Ep. 905: The Life of a Crabber

Summary

The MeatEater Podcast – Ep. 905: The Life of a Crabber
Host: Steven Rinella
Guest: Luke McFadden
Release Date: July 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Steven Rinella sits down with Luke McFadden, a professional Chesapeake Bay crabber, to explore the gritty reality, hidden science, and evolving business of commercial crabbing. McFadden shares stories from more than a decade on the water, demystifies the blue crab’s lifecycle, explains the nuanced art of grading and catching, and discusses how he’s built a direct-to-consumer business that pairs wild seafood with transparency and storytelling. The conversation is candid, earthy, sometimes funny, and packed with firsthand insight into a way of life that’s part tradition, part science, and a whole lot of hard work.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background and Entry into Crabbing

• Generational Trade: Crabbing is usually passed down, with entire families sustained by the job.
  • “You could call it like, a hereditary disease…you do it because your dad did it. He did it because his dad did it.” – Luke McFadden (04:41)
• Breaking the Mold: Luke didn’t inherit the business; he hustled his way in, starting to crew at age 12 and running his own boat at 18 (05:01–05:14).
• Learning Curve: Early years were hard, with side jobs in winter to make crabbing possible come spring (05:51).
  • “It was, like, just a disaster for a very long time.” – Luke McFadden (05:57)

2. Crabbing Community and Regional Practices

• Few crabbers remain in Luke’s Maryland hometown (Pasadena)—just six to eight (07:16).
• The Eastern Shore has more crabbers due to its low job opportunities and less development.

3. Techniques and Daily Routine

Traditional Trot Line vs. Potting (08:24–12:01)

• Trot Lining:
  • A line with inline baits, sometimes 5,000 ft, often worked solo; crabs are plucked off as you pull in the line.
  • Innovations include 'snoods,' a bungee system to secure bait.
  • Boat setups can be quirky to allow for one-man operations.
• Crab Potting (12:05):
  • More industrial; Luke runs 23 rows with 25 pots each (a gangline).
  • Pots connect underwater, each with a snap gear, picked up and cleaned each round.
  • Cleaning is obsessive: “I literally look at it like I’m cleaning gear, and I’m hoping there’s crabs in it.” – Luke (16:53)
• Pot Maintenance:
  • Crabs avoid dirty pots; gear is cleaned in hot water (145°F) every time it comes in, preventing algae/barnacle buildup.
  • New pots also underperform until weathered.

4. Crab Biology & Grading

• Grading is crucial—sorting by size, gender, shell density, and value.
• Shedding (Molting):
  • Crabs shed to grow, temporarily soft and full of water; eventually fill shells with meat.
  • Dense-shelled crabs are most valuable.
  • Female blue crabs only shed once after maturity—this is also when they mate.
  • “That’s the one time they mate. So when they’re an immature female…that’s basically when they’re in heat.” – Luke (22:06)
  • Males carry receptive females for days, known as “doublers.”
• Soft Shell Crabs:
  • Highly prized and require near-constant monitoring when kept in tanks.
  • “When we get these peeler runs, we’re up all night, you know, we’re up checking tanks.” – Luke (31:35)
  • Crabs in tanks are separated by molting stage; aggressive behavior requires careful sorting.

5. Grades and Markets for Crabs (35:08–44:02)

• Grades:
  • Extra-large males (Jumbos/XLs): Top dollar, rare.
  • Number Ones: Bread-and-butter, standard market size.
  • Number Twos: Smaller, still marketable.
  • Trash/Light crabs: Recently shed, thin, low value—often thrown back to grow.
  • Females: Only mature females are legal to keep.
• Pricing:
  • Jumbo: Up to $150/dozen
  • Number Ones: ~$70/dozen, $400/bushel
• Direct-to-Consumer:
  • Luke now avoids selling to restaurants, focusing on retail and direct sales; leads to higher margins but more work.
  • “Three times the money for five times the work.” – Luke (41:21)

6. Crab Harvesting Ethics & Management

• Releasing 'light' crabs to let them grow, rather than selling immediately at low price:
  • “You can only kill a crab one time…I would much rather throw that crab back and give him a chance to kill him when he’s worth…a $10 crab instead of a dollar crab.” – Luke (44:18–44:38)
• Use of mesh size in pots and ‘call rings’ helps sort size and grade, reducing bycatch and labor.

7. Crew Dynamics and Labor Challenges

• Crew is a mix of loyal, long-term helpers and transient workers.
• Labor shortages and the need for cross-trained, flexible crew are major headaches.
• McFadden designs boat roles so almost anyone can fill in where needed.
  • “People are the parts.” – Luke (49:29)
• There's a culture of “lifers” and folks taking the job for fast, physical work.

8. Business, Infrastructure, and the Modern Market

• Considerable investment in boats, pots ($52 each, 1500 in total), licenses (one 900-pot license is now worth $30k), and retail setup.
• “You have to reinvest every bit of capital…basically unpaid labor of yourself.” – Luke (59:43)
• Direct-to-consumer and storytelling (YouTube, live streams, education at his “crab stand”—a wooden crab boat retrofitted as a shop) are his way of escaping the volatile wholesale market and building a niche.

9. Sustainability, Resource Management, and the Future

• Market volatility and ecological uncertainty (disease, overfishing, climate) are real anxieties.
• 80% of “Maryland” crab meat comes from Louisiana, and much “Maryland crab” is imported (Venezuela, Asia).
  • “If that crab cake is less than $35, there’s a good chance it’s not from this country.” – Luke (69:15)
• He’s moved to lower gear volume, focusing on premium product and the story behind it.
• The goal: quality over quantity, full transparency, and a personal connection with customers.

10. Philosophy & Future Outlook

• Luke loves the work and aims to stay on the water.
  • “My goal is to not get off of the water…I love doing it.” – (63:02–63:15)
• He’s intentionally built a safety net so he doesn’t have to fish if unable.
• The lifestyle is demanding and not the quaint retirement many imagine.
  • “Best way to become a millionaire crabbing: start with two million.” – Luke (61:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On entering the business solo:
  “It’s generally, like, generational…But you didn’t inherit it.” – Interviewer (04:29)
  “No, no.” – Luke McFadden (05:01)

• On the learning curve:
  “It was…a disaster for a very long time.” – Luke (05:57)

• On pot maintenance:
  “I literally look at it like I’m cleaning gear, and I’m hoping there’s crabs in it.” – Luke (16:53)

• On crab biology:
  “Crabs are kind of about as stubborn as the guys that go catch them.” – Luke (10:25)

• On grading:
  “The crabs, they don’t want to trap up in a dirty pot.” – Luke (15:22)
  “You can only kill a crab one time…I would much rather throw that crab back and give him a chance to kill him when he’s worth…a $10 crab instead of a dollar crab.” – Luke (44:18–44:38)

• On pricing and demand:
  “150 bucks a dozen crabs, man…the first to go. I mean, people line up to pay…” – Luke (37:15)

• On the market shift:
  “I sell all my stuff direct to consumer now, but that’s very uncommon.” – Luke (39:02)

• On the notion of crabbing as a romantic retirement:
  “They want to retire into being a crabber…dude, crabbers don’t retire.” – Luke (60:27–60:29)

• On staying on the water:
  “My goal is to not get off of the water…I love doing it.” – Luke (63:12–63:15)

• On transparency as marketing:
  “You can only catch a crab once. You can sell the story time and time again.” – Luke (70:26)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Luke’s entry to crabbing & generational tradition: 04:10–05:21
• Description of daily crabbing (trot line & potting): 08:24–12:01
• Cleaning pots & gear maintenance: 14:07–17:22
• Crab biology: molting, mating: 20:05–22:56
• Soft shell crabs, tanks, and grading: 30:48–34:34
• Grades and market (pricing, direct to consumer): 35:08–41:44
• Crew and labor dynamics: 47:45–52:16
• Business investments & infrastructure: 56:29–59:57
• Romance vs. reality of the business: 59:43–61:31
• Resource management and market transparency: 67:11–72:36
• Crab stand, retail “boat in the ground” & education: 75:44–76:44
• Closing tournament banter: 76:44–80:46

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Podcast Tone & Style

The episode is conversational, matter-of-fact, and often irreverently funny. Steven probes for gritty details and industry secrets, while Luke’s voice is passionate, direct, and peppered with the hard-won humor and wisdom of someone who’s had to hustle and improvise every step of the way.

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This episode offers a bracingly honest, detailed, and occasionally surprising look at the life of a modern-day Chesapeake Bay crabber—the science, mechanics, business, culture, and philosophy behind every bushel brought home. It’s essential listening for anyone curious about wild seafood, American blue crabs, or small-scale food production in a changing world.

