My method of mounting Blue Crabs w/ paint schedule

[George Roof]

Yes Donna, they come with their own hangers.  LOL.  I cheat a bit.  I go to the docks and buy a bundle of lids off the crabbers.  There are 10 to a bundle I think and I gave $20 for them. Don't know what they cost, just asked what he wanted.

[Donna Naughton]

thank you George

[FishWorks]

George, not knocking your preservation method, but why wouldn't you just steam the crab, take it apart, clean and put back together. then paint. seems to me you have much more time invested just cleaning out a shell.

[George Roof]

Probably because it's too time consuming for me to bother with.  Inject and let dry, open the bottom of the shell and clean out the lungs guts and meat up to the claw and leg attachments and paint.  I can only imagine what putting the jigsaw puzzle of crab parts back together would take.

[snowhare]

THANK GOD I DONT HAVE THE CRABS LIKE THAT

GREAT WORK G

[CrabCrazy]

fishworks, i basicly do it like you, except i don't steam them (unless i'm hungry)..i remove the top shell...and clean out the meat...i extract the meat from the large leg parts with a wire tool from within the shell cavity... then cut the membrane on the second large claw part and extract the meat with a wire tool then remove the pincher part and extract the meat with the wire tool...legs are injected with DP and DA 50-50 mix..

[FishWorks]

well George, when it becomes to bothersome to deal with, then it is in my book time to stop doing them.your method makes them bothersome, and likely to fall prey to decay and unhappy customers. by the time you can inject a crab, I can completely clean a crab and have is ready to reassemble. 80lbs of pressure can bust crab meat all over my walls. the body parts are better than a model for re assembly with super glue.In my area, I do maybe 55 crabs per season. I get 375.00 on a basket top. hard sand add 150.00.steaming a crab to it's orange base only makes the painting easier.i can't figure why you would white one out.each to his own, however,in mounting crabs, you are behind in the process, and your paint schedule proves that

[George Roof]

FishWorks, obviously that's YOUR opinion and I just don't happen to share it.  Have you ever tried it my way? I don't have one bit of trouble painting them as you should be able to see.  When dried, the residual meat is so inconsequential, it doesn't matter and sealing them between two coats of epoxy eliminates any worries FOR ME. If you can get that kind of money for what you do, they're getting a helluva deal.  I'm over $100 cheaper so I guess they're getting what they pay for.  Either way, the customer is stuck with a blue crab he can't eat. When I get out my crab steamer, taxidermy is the LAST thing I'm going to have on my mind.  All I want to think about is how much Old Bay I need to pour over them.

Now I'm sorry I'm not as impressed with my talents as much as you seem to be with yours. Tutorials aren't intended for the icons as they already know everything anyway. I actually thought your paint schedule sucked, but then again, that's MY opinion.

[Donna Naughton]

DANG fishworks, you're really pushy on here for someone that's a newbie!  Ya think maybe next time keep your opinion to yourself???  George and Crabcrazy do wonderful crabs!  I learned from both of them, do it both ways and adapted their paint schedule's to work with my southern crabs. Won 1st place Pro, Best of Category (fish) and Morgan Reptile Award at our state show, AND this was the first crab I ever entered!
Learn from others then do whatever works for you!  Stop being thickheaded!

[George Roof]

I guess the most galling of all the comments was this silly assed statement: "by the time you can inject a crab, I can completely clean a crab and have is ready to reassemble."  Now I'm taking a raw crab and injecting it with preservative which takes a hot 10-15 minutes. When it dries, the crab is already "posed" and three's no reassembly required.

To explain my comment on the paint scheme, it may LOOK good, but it doesn't look like any of the bazillion blue crabs I've encountered over the years.  The "blue" on the small legs is very brief and tinted to a dull green.  I use reference photos I've taken from live crabs and none of them look like his.  Mine also have antennae that I don't see on his masterpiece.  I suppose being conceited is no problem as long as you're convinced.

Donna, your advice is right on the money. Each of us "sees" differently and I'm sure different environments can influence different colorations.  I do know that Crab Crazy probably has access to the absolute BIGGEST blue crabs in the world.  Wye Mills, Maryland on the Chesapeake has some real monsters.  I've had several over 10 inches.

[Redwolf]

It pisses me off when someone takes the time to post a GREAT tutorial, and then someone who does things different pipes up.
I bet there are a bunch who would like to take time out of their day to post a tutorial that would help a lot of people but they wont do it because they don't want to get beat up on by someone.
And for the record George has been at this for a while, and I'm pretty damn sure he knows what he's talking about.

[Donna Naughton]

Kinda dangerous for a fellow to poke a stick at a guy that almost cut his own foot off ain't it??

[CrabCrazy]

everybody has there methods of doing mounts...if it works, then don't knock it....i don't think i would steam and eat a crab, from a customer...
George we do have some big crabs,later on in the fall is when we catch the biggest ones...right now a lot of small ones...Donna thanks for the compliment

[George Roof]

CC, a client brought by a Wye Mills special last Tuesday.  It was 9.5 inches but had "midget" claws so he said he was going to eat this one and wait for the later batch.  He and 2 other guys ran trotlines for about 6 hours and that was the only "big" one that they caught in that time.

This years batch of crabs seems to be the "fattest" I've seen in some time.  I had a bushel of #1's dropped off two weeks ago and they were simply packed with meat.  After feasting, I still got almost 5 pounds of crab meat in the freezer (and before anyone asks, the crabber is a waterman friend.  He had a bushel and a half of crabs stuffed in that basket.)

[Donna Naughton]

biggest I caught down here were 5"ers....still too dang hot!