1. Fasten your bait to the bottom or top of the trap.
2. Fasten a sturdy line to the trap.
3. Lower the trap from a dock or boat.
4. When a crab goes in to feed, pull the string and trap the crab. Then hoist it ashore and drop into your bucket or basket.

If you want to start catching more than just a few crabs for you and your friends to enjoy, you will need more than hand lines and nets. To really catch enough for a sizeable feast you will need a boat and at least two or three crab pots or a trot line.

Tie one end of a rope line to your pot.

1. On the other end of your line tie a floater. This is a marker so you can find your pot again. Commercial pots usually have an identifying number attached to the floater. You can make a floater with an empty milk bottle with the lid screwed on tight. Write your name on it with a permanent oil paint (markers will fade).
2. Fill your bait compartment.
3. Throw your pot from your dock or boat.
4. When you retrieve your pot, open the top and shake out the crabs into a bushel basket or a cooler with ice.

Type of Crab Traps and Crab Pots (click on the images to zoom-in. On the pop-up images, click on the left or right side of the images to scroll to the next images)
Standard Crab Trap	Crab Trap 2	Crab Trap 3

Crab Pot 1	Crab Pot 2
Crab Pot 3	Crab Pot 4

It is best to throw in your pots in the morning and empty them in the late afternoon or early evening.

If you leave your pots unattended for too many days the crabs will run out of bait to eat and will eat each other and/or die. This will leave you with very few left that you can cook.

Unless you plan to begin catching crabs commercially it is unlikely you will need a lot of pots or trot lines. When boating always do your best to avoid the lines attached to crab pots and their markers. You will be glad your boat propeller does not become tangled and the crabber will be glad that you have not moved their pot or cut it loose from its marker. Never ever take crabs from someone else's crab pot.