Transcript

[Luke McFadden]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Interviewer]

Guaranteed Human when you're heading into the back country, you don't need a truck that's trying to be the latest trend. You need one that's built to work. That's what people like about the Nissan Frontier. It comes standard with a 310 horsepower V6, the most powerful naturally aspirated V6 in its class. No tricks, no trendy, no unproven turbo or hybrid fad. Just dependable truck power that's ready for early mornings, muddy roads or whatever else the day throws your way. Check out the Nissan Frontier Today. Auto Pacific segmentation 2026 Frontier vs latest in market competitors in the midsize truck class Base models compared based on manufacturers websites One of the things I love about turkey hunting is it is a game of cat and mouse. The whole thing comes down to the setup. You get that wrong. Turkey nuggets are not on your menu. That is why I use the ONX Hunt app when I'm hunting turkeys. I think of it like an old Victor mouse trap. You use it right, it works. When you hear a gobbler like sound off in the dark, you can open up the map on Onx and try to get a good sense of where he is. And you can use the compass mode on there. If you really want to figure out where he is, then you can take a look around the landscape and and build a setup that's going to put you where that bird wants to be. At the same time, I know with certainty where public ground ends and private ground begins. So I'm not guessing or second guessing or worrying about where I am and getting in trouble with somebody. I like to just hunt knowing I'm in the right spot. If spring turkey season puts you in the woods, download the ONX Hunt app. Set your trap right. This is Stephen Rinella from the Meat Eater Podcast. Life moves fast at American Military University. They're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cyber security, IT, space studies and more are designed for service members, veterans and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step with wherever life takes you. American Military University Made for what's next. Learn more at AMU Apus Edu Military. This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you. Short, shirtless, severely bug bitten, and in my case, underwearless podcast, 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@first light.com. that's f I R S T L I T E dot 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. Of a crabber in Chesapeake Bay. Back in America, Luke McFadden. Thanks for coming on the show.

[Luke McFadden]

Thanks for having me.

[Interviewer]

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.

[Luke McFadden]

That's right.

[Interviewer]

Any takeaways?

[Luke McFadden]

I like him, man. He's cool.

[Interviewer]

Oh, dirt's the best.

[Luke McFadden]

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.

[Interviewer]

Sure.

[Luke McFadden]

He's also, like, you know, he's part of the team, man. He's keeping the morale up. He's like. He's. He's doing it every situation. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I find that every situation is better with dirt around.

[Luke McFadden]

I agree.

[Interviewer]

So. So you're.

[Luke McFadden]

You're.

[Interviewer]

You. You approve of the cameraman?

[Luke McFadden]

I. I agree. I do.

[Interviewer]

Excellent. So tell me, like, I've followed you for a long time. We've talked before, and. And I know the kind of, like, the basic outline is that that in Chesapeake Bay, like, in the. In the blue crab world, that tends to be a thing that. That people kind of inherit.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know. You know, people. People come up in it, and their kids come up in it. Is that true? Like, it's the 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.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it could. You could be. You could call it like, a hereditary disease a lot of ways, but, yeah, it's. It's generally, like, generational, you know, so it's mostly like, you know, you do it because your dad did it. He did it because his dad did it, and he did it because there was no other option. You know what I mean?

[Interviewer]

I got it. I got it. But you didn't inherit it.

[Luke McFadden]

No, no.

[Interviewer]

So walk me through that, like, because. I mean, because you're a professional crabber.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And have been for how many years?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, this is. I started on my own boat when I was 11 years old.

[Interviewer]

Or.

[Luke McFadden]

No, when I was. Sorry, 18 years old.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

I'm 30, so. It's my. I think this is my 11th grab season.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

So it's been a little while. I think I've got my 10,000.

[Interviewer]

How many of those se. 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 a sudden you're like, damn, yeah, I don't need the side job anymore.

[Luke McFadden]

Right.

[Interviewer]

I mean, was it. Was it. Was it. Was it when you're crabbing, 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?

[Luke McFadden]

So, I mean, definitely, like, in the beginning, I mean, it was, like, just a disaster for a very long time.

[Interviewer]

Is that right?

[Luke McFadden]

Oh, yeah, dude. It was. It was like, you know, 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.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

You know what I mean? And I was just hustling any way I possibly could, you know? You know, to continue to go in the beginning, you know, but I was just kind of committed to it, you know, I was, like, not going to let it fail.

[Interviewer]

So why did you. Why did you want to get into that anyway? What were you seeing that made you want to do it?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, I. I started helping on a crab boat when I was, like, 12.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Just. Guy started taking me along. You know, I was just cutting fish and stuff like that, and. I don't know, I just liked it out there. And when I was 18, I just decided I wanted to, you know, do it and all.

[Interviewer]

When you were helping out, how would you get compensated?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, I was getting paid, you know, not much. Like, you know, pretty much nothing. You know, when I was a little older, like, 16, 17, I was making a little bit more. But I mean, I think the most I got, I made, like, when I was breaking off to go do my own thing was like. I think I was making, like, 85 bucks a day or something like that.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

So. So, you know, it wasn't much. It was cash, but it wasn't much.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Like, so you. Were you surrounded by. Where you grew up? Were you surrounded by crabbers?

[Luke McFadden]

No, there's not many crabbers around at all. Like, the area that I'm from in particular, Pasadena, is like. There's a few, but it's not. It's not common whatsoever. I Think, like, we did a head count of the fleet. I think, like, guys that are, you know, out there making their living doing it. I think there's like six or eight of us left going out of the whole town.

[Interviewer]

Oh, no kidding.

[Luke McFadden]

There's some more north of us. There's a few south of us. There's a lot more on the Eastern Shore. Like, I'm on the western shore of Maryland. On the Eastern Shore. There's a lot more crabbers. It's way more common, but there's a whole. There's a lot less job opportunity over there.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

It's a lot less developed, and there's a lot more low country and whatever. So historically, there's always a lot more crabbers on the Eastern Shore.

[Interviewer]

Got it. But in your town, six to eight guys go out.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, there's not many.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Tell me, like, how are you guys? I mean, I've gone getting blue crabs little ways. Like, I mean, I've gone from just walking around, picking them up, stringing the chicken necks and all that. How are you guys doing it? Like. Like, what does your day look like? How do you catch them?

[Luke McFadden]

So we're crab potting.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

So there's basically, like, two ways to commercially catch crabs where I'm at, and it's One is a trot line. So you got that long, you know, line with inline bait, you know, and then you're run along with a dipper or a net and.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I've done that with guys.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, you know, we.

[Interviewer]

I don't know, 100 chicken necks on a string. Yeah, I got it.

[Luke McFadden]

And there ain't nothing wrong with that. You know, that's a great way to go. That's how everybody starts, usually, because not a lot of overhead. You can do it by yourself. Is that how you did it in the beginning? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. And how many baits would be on that line that you're running?

[Luke McFadden]

Usually, like, you're running like, you know, some of the bigger guys are running up to 5,000 foot a line. Sometimes they'll break it up into, like, thousand foot or twelve hundred foot sections. And then, you know, there's debate on how far you want your bait spaced. And, you know, there's some science to it in terms of, like, you know, guys will have different lines with different space baits for different bottom, different times of the year, all that.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And you're talking that deal where, like, just for people listen, like, it's this big, long line.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

With every what, distance?

[Luke McFadden]

It's usually, like, I would say the average, I think ours are like seven foot. Seven or eight foot.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Seven or eight feet. No hooks. Yeah. Just bait.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. So they either put out in line. Like, they'll either use like that old school, like, twisted, like hemp line almost. And they'll just push it together and then put the bait in line.

[Interviewer]

That's how they do it.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, that's like the old school way of doing it. Or now, like, a lot of guys like to run Snoods is what they call it. So it's like a piece of bungee, like, probably six inches.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

With a piece of, like, gas line, you know, you tie it. You tie a knot in the end of the bungee and then double it over and stick the gas line over the loop. So it's like a, you know, like a. You can cinch it down with the baits on it.

[Interviewer]

I got it.

[Luke McFadden]

That's kind of like the newer way to do it. A lot of guys like to run clam bags and all that stuff.

[Interviewer]

They call it a snood.

[Luke McFadden]

Called a snoot.

[Interviewer]

That's what comes off a turkey's head.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

[Interviewer]

Right. And then you string that sucker out and they're not hooked. They're just hanging on to the bait.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Crabs are kind of about as stubborn as the guys that go catch them. So they'll just like, you know, they're in it for the. They'll hold on to that thing all the way up. Man.

[Interviewer]

You can raise the line up and just nab them off there as they drop free.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, you got like an arm that hangs off the side of the boat. And then you pull up. There's a. On either end. You pick up the buoy and put that on the arm. And then you drive the boat down the line. And as you're driving down, the line isn't really moving, but you're picking the line up. You know what I mean?

[Interviewer]

Are there dudes that do that by themselves?

[Luke McFadden]

I would say most guys that do that, do it that way.

[Interviewer]

Do it by themselves driving the boat.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I did it by myself. Most guys do, because you ain't got to pay a helper, you know? So, like, a lot of times we'll set the boats up kind of different. Like, I got a little trout lining boat.

[Interviewer]

Oh, you do still?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, we got one that some of my. We built for. Like some of my helpers and everything they've been wanting to go. But, like, we even have it with a. The console is just an 8 by 8 piece of aluminum, square tube. And you stand on the right side of the boat in between, you know, the console on your left side and then your rollers on your right. And the steering wheel's actually on like 50 facing the starboard side.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

So that you can stand there and just run it. Steer with your left hand and then dip with your right hand. And then you got the call box in front of you. You know what I mean? So it's, you can run it as a one man band. Pretty easy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

But they're like, you'll see some goofy boats, but it's like there's always a reason they're set up kind of weird, you know what I mean? It looks strange. You're facing forward, you know, steering like this. But it allows you to do it by yourself.

[Interviewer]

But then, but you're, the main deal is running crab traps.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. So I'm potting, I'm crab potting, which is kind of, some guys would argue, but it's, I guess the more industrial, like larger scale. So I got gang lines, you know, we call them underwater lines. And it's 25 pots connected to each other.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

With a buoy called a hawk on either end. So it's a, like a buoy with a five foot piece of PVC pipe through it with a weight at the bottom and then a flag at the top.

[Interviewer]

And then what's the term?

[Luke McFadden]

We call it a hawk.

[Interviewer]

What's that come from?

