheaper and more fun if I film myself trying to catch them by hand... stay tuned!

The great debate! Yeah, I grew up fishing and crabbing the East Coast. Many, many meals spent picking at big piles of blue claws and I loved every slow, meticulous, messy minute. My opinion of the two on taste is pretty close. Both taste mildly sweet. The sweetness of a blue is a little sharper. Maybe a mental trick because you're eating much smaller bits of meat... or theyre sweeter because they are smaller, or maybe it's because they live and eat in warmer, relatively more polluted water. I don't know. But I find them a little sweeter. On the plus side for Dungies is the amazing coldwater taste plus the amount of meat and how much easier it is to get at. I felt like I was in dental school picking blue claws with surgical instruments to get a couple forkfulls of meat. With Dungeness, it's only several cracks before you have enough for a crabcake. I still love both kinds of crabs, but especially if you want a meal instead of what seems like game night (Operation, anyone?) I'd prefer Dungeness.

Yes! We've got quite a few folks on here who think like hydrodynamic engineers. I think I ponder adding a fin in one of the episodes, and others have come up with the same thought. We must be onto something! I've already ordered more cameras and housings for next season, so ha ing multipe angles may make it a moot point.

Wow! Never had that many legal Dungies in one pot. My best spot around here consistently pulls around a dozen, but the visibility there is usually zero, so not useful for seeing what's happening via the camera. What were you using for bait?

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo we use the biggest pots we can. We have a hydraulic puller. We get as many people on the boat we can, up to 20. We use salmon heads, back bones and guts, we get from a fish processor in Bellingham. We soak em for 24 hours. We go out after work everyday it's open. 56 trips last year for prawns and crabs.

Canned mackerel. I don't have much freezer room, so I've been looking for something inexpensive with a long shelf life. Worked out cheaper than cheap catfood and it's just natural fish.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo sounds more practical for the job to me. I would think that catfood would just disintegrate in a short period of time. I know absolutely nothing about crabs or lobster other than they are tasty. If I want to catch crayfish for bait, I will throw chicken bones in my trap and no minnows get in it. If I want to catch minnows I make dough balls.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo I am from Marietta Ohio by the way.

I've limited out using salmon heads and carcasses, which work great, especially if you don't do a perfect job cleaning the fish and left a little meat. But I've also limited using chicken. My search for a bait that combines the most attractant with the least amount of stinky mess comes from a lifetime of scrubbing boats! I don't fish Chinook anymore, but every pinkie year I'm still saving all my carcasses and heads for crabbing.

Great program! We have divers out here that have been very successful at removing nets and now working on making a dent on the lost traps. Very worthwhile for the amount of marine life it saves--even makes sense in dollars and cents.

So your camera is above the cage? Do you have it in the center or on a corner? Must be a cool angle. I'll have to try that. I do like being inside the cage, though, watching from their level.

There are several parts to each drop with narration, 1.1, 1.2 etc. There are also long versions with no narration. Thanks for watching!

Yes, there are two different species in the trap. The ones with black-tipped claws are Red Rocks and the others are Dungeness.

Thanks for replying @@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo

Hey, math! Another way to add up to that number is to start when you're 12 years old and live long enough, including three years of three dives a day six days a week for work, plus five years of teaching diving, plus doing it as a major part of your work (and vacations) for several more decades. It adds up.

Close! Philly.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo Ahh. My guess was based on Me visiting the Jersey shore in my 20s. Ironically, I have a son that lives in Philly now. I also picked up on your pronunciation of “on“ which comes out more like “awn” (as in “yawn”).

Yep, some things are permanent. The high-water mark of my accent was probably when I worked with some rough crews as a roofer in Philly. Since then, a lot of moving around, a lot of public speaking where you can't say f'n this and f'n that every other word... and my accent has softened a bit! But I go back East and head out fishing with old friends and by the end of the day I sound like I was born under the Liberty Bell again.

💯 Philly!

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo South Jersey. Both of my parents are from Philly so I say wooder.

Thanks for watching and the comment, @gordonback. This is video one of the series. I have three uploaded so far from the first drop and will get to the end of that asap. Once I get a couple of full drops up, I'll probably post a shorter "highlight" reel of each drop.

I've had two that started free-flowing really bad. They're designed so that if they break air doesn't stop, it comes out real fast! The only way it'll stop is if you run out of air. I've had a couple situations where I did that trying to squeeze every last second out of an unplanned decompression stop. I also had my mouthpiece pop off just as I was taking a big inhale. That was uncomfortable for a long moment! But that was my fault for not checking the tie wrap that held it on. Otherwise... lots of hairy stories, but almost all involve getting yourself into a situation. Diving is very forgiving if you're trained well and simply don't panic. You usually get 4 or 5 strikes (mistakes) before you're out.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo I agree I dont have the dives you do, I am just a data geek and I think the scuba world- reg overhaul stuff is way overkill for most people.

