Do You Crab During High or Low Tide?

Tides are the movement of water in the oceans -- the rising and falling of the ocean's surface -- that the gravitational effects of the moon on the earth cause. When it is high tide, a higher level of water reaches toward the shore. When it is low tide, water levels are lower. The time just around high or low tide is called slack tide, and generally lasts from one to three hours, depending on location.

Crabs spend their time crawling along the bottoms of bays, estuaries and oceans, and tend to move along with the tide. For crabbers, this can drastically affect the likelihood of success in a catch, since the feeding behavior and location of crabs change along with the tide. Crabs tend to be most active, and therefore easiest to catch, when a water body has some movement of water but not an extremely strong current.

Most crabbing enthusiasts agree that the ideal time to crab is during slack tide, the time just around or after a high or low tide. The reason is that during slack tide, crabbers can reach deeper levels of water from a pier or seashore than at low tide. This time provides some current movement to carry the chemical "smells" of bait, but not so much movement that crabs are unable to crawl about the ocean floor easily without being carried away.

The likelihood of a successful crabbing trip depends on the time of year and geographic location. In the Pacific Northwest and mid-Atlantic coast, crabbing is most common during the mating season in the late summer and early fall. Summer is a popular time for crabbing in Mississippi. In any case, crabbers should ensure they have the proper licenses and knowledge of crabbing guidelines, such as gender or size restrictions on certain species of crabs.