[Luke McFadden]

I have no idea.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

I, I, I've always wondered because like a long lining, like deep sea, long line. And they call it a bird.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, we call them hawks. I don't know why.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, but yeah, there's 75 foot in between each crab pot. Each pot's on snap gear. So, you know, it's got like a, almost like a 24 inch leader basically with like a metal clip. And then every 75 foot on the main line, there's a, like an overhand loop tied in the main line.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

And so each clip gets clipped onto the loop.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

So when we go to pick up the cray pots, we actually pick the entire row up, stack them on the boat. And then, you know, like I'm putting the line on the winder and the winder's hauling it into a barrel. The barrel. I have a piece of PVC pipe, you know, screwed to the side of the barrel. And so as each pot comes up, I break the snap gear off of the main line and then stack all the loops on the PVC pipe. In order.

[Interviewer]

Got it?

[Luke McFadden]

You know, and then all the line goes in the barrel. And then each pot, as it comes up, I'll break it off the main line. And then the shaker, who's kind of like your right hand guy, he'll open up the top door, flip the pot up, open the bait door, shake the crabs out, put new bait in it, close the bait door, and then put it into, like, a hot water tank that's like, kind of behind us, and that's cleaning the crabs.

[Interviewer]

That's a strange deal there, man.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, that's like 90% of crabbing, though. Just keeping gear clean in the summertime, you know, because.

[Interviewer]

Well, I got a bunch of questions, but just tell me that real quick. Explain that hot water deal and what you're cleaning off.

[Luke McFadden]

We're trying, like, crabs. Everybody thinks they're just, like, dumb scavengers. Right. But I mean, there's a way you can go out there and catch crabs. You can go out there and make a living catching crabs. And the devil's in the detail, right?

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

So we clean every pot, every time it comes over the rail, and we don't let them sit more than like, four days in the summertime, you know. So what we're trying to prevent is these pots growing things like algae, barnacles. We have this, like, brown stuff that we call it hair. It looks just like hair, but it's technically kind of coral. These little arthropods that we get, they're like little shrimp, we call them. And they. It'll look like your pots covered in, like, grains of brown rice.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

They build these little huts that they live inside of, you know, and then the stuff, the algae and things like that will catch on their little huts and start to grow.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

So we're just trying to prevent any of that stuff, you know. So if you see my pots, ideally, they look like they're brand new. They look like they're not dirty at all, but it's because we hit them every time. We're literally trying to kill it, like, on a microscopic level before it even.

[Interviewer]

Are you trying to do it? Because the lawn, like. Like the longevity of the pot.

[Luke McFadden]

I'm trying to do it. Performance of the pot. The crabs, they don't want to trap up in a dirty pot. They don't even, like a slime on it or nothing, really. They. They want, like. I don't know, man. I really don't. Because you'd think, right, that, like, it looks a little more natural to the bottom or something, because the Bottom is all. The bottom's all covered in that stuff. I know, it's crazy. I don't know. But, yeah, we're trying to keep them going.

[Interviewer]

They don't want to go into a dirty pot.

[Luke McFadden]

No, man, they don't want to, but they also don't want to go into a brand new, freshly set pot or

[Interviewer]

a brand new pot because it might smell of production.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, exactly. Like, we paint every pot every year. So we dip all the pots into, like, a vat of paint to, you know, give them a fresh coat. But like a freshly painted pot, I've seen it where they do like it, but 90% of the time, they don't want a freshly painted pot.

[Interviewer]

So you got to let it weather.

[Luke McFadden]

You got. Yeah, exactly. But you got to fish it through, too. You got to, like, let it soak and then fish it through, get new, fresh bait in it. Usually it's like a week, two weeks, and they'll really start to catch, right?

[Interviewer]

Man, that is so, like, not how you think of a crab, man.

[Luke McFadden]

I know. Well, that's what I'm saying, man. Everybody thinks of crabs is like, they're these dirty scavengers that are just, you know, they'll eat whatever, and you think

[Interviewer]

they will, and you think that's like, you're convinced that that's right. I mean, he doesn't want to go in a dirty pot.

[Luke McFadden]

That's facts. I mean, it. You know, it's. I go through a insane amount of effort to keep gear clean. I mean, that's the whole job in the summer is keeping gear. And I mean, anybody.

[Interviewer]

That's what you're doing, you could look at it like you're trapping crabs or you're cleaning gear. You look at it like you're.

[Luke McFadden]

I look at. Yeah, I look at it. I literally look at it like I'm cleaning gear, and I'm hoping there's crabs in it, you know, like.

[Interviewer]

So what do you tell me how, like, you put in a hot water bath and you agitate it or what do you.

[Luke McFadden]

No, no, just. I mean, since we're hitting them every time, every day, like, we're. We're kind of keeping ahead of it, you know? So they just sit in there for, I think, cycle times, probably 7 to 12 seconds on a pot, you know.

[Interviewer]

How hot's the water?

[Luke McFadden]

145 degrees. So it's not like, super hot.

[Interviewer]

So the air's already real hot. And then you're hovering over that damn

[Luke McFadden]

thing, and it sucks. Yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, I Mean, and we're wearing, you know, rubber slickers and rubber boots. So there's some brutal days out there when it's like stupid humid. Like, heat index over 100. This tank, 145 degree water is right behind me. There's a diesel burner heating it, like right next to that.

[Interviewer]

That's what. That. That's what heats that tank.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. I built it out of like a heat pump from a house. Like a Beckett heat pump. Basically runs it through like a coil.

[Interviewer]

What I'm saying, like, I know what that means, but I don't know what a back heat pump is.

[Luke McFadden]

What heats your house if you have like an oil furnace.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I got you.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, Same kind of deal.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

But my runs off, car back, golf cart batteries.

[Interviewer]

Oh, really?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it can be definitely be pretty brutal. Like the other second day of fishing and whatever everybody was. Or the first day, you know, everybody's like dying of the heat. And I was like, man, this ain't so bad. I was like, it does suck.

[Interviewer]

But I was like, this isn't phasing.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Well, I mean it, you know, obviously I'm not loving it, but I was like, at least I ain't wearing a trash bag.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

On the crab boat.

[Interviewer]

How many. How many of those? How many? Well, how big your. How big is your crew?

[Luke McFadden]

Me and three.

[Interviewer]

We'll come back to that. So it's four guys in the boat.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And in a day, if you're going like all out pulling pots.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

In a day. How many traps you going to check?

[Luke McFadden]

575.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

And then so 23 rows.

[Interviewer]

What's a. I'm sure it's seasonal, but just give me like. Like they're working right now. Right. Your crews out there right now.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so. So right now, July, a pot that has blank crabs is exciting, and a pot that has blank crabs is disappointing. Like, what are the blanks?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, I'm so like right now it's pretty hot. It's good. Yeah. So I mean, like right now, if I see not all crabs are created equal. Right. So I'm looking for big market sized crabs. So I would say if I had a pot with six nice, big, heavy market sized crabs. Good grain. That's a good pot.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

You do that 575 times, you know, you're looking all right right now. There's a load of crabs around, which is a good thing. But it's also can be kind of a pain, you know, like you would pull up a pot that's got 20 crabs. I'd say the average pot has 10 to 15 crabs in it right now.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

But I would say like right now there's a load of little crabs around, A lot of light crabs, all that kind of stuff they've shed out. You know, there could be more than half of those crabs could be small or, you know, we got to squeeze every one of them to check the grade on them.

[Interviewer]

What does that mean?

[Luke McFadden]

So like, we grade crabs by the density of their shell.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Which indicates how much meat is inside of them. And that is from when they shed out, you know? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

The denser the crab, the more meat, right?

[Luke McFadden]

Generally, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Why is that? Like I see that with Dungeness. Like.

[Luke McFadden]

Mm.

[Interviewer]

I don't know if you're familiar with that crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I seen em.

[Interviewer]

So when you get one that's soft. Yeah. It's just water inside there. Why is that?

[Luke McFadden]

It's cause they shed when they shed, you know, so they'll go to slough their shell. Obviously they have exoskeleton. Right. They can't grow their skeleton, so they have to shed out of it. So they grow a larger skeleton inside their shell.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Luke McFadden]

And then they'll back out of the back of their shell and be a soft crab. But it takes them a little while to get that new shell hard. So they kind of fill it out full of water inside of them. And then all their energy is going to getting that shell hard as fast as they can.

[Interviewer]

And then they mush it up.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. To be able to defend themselves, you know. So they're absorbing like calcium through the water and all that kind of stuff to get their shells harder. A lot of times we'll find light crabs on shell bottom, hard bottom. Cause they're hanging out on oyster beds and things like that, picking at the shells, you know, trying to get right to be hard enough to defend themselves. And then after they do that, then they'll start to fill their insides out, you know what I mean? It's like all their energies go into.

[Interviewer]

Then they'll start eating and packing on actual meat.

[Luke McFadden]

Right. But you'll notice like female blue crabs. I don't know if it is the same with Dungeness, but female blue crabs will get their shells harder like twice as fast as a male. Because the only time a female crab is going to shed. A female blue crab is going to shed or is. Yeah. Is going to shed is when they shed from an immature female to a mature female. And then that's the only one time they're going to mate in their whole life is when they are a mature female soft crab. They're going to do it one time, but then after that they're like their shells.

[Interviewer]

That's when they mate. That's the one time they mate.

