The artist's pallet was filled with grey, white, and blue. With the temperature in the low sixties and the water temperature a bit higher, a shroud of fog rolls off this tributary to the Chesapeake.
Twin bateaus floated sluggishly on their moorings, waiting for their captains to come and bale the overnight accumulation of water covering their flooring. The bay itself is miles away, but the water here is still a bit salty. Here the famed blue crab of Chesapeake lore still crawls the bottom of an underwater terrain.
Commercial fishermen of the Chesapeake are called "Watermen". They are fiercely independent and some can actually scratch out a decent living on the bay. The odds are against them, as in any entrepreneurial enterprise, but they would have it no other way. They are their own boss and want it just that way.
They rise before daylight to get to the "Spots" on the water that only they, their fathers, and grandfathers know. Doing the job needed to catch a few bushells of crabs, they will keep only the "Jimmies" or males and discard the females who will produce the next generation. If they are lucky, they will catch a dozen or two of the precious soft crabs to sell to the buyers at a premium.
Crabs will molt their shells, or grow out of them, about four times in their lifetimes. It is just when the hard shell is shed that the soft crab is immobile and to some the tastiest. Including man and any number of finny predators.
Our day will be spent riding the boat over about a mile of "Trot Line", which is a simple rope weighted down on each end and baited about every foot or so with eel or chicken necks. The line lays on the bottom of the river. There is an arm extending outward from the boat with a roller that looks suspiciously like a rolling pin. The trot line is placed over the roller, the boat moves along the line, and as it rises from the bottom it is hopefully festooned with live crabs. The crabs are dipped from the water and deposited in bushell baskets. This procedure continues until generally mid afternoon. Unless you are attuned to your natural surroundings, this can be an awfully repetitive and boring process . But most watermen know their water and surroundings. Take delight in a diving osprey or eagle. Look enviously at a bunch of fish feeding on the surface and the gulls diving to steal the remains.
These people rise early, work hard, and retire early. Crabbing is only one of the many bay critters that supply these wonderful people with a way to make their living from the bay. Other than crabs, there are fish of all kinds of course, clams, some oysters, and eels. All are fished for with differing methods depending on their abundance and the time of year. Regardless of the catch and the method, you can depend upon these folks to have vast knowledge of what is happening to their environment----and how it has a very direct impact upon their lives.
Arriving back at port, the crabs are sized, counted, and sold. The boat washed down with the same salty water upon which she floats. The trot line is baited for the next day and placed in a salt filled barrel. Everything is made tidy so that the whole procedure can be repeated the next day.
The artist's pallet is stowed and the images saved for a lifetime.
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