Ep. 905: The Life of a Crabber
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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this is the meat eater podcast coming at you shirtless severely bug bitten and in my case underwearless you can't predict anything brought to you by first light when i'm hunting i need gear that won't quit first light builds no compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer no shortcuts just gear that works Check it out at FirstLight.com. That's F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. You're joining us from the walleye grounds of Lake of the Woods, Ontario, but we're here to talk about the life of a crabber. chesapeake bay back in america uh luke mcfadden thanks for coming on the show thanks for having me um first question for you though before we get into crab and we're here for the fish eater classic fishing tournament you've been spending a couple days in a boat with dirt myth that's right any takeaways i like him man he's cool oh dirt's the best yeah he's the man dude he's like not only is he like
you know, doing all the filming and this and that and has somehow been able to, like, bob and weave every single hook flying past his head. Sure. He's also, like, you know, he's part of the team, man. He's keeping morale up. He's, like, he's doing it.
Every situation, yeah, I find that every situation is better with dirt around. I agree, man. So you approve of the cameraman. I agree. I do. Excellent. So tell me, like, I've followed you for a long time. We've talked before. And I know kind of, like, the basic outline is that, like, In Chesapeake Bay, like in the blue crab world, that tends to be a thing that people kind of inherit. Yeah. You know, people come up in it and their kids come up in it. Is that true? Like it's a thing that's like there's a little bit of a, I don't know, man, like it gets handed down generation to generation, that lifestyle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could call it like a hereditary disease. Hereditary disease, yeah. In a lot of ways, but yeah, it's generally like a, Generational, you know? So it's mostly like, you know, you do it because your dad did it, and he did it because his dad did it, and he did it because there was no other option. You know what I mean?
I got it, I got it. But you didn't inherit it.
No, no.
Walk me through that, like, because, I mean, because you're a professional crabber. Yeah. And have been for how many years?
Uh, I mean, this is, I started on my own boat when I was 11 years old or no, when I was, uh, sorry, 18 years old. Okay. Uh, I'm 30. So it's my, I think this is my 11th crab season. Got it. So it's been a little while. I think I've got my 10,000 hours.
How many of those see, like. not that there's a lot of similarities between crab and writing but in writing like you write for years with side jobs yeah a lot of people do you write for years with side jobs and all of a sudden you're like damn yeah i don't need a side job anymore right i mean was it was it was it was it when you're crab and you're all in and that's just what you're doing or did you have to kind of like did you have to kind of trickle into it so i mean definitely like in the beginning i
I mean, it was like just a disaster for a very long time. Is that right? Oh, yeah, dude. It was like, you know, a lot to learn quickly. Steep learning curve. But, you know, I was like, it was like I was basically working in the wintertime to be able to go crabbing again in the spring. You know what I mean? And I was just hustling any way I possibly could, you know, to continue to go in the beginning, you know. But I was just kind of committed to it. I was not going to let it fail.
Why did you want to get into that anyway? What were you seeing that made you want to do it?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:36
2
How did Luke McFadden get started as a professional crabber?
5:36–20:11
3
What are the main commercial crabbing methods used in Chesapeake Bay?
20:11–33:23
4
How do crabbers maintain and clean pots to improve catch rates?
33:23–52:39
5
What determines crab grades and why does shell density matter?
52:39–1:16:19
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The MeatEater Podcast
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