[Luke McFadden]

That's the one time they mate. So when they're an immature female, we call them a Sally. Right. And so it'll be a little crab, like, you know, maybe that big and they have a pyramid shaped apron. And you can tell that that immature female's gonna shed into a mature female because their apron will get like a purple pink hue.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

So that's when the, that's basically when they're in heat. Right. So the big dominant male crabs will go, and we call them doublers, they'll double up on these little sallies and carry them around on their belly for like couple weeks and defend them.

[Interviewer]

What?

[Luke McFadden]

And then all the big crabs are fighting with each other.

[Interviewer]

And that crab grabs onto that girl crab and totes her around a couple weeks fighting off other guys.

[Luke McFadden]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

And she just, she kind of goes along with it.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, she's happy to be involved, I think.

[Interviewer]

You know, dude, really have a little defense, man. Really?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Is that common just across crabness or is that like a blue crab deal?

[Luke McFadden]

I don't, I'll be honest, I'm not real familiar with anything but a blue crab. Yeah, I'm pretty dialed on the blue crabs, but besides that, I'm not really sure.

[Interviewer]

He totes her around.

[Luke McFadden]

Yep, yep. He'll tote her around basically like underneath them. Yeah, Yep. But don't like the, the crab. I don't know how it works, but I'm sure it's similar with animals. Like they're. I think that Sally's giving off something that, you know, indicates that she's in heat. Right. So like we look at her fins to tell a peeler crab like that. We'll look at their inside second swim fin and they'll have a white line at first. We call it a white sign. It'll go to orange and then red. You know, once they're red, we say they're rank. So which means they're gonna shed in the next day or two.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

That's how we tell a peeler on the boat which will shed in a soft crab moment.

[Interviewer]

Is a peeler good or bad for you?

[Luke McFadden]

Peeler's good for me.

[Interviewer]

So you're allowed to keep, you're, you're allowed to keep a female?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

That hasn't bred yet.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Just generally all year long.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. The size changes. It starts at 3 inches across the top of the carapace. And then at July 16th, it goes to three and a quarter inches, I believe, or three and a half inches across the top.

[Interviewer]

I don't mean to keep. For the.

[Luke McFadden]

For the Sally, you know, for. I mean, for a peeler.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Normal blue crab starts at five inches, goes to five and a quarter for keeper.

[Interviewer]

I gotta have you see a male. Yeah. Okay. So that crab's coming up, getting bigger, bigger, bigger. And then she gets where she's gonna molt or shed, and then she's gonna get. The guy's gonna carry her around, breed her, and she's gonna turn into like. Then she's gonna breed, produce eggs.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And then she's gonna live for how long after that?

[Luke McFadden]

I. I don't really know.

[Interviewer]

But she just is hanging out and is never gonna have babies again.

[Luke McFadden]

No, no, no. She'll. So she'll carry, you know, she'll carry it around with her the whole time after they've bred, you know, for the rest of her life.

[Interviewer]

Oh, she, like, has, like, delayed implantation or something.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they only. They do the deed.

[Interviewer]

That's what's blowing my mind. Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. It's a common misconception that they'll only fertilize one time. Yeah. And then she will.

[Interviewer]

She's juices. That juices her for.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

The rest of her life.

[Luke McFadden]

Yep, yep. And so she'll sponge up. I've always heard six to eight times, you know, but who knows? I don't really know how old's the old crab? I mean, I don't. I mean, I don't really know for sure, but I would. I think they say an old crab's like four years old.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, but the thing that usually kills a crab, besides getting caught, is they go to shed and they can't shed. They don't have the energy. So, like, male crabs just keep getting bigger, bigger, bigger. But a female crab, since they only shed from an immature to a mature female one time, once she's a mature female, she'll never shed again.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

So she'll never grow. So if she's that big as a mature female, she'll stay that big. If she's that big.

[Interviewer]

Is that right?

[Luke McFadden]

She'll stay that big. Yep, yep. And then they'll sponge up. So they get like. I'm sure you've seen them before when

[Interviewer]

you pull the tail thing back and there's like, eggs in there or what do you mean?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Well, so like on a blue crab, her apron right on the bottom, she'll get this big sponge.

[Interviewer]

I've seen that on those blue crabs.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, I keep picturing Dungies. That's just kind of the crab I mess with. Yeah, I keep picturing Dungies, but I know what you're talking about.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah. So they'll get like a big egg sponge. They say it's, you know, 2 to 8 million eggs per sponge. When they're really bright orange, they're new. She'll carry them around for, like, two weeks. As time goes on, they'll get darker in color, and by the time they drop off, they're, like, real dark, like brown, almost black. They'll drop off as larvae, and then they kind of float around in the tide, and then those larvae are gonna, like, change, kind of like their form. Like, like 20. There's almost like 20 different stages before they even start to look like a blue crab. Right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And then once they start to look like a blue crab, then they're shedding once a week, you know, once every two weeks, whatever. You know, just until they get to a certain size. Like maybe half the size of your thumb, something like that. And then, you know, they're shedding less and less frequently as they get older. Yeah, but they're trying to, like. It's like they're. It's a. It's a sprint to get as big as you can so you don't get eaten. Right. You know what I mean? And then once they get to a certain size, then they're a little safer. And they're only going to shed a few times a year.

[Interviewer]

We have a blast every summer. Fishing, swimming, camping out, shooting bows, sitting around the fire. Last weekend, we were floating a creek and then doing some metal detecting, and we found what I believe to be a very old horseshoe. It's all the best. And if you're looking for the perfect companion to your summer adventures, try the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. From its beginnings in the foothills of Tennessee, invented by two brothers back in 1948, Mountain Dew has been a constant. And they've got proud American roots. It's an American original of citrusy goodness. You can celebrate summer and America's 250th birthday with mountain Dew. Whether you're at the grill, on the beach, or right in your living room, sipping on a Mountain Dew is a great way to start a damn good time. Enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew, an American original. Tasting great since 48. Look for mountain Dew in stores near you@mountain Dew.com. that's Mountain Dew.com. man, I'll tell you, it wasn't long ago my older boy was kind of catching up to me in height. Now he's an inch and a half taller than I am. It's crazy watching your family grow up. And as your family changes and grows up, you got to make sure that your life insurance policy is tracking along with those changes. You can prioritize peace of mind and lock in your life insurance today so that your family is taken care of if something were to happen to you. Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. Their license team helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life easily. Find what you need. Coverage, amounts, prices, terms. No guesswork, just clarity. Policygenius helps you find your most affordable policy that meets your needs. They have helped over 30 million people shop for insurance, placing over $200 billion in coverage. Policy Genius works for you, not the insurance companies. So you can trust the guidance you receive. Protect your family with a policy that grows with your life. With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for a million dollars in coverage. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com the season might still be months away, but if you're anything like us, you're already living in it. You're pulling up maps when you should be working, checking trail cameras first thing in the morning and playing out a whole bunch of what ifs related to that buck you've been watching grow all summer. The off season is not downtime. It's just a different kind of hunting. And on X Hunt is built exactly for that. Trail cameras tied directly to your map, wind and weather for your exact location and property boundaries with land ownership data whenever you need them. Download Onx Hunt and make the most of the dwindling time between now and season. So what? When you're, what's the most valuable one you can catch? And I got another question for you. What the hell's this like? I know what a soft shell is. He just explained it. But right, that's good for you or bad for you. That's gotta be good for you, right?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. So soft shells are good for us. You know, I can sell them for a bunch of money individually.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

They're like a delicacy, you know, where we're at. But the best soft shell crabs I get are crabs that I catch as a peeler and then I put into tanks and then I monitor the tanks and then pull them out as a saw as like a perfect soft crab. Because they.

[Interviewer]

I got. They're not a little bit like a semi aquaculture deal.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, something like that, you know, So I got like tanks and all that where I. I bring them in and put them in the tank and then, you know, check on them like every couple hours.

[Interviewer]

Because once every couple of hours?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, man. Like once a crab sheds, you only have like two hours to get it before it's, you know, too hard to be a soft crab. Too soft to be a hard crab.

[Interviewer]

It's hours.

[Luke McFadden]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, dude. Like when we get these peeler runs, we're up all night, you know, we're up checking tanks. I got like cameras in my shedding tanks and all, so I can see when they're shedding and all that stuff.

[Interviewer]

No way.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, dude. I mean, it's. I'm married to the game.

[Interviewer]

They're not like synchronized though. Is there a way to synchronize them?

[Luke McFadden]

They're not necessarily synchronized, but I've noticed that there is definitely cycles where they will all shed at one time. It's kind of weird and I don't know exactly what it is. You know, a lot of people claim moon phase, a lot of people claim tide, all this kind of stuff. But, you know, they're in an isolated tank. You know, it's not like I'm keeping them in a live box. They're in an isolated tank and they're still somehow kind of all in the same cycle. And a lot. In a lot of ways it's kind of weird. Like I don't even know what's happening

[Interviewer]

season, man, for like.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Every two hours.

[Interviewer]

Are you serious?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, man.

[Interviewer]

How many of those. How many of those things? Unless it. Let's just. I don't want to ask you a question like. Like how much is in your bank account? But how many of those things? How many putting in a tank at a time?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, I just built new tanks this year, but I mean, I can put a couple hundred in a tank.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

So I usually have different tanks and as they're in different stages of shedding, I will move them into different tanks because they will kill each other, you know, so if you have one that's too much. Remember how I said a white Sign earlier. It's got that white line. So you know, that crab's still got a couple days until it sheds. But especially the immature females, they're the meanest. Like if you have them in a tank as a white sign, she's too early. With a bunch of males that are going to shed, she'll just go around and kill them all.

[Interviewer]

Eating them or killing them?

[Luke McFadden]

They just kill them. I don't, they don't, they don't eat them, they just kill them.