Yeah, depends on use and how careful you are with rinsing them. I can never get my gas chainsaw to work when I first need it because I don't off-season it well. A reg's rubber seats can get cruddy, same thing. These days I do most of my diving as an AAUS diver, so we have to have gear professionally checked annually. Nice piece of mind when you're in 45-degree dark water! When I was mostly tropical I did not service gear nearly as much

Looks like it! Could also be the Red Bull I saw him chugging off camera.

There are several parts to each drop, 1.1, 1.2 etc. I'm also posting longer cuts without narration to a playlist on the same channel called Crab Zen.

Yep, I've used chicken legs and chicken necks and the crabs love it. Same with fish parts and willnuse all those again. These first drops were about testing an inexpensive bait that doesn't take up freezer room or make a mess on the boat. This coming season will be more about head-to-head tests. Happy fishing!

"No good to keep"? Dungeness or red rock crabs?! Okay, to each his own. I've limited nearly every day I've dropped using traps with rebar. I guess you're talking about galvanic corrosion causing an electrical current. (I dont think static electricity works below the surface, but I'm no electrical engineer). I dont know of any evidence that electrical current of any kind repels crabs. Weak current like galvanic action or even metal causing weak current from being in contact with saltwater attracts sharks and some other marine animals that hunt for things they can't see by sensing the electical currents put out by living things. So since crabs do hunt for things buried in the bottom, if anything, I would think galvanic current would attract them. And the cage metal is coated in vinyl and the rebar is painted, so there should be none or very little current passing between the two insulated metals... which is what you're talking about. Sorry i missed this comment when it came in. It's a doozy. If you mean it's a crappy quality trap. Won't argue. It's the least expensive. And if you heard my commentary, you know this was started, in part, in order to help folks who don't crab all the time learn to properly rig and set traps so we can cut down on the tens of thousands that are lost every season. Those folks aren't going to spend $200 on a trap they'll use once a year. And they don't have to. The crappiest trap will catch plenty of crab if it's fished correctly.

It, its, itsy?

Wow, now we’re even attracting bigots who don’t know how to hit the mute button. I’ve told others with the same issue how to find the playlist that has all crabs and no narration. But you, Cervix, can fo.

Ah, thanks, professor. Glad it amused you. But yeah, even Washington Dept of Fish & Wildlife officially calls C productus "red rock crab" first with aka as "red crab" or "rock crab." Maybe different where you're from? Still not too hilarious even if so. But again, glad you're entertained. We could all use a good laugh!

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo You’re welcome.

No thank you. Here, this is for you: ukposts.info/slow/PL4_24M59vU-MqoqSJ6DMBv_gjkYKOlut-&si=9K34QfqQvsrLaNBL

NO. BUT HERE’S ONE JUST FOR YOU AND ANYONE ELSE THAT WANTS WANTS TO SHOUT ABOUT TOO MUCH TALKING: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/m6eAYaKCqKacqHk.htmlsi=KnTST7d_4nN7MTPd

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo Hahahaha. Right see this guy had no way of turning the volume down, if what he wanted was quiet… but 4000 dives? Wow. That must have been during a full time job getting paid to dive.

Yep! Several years averaging 3-plus a day and then decades of getting paid to travel the world taking underwater photos and videos. Many 100-plus dive years. It adds up!

Ha! Like I care if you believe me! I have a bunch of friends who have more dives than I do. And they don't care if you believe them, either.

Freedom is a wonderful thing, right?! No one forces anyone to watch anything. And there's the freedom to use a mute button if we want. What a truly magical world we live in. And even more fabulous is that we can use our freedom NOT to watch something but also take our time to so easily reach out and talk to each other and call each other irritating, twice! Irritating x 2.

@@BobsUnderwaterCrabHouse-so2wo and yet again I get an irritating essay with your reply, can't you just give your mouth a rest

😭 I guess it makes sense that Trolls would like crabbing.

@@johnlishman5326Go away Troll.

I liked the commentary!

Short answer is so that otters don't crap in the boat. Looking for a bait that makes cleaning the boat easier and doesn't leave behind crudded ziplocs, etc. Fresh water us an issue and where i live we pay for every bit of garbage. Plus there are also lots of raccoons and river otters, so much better for me in all kinds of ways not to have any mess. Don't know anyone who really enjoys cleaning their boat or spending more than necessary for crab bait, so... I could empty the mackerel into a bait cage or container, but then it's back to mess and more otter attractant later.

@paulhopkins4682. The inevitable result of consuming nourishment is the ultimate necessity of having to "use the can."

🤣