[Interviewer]

Man.

[Luke McFadden]

They don't really eat when they're going to shed. Like we never, people are always like, what do you feed them in the tanks? We don't feed them anything. They. Well, I've put different stuff in there just to see if they'll eat it and they never do. The only thing they'll kill and eat is each other sometimes.

[Interviewer]

So if you, when you go in and get a, when you go into, when you're out in that neck of the woods and you go in and you see in a restaurant soft shell crab, there's a better chance that some dude hatched that thing in a monitored that thing in a tank and plucked it at just the right moment than there is that you caught it in a pot.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I mean we do catch some in the pots but you know, a lot of times they're pretty beat up, you know, and they don't make it to, you know, being a live soft crab or something like that. A lot of times those ones will go to either fish bait or be cleaned and frozen, you know, sold as a frozen soft crab.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

Because you know, you pull up a pot and you got one soft. We try to be really careful with them, you know, like if I pull a pot, you know, I can usually tell which one's, you know, if there's a soft crab in there as soon as it breaks the surface. And if there is, you know, I'm gonna open up the pot, I'm gonna try to, you know, jimmy the other crabs around and reach up in there and try to get her out of there, you know, without her getting tore up. Cause that pot has the surface and it's game on. All them crabs are just locked on to each other and they're, you know.

[Interviewer]

Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. They don't know what' on. They're all.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, they just get stressed and they're all fighting each other. So. But like they see a soft crab in there and they're just, you know what I mean? It's like oh, no, they just killed 10 bucks. It's a bummer.

[Interviewer]

So, so tell me, like, this is a lot of. This is new to me. Walk through the different crabs, you heart. Okay, so there's, there's just, there's got to be somewhere in here. We'll start with this. There's like the big old male hard ass shell that's like. Oh, crap.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. You mean like the kind of the different grades.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

All right, so on my boat we're calling crabs, like sorting them. We call it calling.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Into we got extra large males.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Luke McFadden]

And then we have.

[Interviewer]

And that'd be like what? Like if you go to, if you're steaming crabs, dumping them out on the table, and everybody's picking crabs and eating them, that's who they're eating.

[Luke McFadden]

Well, if you got, you know, if you just spent a bunch of money, if you spent 150, $200 a dozen.

[Interviewer]

Okay, yeah, that's a high grade crab.

[Luke McFadden]

That's the highest grade crab. It's like, you know, the XLS and the Jumbos and how big are they?

[Interviewer]

Point to point.

[Luke McFadden]

Those, you know, I'll call mine at like six and three quarter inches.

[Interviewer]

Oh, so big.

[Luke McFadden]

That's big.

[Interviewer]

You know, and that's an expensive crab.

[Luke McFadden]

It's high dollar. But, you know, we don't, we're not catching much of those. So like, for instance, we might catch, you know, like the other day we had 30 bushel crabs. Two bushel of those were xls.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so that's one grade.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, that's like top tier. That's what I'm looking for. You know, I try to take as good a care of them as I possibly can.

[Interviewer]

That makes you most happy.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, exactly. I love seeing a big, nice, big flat crab come with them up in the pot and then we have our number ones. Huh?

[Interviewer]

Can you back up one sec?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What's that big ass crab worth?

[Luke McFadden]

I sell them at my place. Live. 100 bucks a dozen. And I could get more. I mean, in the times of the year when we have like the really big giant crabs, like, you just see them, you're like, holy smokes, that's a giant. You know, I get 150 bucks a dozen, but we might get two dozen a day.

[Interviewer]

And people are buying those to throw down, like on a nice party dinner kind of thing like that, you know,

[Luke McFadden]

people are like, 150 bucks a dozen. That's insane. You know what? I've never been stuck with one single time? $150 dozen grabs, man. The first to go. I mean, people line up to go, try to pay 150 bucks, but they comment on it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Everybody's got something to say about it. And it's kind of funny because, like, there's some people that are just like in a position to do that, and there's other people that, like, it's almost like Maryland. It's almost like bragging, right? People like, I paid 150, you know, these. I paid 150 bucks a dozen for these ones. You know what I mean? I knew a guy to get crabs like that.

[Interviewer]

So it's expensive, but they sell.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. I mean, like, you can't go into a restaurant and get crabs that are that great, even if you're paying more. Like, those are the crabs. We call them the Noah guy crabs, you know, because you got to know a guy to get crabs like that,

[Interviewer]

you know what I mean? Okay. Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

So then we have our number ones, which is like the primary. That's the biomass I want to target is your number ones, and that is your. We call them at five and three quarters to six and three quarters, but that's your like market size crab. That's what I'm shooting for is to get the most amount of those.

[Interviewer]

That's the bread and butter crab.

[Luke McFadden]

That's the bread and butter crab. I got good margins on those crabs. They live pretty good. They fill up baskets, you know, that's a large, you know, and that's the crabs that you're probably gonna see at a crab feast or something if it's just your buddies, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And then the next tier would be number.

[Interviewer]

And those are going for how much? A dozen?

[Luke McFadden]

I think right Now I'm at $70 a dozen on them and like 400 bucks a bushel, which is six dozen crabs.

[Interviewer]

Damn. 400 bucks a bushel?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Costs a lot to catch them.

[Interviewer]

Well, no, I'm not hacking on the market. I just. One time we went out, we had. I don't know how many guys. We had enough guys in the boat that we went out with one of them long lines.

[Luke McFadden]

Is that when you were filmed it? Sick of deer hunting or something? I think I seen it.

[Interviewer]

We had like a bushel.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

It was cool. Yeah, yeah. It was no joke. I mean, but pull up a bushel.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So that's 400 bucks for the crabs.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

In today's prices.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, for. Yeah, for me. I mean, a lot of places are a lot more and some places are cheaper.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

I never claim to have the cheapest

[Interviewer]

crabs and those go to. And are you. You have restaurant clients?

[Luke McFadden]

No, not anymore. I used to.

[Interviewer]

It's all.

[Luke McFadden]

I sell all my stuff direct to consumer now, but that's very uncommon.

[Interviewer]

I know, but within that, isn't that direct to consumer? There's no, like, there's no consumer for you that just happens to, like, use some crab in a restaurant. It's like people taking it home to eat it.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, I. They can do whatever they want with them, you know, but they're priced out of being middleman. And that's almost a little bit of. That's on purpose. You know what I mean?

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I got you.

[Luke McFadden]

So it's at a price point where you're not gonna have somebody. If somebody were to be buying those crabs for a restaurant, there would be no margin. Although I do have cases differently.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, I've had people that have restaurants or something like that, and they'll come and pay whatever, because they, you know, they want to be like, oh, yeah, we got crabs from the crab guy. You know what I mean? On YouTube or whatever.

[Interviewer]

So just. Yeah. So the way, like, just the. You've developed a certain market and you serve a certain clientele where you're just out of the restaurant business and you're selling two people serving food to their friends and families.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. And, you know, I used to sell to restaurants and things like that, but once you go to selling your own crabs, you almost get blacklisted in a way. You know what I mean? So, you know, I had been selling to restaurants and purveyors for like seven years, you know, and I had built good reputation. I had a lot of contacts. Exactly. So you go to sell your own, and they don't want to buy from you.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Because, yeah, your competition. But also they're always going to assume that you're gonna be skimming the better grade off the top. That's really the big thing. You know what I mean? Which, like, I truthfully never did because I was like, you know, I was in a. In a position when I started where, like, there was no market for me, so I had to, like, be, you know, I had no family in market. I hadn't, you know, I had nothing. So I had to, like, have a little bit of an edge on the other guys. So, like, I always. I never did that. And I always sold like, you know, I was like a try hard. I was trying to sell like a better product than the other guys.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Which I know now, like, kind of screws up the market status quo, you know what I mean? But also at the time, it's like I did what I had to do to get a foot in.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

But, yeah, I mean, I sell everything direct to consumer now, which is. I say it's like three times the money for five times the work.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, I mean, because you're. It used to be I'd catch crabs and you drop them off to the dude, you're done. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'd be driving around the truck for two, three hours, you know, after work. But it's like I didn't have to worry about it. I tacked up a, you know, a ticket. I picked up a check on Monday, you know, and like, we weren't. We're just throwing crabs into baskets. Yeah. The more they die, the more they buy.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Luke McFadden]

You know what I mean? But now I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, we gotta, you know, like every crab goes in the basket up front. I mean, we've always tried to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've always tried to, you know, take good care of the problem product, obviously. But, you know, it's just kind of the joke. It's like now I'm like, now I catch them on a Monday or Tuesday and I'm like, all right, now I got to keep this thing alive till Saturday. We're only open two days, you know, at the retail spot.

[Interviewer]

So. Okay, so we got the xls. Is that what you call them?

[Luke McFadden]

Yep, xl.

[Interviewer]

Then you got the bread and butter crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Number ones. My favorite crab.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

And then we got number twos, which are going to be your smaller crab.

[Interviewer]

And this doesn't matter. Like, these are at this point, these are all males.

[Luke McFadden]

Yes, all males. Okay. And that's going to be like well before the 16th 5 inch crab to 5 and 3 quarter inch crab.

[Interviewer]

And you just know it when you're looking at it. You're not putting.

[Luke McFadden]

For the most part. For the most part. I mean, we do have sticks. Obviously we're putting them to the stick and all when we got to. But you know, for the most part, I mean, I've seen enough crabs. I can pretty much just call them by eye. So we got number twos. Those are gonna be our smaller crabs. But so remember, number twos, number ones and xls, These are all crabs that are better grade. They're all hard. Okay. So like we squeeze them. Shells are hard. Crabs full of meat. And then we'll have light crabs. We call them trash crabs in the industry.

[Interviewer]

This is another grade.

[Luke McFadden]

Another grade. Which is what we call a straight call. Which means if it's legal, it goes in the same basket. All the same sizes get mixed right. On a straight call. But it's gonna be. We call them lights when we sell them in the industry, we call them trash crabs. So it'll be a straight call. Trash crab, which is the crab.

[Interviewer]

I got confused.

[Luke McFadden]

We need a chart.

[Interviewer]

Cause it's a size issue or is it something different?

[Luke McFadden]

It's something different. So it's when you squeeze them.

[Interviewer]

A big crab can be a trash crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, that's when we squeeze them. Right. And so we can tell that they've shed but they haven't yet filled their new shell out.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, but so even if he was,

[Luke McFadden]

if he's 8 inches he's going in the light basket. If, if he's five and a quarter, he's going in the same basket.

[Interviewer]

I got you.

[Luke McFadden]

That's.

[Interviewer]

What's the same value? It's just a per pound or whatever

[Luke McFadden]

dollar a crab, baby.

[Interviewer]

Oh, that's how that goes.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we don't. Okay, so I don't keep a lot of lights.

[Interviewer]

Usually you pitch them back.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. Which is very uncommon. But also it's because I don't have, I'm my own market for lights, you know what I mean? And I try to, I, you know, I try to keep the value of the product up. And I have some customers that prefer light crabs.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Luke McFadden]

They're easy to pick, they're super cheap. You're great for kids and things like that. But my kind of outlook on it is like you can only kill a crab one time, right?

[Interviewer]

Sure.

[Luke McFadden]

And I would much rather throw that crab back and give him a chance to kill him when he's worth.

[Interviewer]

Let him be a ten dollar crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, a $10 crab instead of a dollar crab.

[Interviewer]

But if I came to you begging for a basket of lights, you'd oblige me?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah. I mean we, they don't live real good in a walk in either. So we'll usually keep like two bushel on a Friday just because I have some regulars that like they, they prefer those crabs.

[Interviewer]

So knowing you're going to sell over the weekend on a Friday, you'd keep some.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I'd keep a couple but I, you know, I'm not keeping, I ain't going to keep 10 bushel of them on a Monday. You're just going to kill them for nothing. You know, there's no sense in killing them for no reason. And even like Taking them to a picking house or something like that. I mean, what are you gonna unload them for? You know, nothing. $20, 15. $20 for a bushel of crabs? I mean.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

It seemed to me it's a little counterintuitive when you try to, you know, catch themselves. $400 bushel of crabs.

[Interviewer]

If you let two of them, if you let that whole bushel go.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And two of them, two or three of them come back to you as ones, selects or whatever.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. It was worth it and it was less work.

[Interviewer]

There's your money. Right. Okay. So that's another grade.

[Luke McFadden]

And then we got females. And then we sort females just into mediums and larges. We don't get a ton of them. Little tiny mature females. You can only keep a female if it's a mature female.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

And there's no size limit across the carapace. You know, no point to point limit size on a female crab. It's just if it's a mature female crab, you can take it. So not everybody, but I have a lightsaber.

[Interviewer]

Well, what goes overboard? Or is the mesh on the pot such that it's already sorting itself?

[Luke McFadden]

So in a lot of ways, yes. So crabs, male Crabs under 5 inches are going overboard.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Most of the time lights are going overboard. Immature females that are not peelers are going overboard. Although that's kind of uncommon. Any light females? We don't keep any light females. Cause remember how I said the females, their shells get harder twice as fast. But they're twice as empty inside, you know. But yes. So in the pots I have different mesh size wire.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And that does a lot of the calling for us.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And then we also have call rings which are plastic rings in the sides of the pot.

[Interviewer]

I've seen those. Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. And so I have different size call rings that I open up at different times of the year.

[Interviewer]

I got it.

[Luke McFadden]

You know what I mean? When? Because it like right now there we had that mail shed early this year. And so there's just a load of crabs. But there's a load of these cookie cutter, like four and three quarter and five to five and a half inch little males. And so I have, you know that's a legal crab. Right. You know, five and a half inch crab. A legal crab. But I don't want to dump 30 of those in the box. And they have to go through 30 of them each pot. You know, it's just, it's going to slow everybody down. You're getting bit up.

[Interviewer]

So you use the right Rings.

[Luke McFadden]

I put bigger rings in there, so I'll, you know, I can let a legal crab out. But I'm not real interested in catching twos. I'd rather catch a pot with three ones than a pot with ten twos, you know, Any day, it's less work to call through them, you know, they're not getting pinched up. Like, little crabs will kill big crabs in the pot. And once little crabs go in, big crabs don't want to go in there. You know what I mean? Like, big crabs trap big crabs, little trap. Little crabs trap little crabs. And females kill everything. They don't trap any males. Yeah. Mature females, they usually run together in a pack. So you'll pull a pot's got 30 of them, which is.

[Interviewer]

And they're killing males.

[Luke McFadden]

Male goes in there, he's dead, dude. They're gonna tear him up.

[Interviewer]

God. Man. You'd like to ask them why they're doing it? Competition or something.

[Luke McFadden]

I don't know, man. They're just vicious. They're unassuming.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

You know what I mean? I think they lure him in there and then kill them.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Luke McFadden]

Got a vendetta against him or something. I don't know. Daddy issues, I guess.

[Interviewer]

So these dudes, like, the dudes that work for you, do you got the same guys all the time, or is it just like. Are they, like freelance camera guys? You just go grab one or. Grab one?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, in a lot of ways, they're like freelance camera guys. A lot of times they're like freelance camera guys. But, like, right now, I'm very fortunate to have a good crew, which, you know, some of these guys have been with me for a while, multiple years.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

That's pretty uncommon in a lot of ways. You know, I've done a lot of years where you were just trying to get anybody that'll show just warm body, you know, and it's. It's. It's. Honestly, what's getting a lot of guys out of the industry is the extreme lack of help.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

The rising cost of operation. But, you know, it's just. It's a pain to try to train a new guy, you know?

[Interviewer]

Sure, man. And then you got your own way. You like it. They did it on another boat. But that's not how you like it done.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. But there's only one way to do it. It's the way, you know what I mean? On my boat, at least. So I've put a lot of time into trying to dial the system, you know, and make basically the system a like, almost like an assembly line. Right. With interchangeable parts.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Is, you know, and people are the parts. So I try to make every job on the boat, every step. Something that basically a monkey could do if need be. You know what I mean? It's great to have skilled guys.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And then all the guys learn the different roles and so if you jump into blank roll or whatever.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they kind of work their way up the totem pole. They're going to start as usually a stacker. So they're going to be pulling the pots out of that hot water tank, stacking them three high, pushing them to the back of the boat. It's kind of the low man on the totem pole job. And then I would say, depending on the boat in the area, your second guy is either going to be your call man, you know, the guy that's sorting crabs, or your shaker. For me, like in the upper bay, it's always been a shaker. But like, you go to other areas and they regard their second mate or their first mate as their car, you know.

[Interviewer]

Oh, I would think.

[Luke McFadden]

Because they're in charge of their grade. Right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Like then. Yeah, that's what. I don't know. Based on. Based on me knowing nothing. I would think that that would be like the.

[Luke McFadden]

Right.

[Interviewer]

That'd be the important job.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, it is. You know, and when I sold to market, it was a more important to me, it was more important to have a more skilled guy on there because

[Interviewer]

you weren't giving them a second look.

[Luke McFadden]

Right. But now, you know, I have a. I can afford a little bit of buffer in that area because, you know, we're the only ones touching the crabs and they're gonna call them on the boat. And then my guys at the crab stand are also gonna go through them as well. Exactly. And so that'll afford me some days if I got a mixed match crew or, you know, something like that. I know. Well, maybe I could pull, you know, if we gotta make up some time, maybe I could pull my guy off the call box, put him on the rail to shake, you know, put a guy that maybe doesn't know quite as much on there to just to get through them. And then, you know, I'll just let the guys at the stand know, you know, I'll tag them and say, you know, just pay attention when you go through these, you know, particular attention and make sure the grade's right on them.

[Interviewer]

What's the average age of a crew guy in the industry?

[Luke McFadden]

In the industry? I don't know. Man, I mean, you'll have. You got a lot of high school kids, college age kids. That's what I have mostly. But then also there's some straight lifers, we call them.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

You know what I mean? Guys that are, you know, they look like they're a hundred, but they're probably like 35.

[Interviewer]

So maybe you someday.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely a lifer, but I mean, you know, for the crew, it tends to attract. Not all the time, but, you know, it is common that it attracts a certain crowd of folks.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

That maybe don't already have a job. You know, maybe they got more toes and teeth. A lot of times they may have a habit that, you know, requires them to make quick money with physical labor. You know what I mean? It doesn't require bringing your own equipment except yourself.

[Interviewer]

You know, we have a blast every summer. Fishing, swimming, camping out, shooting bows, sitting around the fire. Last weekend we were floating a creek and then doing some metal detecting and we found what I believe to be a very old horseshoe. It's all the best. And if you're looking for the perfect companion to your summer adventures, try the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. From its beginnings in the foothills of Tennessee, invented by two brothers back in 1948, Mountain Dew has been a constant. And they've got proud American roots. It's an American original of citrusy goodness. You can celebrate summer and America's 250th birthday with mountain Dew. Whether you're at the grill, on the beach or right in your living room, sipping on a Mountain Dew is a great way to start a damn good time. Enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew, an American original. Tasting great since 48, look for mountain Dew in stores near you@mountain Dew.com. that's Mountain Dew.com. hey, there's a version of hunting where you just show up. You sit in a tree stand, you hope something happens, and then you go home. A lot of people hunt that way, and every once in a while it'll work out. Then there's the version where you've done the reading before the test. You've got the Onx Hunt app with cameras integrated on your map, a tailored deer movement forecast to help you make the most of your days in the woods, and precise weather predictions so when a buck starts showing up, you already know where he's coming from and where he's going. Most of us don't have unlimited days in the field. We've got a week, maybe a little more. And every hunt that doesn't produce because you were in the wrong spot. That's a cost you can't get back. Build a real plan before opening day with the Onx Hunt app because hope is not a strategy. You guys have heard me talk all about Montana Knife Company for a few years now on the podcast. Hands down, these are my absolute favorite hunting knives. Every blade they make is a high performance, durable tool that you can rely on, whether you're butchering, hunting, working on the farm, out in the field, doing chores, whatever. And I've got a massive update for you. People have been asking for this forever. MKC finally did it. I've been asking it forever. The wait is over. They're launching their very first folding knife. It's called the Montana. It's going to be dropping very soon. I'm telling you right now, these things are going to sell out fast. If you aren't ready the moment they go live, you're probably going to miss out. So here's what you need to do. Get over to mkc.com right now. Make sure you sign up for their email and text message notifications so you get the alert the exact second the knife drops. Montana Knife Company working knives for working people. Head to mkc.com today. That's mkc.com I can't wait to check out one of these folders because you, because you allow so much visibility

[Luke McFadden]

through

[Interviewer]

video and other stuff. You allow so much visibility into your. How you get your product and sell your product.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Do crew guys come to you, like,

[Luke McFadden]

because they want a job?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, they do. And it's kind of funny because, like, I used to have endless problems with getting crew. Now I have endless amounts of people that want to help. But as the stuff online has grown, I keep the circle a lot tighter. I got like, you ain't getting a job on the boat because mostly just some guy that wants to say he did it or some guy that wants to, you know, I'm always paranoid. Like, you know, they're, they're going to want to try to sue you or something.

[Interviewer]

You know, you get guarded.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I'm very guarded. So, like, if you want a job on the boat, I either have to be real desperate or you got to know somebody that's already helping me or something like that. I, I do a fair amount of vetting.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, just because, you know that. Or it's some kid that just wants to put it all over a Snapchat story that he's.

[Interviewer]

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And he's not gonna be any Good. Anyway, so I try to. I seek out crew members that are, like, not interested in what I. You know, not. Not interested in the. In video and whatever else.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah. They're not trying to be a double edge. They're not trying to be like a crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Exactly. They're there for the income, not the outcome. You know,

[Interviewer]

let's talk about the infrastructure a minute. So you said you got. You got a trot line boat that you keep for crew guys use or whatever?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You got your main. You got yet one main boat?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, we're building another one right now, but yes, one main one that we're running.

[Interviewer]

All them tanks. Retail location.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. And, you know, 1500 crab pots sitting in my front yard.

[Interviewer]

That's what I'm saying. Like, it's got to be. I mean, I don't know. I'm get. I mean, like, we're for capital investment.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. That ain't worth it in a lot

[Interviewer]

of ways for a capital investment. Is it more or less than buying, like, a sweet house in your town?

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, it would be. Probably not everybody's rigs created equal, but I mean, we could just go through some kind of numbers on. On, you know, in terms of equipment. So, you know, I got a commercial 900 pot license.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah, you gotta buy that thing?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, I bought mine a lot cheaper because it was a long time ago, but I mean, now I would say that license is probably worth $30,000, and then you got to pay 2,000 bucks a year to hold it to the state. Okay. So we got like 30 grand there. And then, you know, if you were like, my boat, it's not worth a load of money. The new boat I'm building is, you know, the new boat that I'm building that I probably will never, hopefully have to build another one. By the time it all is all said and done, it'll be like quarter million bucks.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Crab pots, $52 a piece, finished out. So I got 1500 of those. I have another commercial license, a 300 pot license that I hold. So that one's probably worth 10,000 bucks, 15,000 bucks.

[Interviewer]

You fish that one or you just hold it?

[Luke McFadden]

No, we.

[Interviewer]

We.

[Luke McFadden]

We'll run them both on the boat sometimes when there's limits.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

Because you can keep two limits with two license.

[Interviewer]

I got you.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, we got a retail location that I own, you know, piece of commercial property that I own with a little stand on it. We got refrigerator trailers. We got trucks, you know, boats. There's a lot of. There's a lot of infrastructure.

[Interviewer]

But it's stuff you just accumulated though.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, it's mostly stuff that I built out of whatever was around.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Luke McFadden]

You know, because the thing is with crabbing, it's like the margins ain't there to, to go and, you know, buy all the stuff and just go. You'd like. It would take you forever to make your money back.

[Interviewer]

So you get something, you make a little money, you use it to buy parts, kind of assemble it together. And then all these years later, what like 12 years later or something.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You sit back, you're like, damn.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, you got the whole deal. But it's like, it's because, you know,

[Interviewer]

I started, went out one day and just started.

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, that would never make any sense. Yeah, exactly. So it's like. And see, and that's another reason it's generational. A lot of times it's because these guys, you know, the son gets into it and he doesn't have to go buy a hundred thousand dollar boat and he doesn't have to buy a license, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

Or if he does, you know, they have a lot of that back end infrastructure. They have markets already in line. You know, some guys, there is some guys out there fighting the good fight, just kind of building it out. But it's very uncommon these days just because it's such a grind. You have to reinvest every bit of capital, every bit of work. You know, you have to make up for your deficit with just basically unpaid labor of yourself.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, it's like cattle ranching in the west where you have this like diminishing number of generational ranching families. Yeah, but there's a romance to having a ranch. So now people make money in tech, they make money in oil.

[Luke McFadden]

That's how crabbing is, man.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, they make money. Oh really?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, they're like, oh, I want to retire and you know, go crabbing. And I'm like, that's the thing in crabbing. Oh man. And I always say, like they retire

[Interviewer]

from crabbing, then they like buy a ranch, identify as a rancher.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

But the ranch doesn't make money and they made their money elsewhere, but they like get to pretend to be a rancher. I was going to say in crabbing there's, there's, that's not a relaxing occupation, people.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, but there's a misconception. People, people like romanticize, you know, they

[Interviewer]

want to retire into being a crab.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. And I'm like, dude, you lucky to. You know, crabbers don't retire. Like you're lucky to retire, as you know, from crab. And you think it's.

[Interviewer]

They think it's quaint.

[Luke McFadden]

Oh, yeah. No, they think. You know, they. They think of the pictures, sunsets, and the, you know, the sound of the engines going out. Yeah. And I mean, like, meanwhile, I'm like, half those people you've seen, they're. They're freaking high. You know what I mean? Like, they're going out to get their butt kicked.

[Interviewer]

You know what I mean? Seriously, I had no idea people would think that that'd be like a. Like a. Like a quaint occupation.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. And it's kind of. It's like. There's not many guys getting into it, and a lot of the guys getting into it are like, guys like. That.

[Interviewer]

Did it last?

[Luke McFadden]

No, I. We actually don't mind it because I'm like, they go out and buy a bunch of nice stuff. You know, they're buying all new pots. They're paying whatever. They're just writing checks for it. And we always kind of joke. We're like, keep an eye on that one. Because two years, we're buying our. I'm a buyer's rig. I promise. You know, we're like, making bets. We're like, two years, boat could be mine. You know what I mean? I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go get his number because he's gonna need to unload that license.

[Interviewer]

In three years, I'll be getting all that.

[Luke McFadden]

Exactly half price, 100%. Because they're to be like, this is a hot disaster. My l. You know, Best way to, you know, become a millionaire crab and start with 2 million. You know what I mean? Start with 2 million bucks, you could be one millionaire crabber, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's kind of. It's interesting. Like, it's a bunch of, you know, not everybody, but it's a lot of, you know, rich kids or, you know, guys that think they're going to retire, get into crabbing. And it's just funny to watch because it's like, they go in there and they're all like, oh, yeah, I'm not gonna let anybody push me around. I'm gonna be the guy. And it's like, yeah, all right, buddy. Good luck.

[Interviewer]

You gotta just like. You gotta just be the kind of person that can just work, though, dude.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, you gotta. I'm telling you, man, you gotta be a little stubborn. Like, you know, it. Literally. That's why I didn't mind the muskie fishing yesterday, because I was like, I'm literally. I made a living doing this, doing the same thing over and over and over and over, expecting the. Expecting a different result. Like, literally the definition of insanity is crabbing. You know what I mean? Like, you. You'll go crazy, like. And I am a little crazy. Like, you. You just. You gotta. We joke, but, like, you gotta be a little nutty to, you know. Yeah, just go do that.

[Interviewer]

But how long do you think you'll do it?

[Luke McFadden]

I. I'm really trying to set myself up to be able to do it as long as I want to and as long as my body will allow.

[Interviewer]

But does it get, like, do you. How old are you?

[Luke McFadden]

30.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so let's jump. Like, when you're 40.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Are you still on the boat every day.

[Luke McFadden]

That's my goal, really. Which is kind of the opposite of

[Interviewer]

a lot of guys. And then you're just. Then you're just like the kind of dude sitting back, like, with the calculator.

[Luke McFadden]

Not really. I like doing it. I like.

[Interviewer]

You want to just keep.

[Luke McFadden]

I love doing it. Yeah, I love doing it. I. Yeah, I love doing it.

[Interviewer]

So you don't aspire to. You don't aspire to get off the water because your system's so dialed and you got such a good marketing apparatus.

[Luke McFadden]

My. My goal is to not get off of the water. Like, my goal is to be able to do it, but also, you know, I'd like to be in a spot where, you know, if I have a family someday or, you know, I have health issues or something. I'm married.

[Interviewer]

Oh, you're married.

[Luke McFadden]

Okay, got it.

[Interviewer]

But no kids?

[Luke McFadden]

Not yet, no. But I have things in place where, like, I don't have to go out there if I don't necessarily want to. You know what I mean? Like, just in terms of, like, you know, a lot of guys, there's no other option, man. Like, they're.

[Interviewer]

They're.

[Luke McFadden]

They are literally dying out there. They're in their 60s and 70s because they've never set anything up on the back end and. Or they just really want to do it, you know, But a lot of them, like, they got no other option, man. So they go until they can't. You know, a lot of them have health issues and things like that. And I've grown up being a younger guy, significantly younger guy in the industry. I've grown up and seen a lot of that. And I've seen a lot of these older guys get sick and then getting hit hard spots because they got nothing. They got no insurance. They got nothing else. They can't go to work. You know, they suffer. Their family suffers. So, like, my goal was always to get it to a point where, like, I love the water. I love being out there. I love crabbing. But if something, you know, my body, I don't. You know, I don't want to run my body into oblivion just to have to pay my mortgage.

[Interviewer]

Where'd you first run into your wife?

[Luke McFadden]

My wife is actually from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I met her because my mom and stepdad had moved to Lancaster. The end of my junior year of high school, they moved there, and I wasn't 18, so I had to move with them. I lived there in corn fields for a couple months till I turned 18, and then moved back to Maryland as soon as I could.

[Interviewer]

And you met her when you were there?

[Luke McFadden]

She was the neighbor.

[Interviewer]

Okay. What'd she think of the whole crabbing thing? She like it?

[Luke McFadden]

She likes it. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

She'd go out on the boat with you and stuff?

[Luke McFadden]

Occasionally. It's kind of funny. Cause, like, you know, when I met her, when we were, like, 17, I was like, yeah, I'm moving back to Maryland. Like, you know, I'm gonna go be a crabber. And she's like, what the heck does that even mean? And then we ended up getting married, like, 10 years later.

[Interviewer]

You know what I mean? It just, like, wasn't part of the program.

[Luke McFadden]

She was just like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, dude. It was kind of a wrench in my.

[Interviewer]

But she don't mind you being in that business?

[Luke McFadden]

No, no, she don't mind it, but, you know. But she don't mind it. But she also, you know, she got into this understanding with an understanding that you're married to it. You know what I mean? Like, you marry me, you marry the life.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Cause you're pretty clear about what you were going to do.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah. And she's always known me as that. And so, you know, she's. She's always been very supportive of it, which is great. That's important, I think, because it's a lifestyle, man. I mean, like, I said this here, this week is the first time I've ever been away in the middle of summer.

[Interviewer]

No, that's a weird.

[Luke McFadden]

Weird.

[Interviewer]

Literally, me and some of the guys were laughing. They were talking about. You were on FaceTime or something with your crew, trying to sort through some issues and stuff.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, we're in the middle of, like, the fishing tournament.

[Interviewer]

I'm like, you're not working, you're not there.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the first time My crew's ever gone and anybody's ever gone on my boat without me.

[Interviewer]

What time do you guys hit the water when you're out?

[Luke McFadden]

4:30.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

4:30am yeah, we usually meet at 4:30. Sometimes when it's like, stupid hot, we'll go earlier, later in the season. Like October, it's, you know, we're meeting it because the sunrise doesn't. Sunrise is later. We'll meet later. And we can only crab from half an hour before sunrise. Eight hours after that.

[Interviewer]

We can haul gear by regulation.

[Luke McFadden]

By regulation, yeah. Huh. Because if not, then guys would just go out there and fish as many pots as they, you know, they could fish a thousand pots in a day if they could go all day and night.

[Interviewer]

Huh. That's interesting. Keeps it a little bit humane, too,

[Luke McFadden]

for the crew, I guess. So, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Here's the last couple questions. Just last thing I want to explore with you. Like, you're thinking about. We're talking about. Okay, you're 40 years old, whatever. Is. Is like, is that resource so well managed that you can kind of comfortably plan on a future of crabbing? Or is there anxiety about the resource and from. From management issues, from disease issues, from climate issues, you know, I mean, or is it like there's always been crabs? There will always be crabs. They're very, you know, they're robust.

[Luke McFadden]

No, there's definitely management concerns, which is what has pushed me to diversify my business in the way that I have, really, with the social media and with the retail and all those kinds of things, you know, so, like, And I like that you said not just the resource itself, you know, so people don't think we're just like pirates out there, but like, you know, with the management of it, with this and that, with environmental and ecological changes and all those kinds of things, those all factor into, like, what you're saying. And yes, I have concern with that. You know, a lot of the laws and things like that and the fluctuating crab populations and outside market, too. You know, that's why I've gone to selling my own, because it was kind of like farming before where I didn't set the product, the price for my own product. I wanted to have a little bit more control over the price of my own product.

[Interviewer]

Is that a volatile market?

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, because now, like, shipping's gotten so good that, you know, a lot of our 80% of the crabs sold in Maryland are coming out of Louisiana. And then our crab meat market, you know, the picked meat is overseas. You know, a lot of that is a different species of crab that's just like our crab that's being picked and shipped over from overseas.

[Interviewer]

Hummus shipped to you?

[Luke McFadden]

Not to. I mean, I don't sell it.

[Interviewer]

No, no, not you. But you mean, like, you're in Maryland. You think you're in, like, blue crab country.

[Luke McFadden]

You're probably eating a Venezuelan blue swimmer crab. What if you eat. If you buy, you don't know what you're doing.

[Interviewer]

You just went into whatever and bought some crab. You're not even getting crabs from local dudes.

[Luke McFadden]

There's a chance you are. But if that crab cake is less than $35, there's a good chance it's not from this country. So we, you know, in our area, right. In Maryland, a lot of the eastern shore, a lot of those lower grade crabs would all go to picking house. Right. And then they're. Those crabs are getting sold generally by the pound of the picking house. And then they are picking those crabs by hand and pasteurizing the meat. And then that used to be the crab meat market. Right. And so that gave us something to do with every crab that came over the rail. But nowadays it's not, you know, it's not really like that. So I, you know, I wanted the retail spot to be able to kind of control my own market a little bit. You know, my theory is, like I said, you can only kill a crab one time, you may as well get it. Well, it's worth the most, and you kind of have to have value added to the product, I think. So. I think the name of the game going forward for the future of the industry is getting the most amount for everything that comes over the rail.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

And so for me, it's not only selling the crab, but also the story.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

So that's like I said, you can only catch a crab once. You can sell the story time and time again. And it also helps with the marketing of the crab, you know, and all those kinds of things.

[Interviewer]

So feasibly in the future, like, if you play your cards right in the future, you could be processing half as many crabs but still making a living.

[Luke McFadden]

That's what I'm doing now, really. I mean, you know, obviously, we're shooting video and things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I've kind of. It really, truly kills me, But I've had to dial my crab operation to scale it back a little bit. You know, Instead of running 1500 pots, we're running less than a thousand now, which is, like, super bizarre to me. I've Never. I've always just gone, you know, five days a week and ran a load of gear. But now there's only one of me, you know, And I got a lot of hands and a lot of things right now that I'm trying to figure out how to do and build. I've kind of leaned more into the marketing side of the crabs, you know what I mean? Selling less crabs and getting better money for them, kind of premium money for them. But it's also, you know, we sell a really good product, and a lot of people want to. There's a certain percentage of people that are less mindful of the price if they know exactly where it's coming from.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, man.

[Luke McFadden]

So we kind of try to tell the story of that. A lot of transparency as to where your product comes from, what goes into catching that product, and then also giving people, you know, telling the story of the product and the people that catch it and the whole kind of how everything works. And, you know, there's enough people out there that are, you know, really interested in that, and they just like a good product. They know our crabs come from Maryland. I don't buy crabs from out of state, which is a real pain. I know I could make a load more money if I did. But I am just. I'm committed to, you know, I'm not gonna deceive people to try to make a couple extra bucks. You know what I mean? Like, kind of the shtick that I have is that, you know, is the transparency part, you know, you know where it's coming from. You can see it. Like, we used to live stream and ship crabs. And so, like, I, you know, I'd write your name on a crab. You get that crab two, you know, a week later. So I've got.

[Interviewer]

I've got buddies, acquaintances. Buddies. Black cod, salmon, bison, cattle. I could probably go on that. Have adopted the model you're talking about of being like, here I am. Here's how I do what I. Here's how I produce my product. You can come out, you. You can come to my ranch and look at it. You can come on my boat and look at it. Here's the people that are doing it. There's this guy, this guy, this guy. We go out. Here's how we catch what we do. Here's how we process what we do. You can come visit the damn cow if you want.

[Luke McFadden]

Right.

[Interviewer]

And in the end, you buy what you know from people you know, and you saw the whole thing happen.

[Luke McFadden]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

And all of them have achieved some level of Liberty through, Through. Through the transparency of their operation, they've achieved a level of freedom from the market.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Meaning oscillating stuff. They have a clientele, and it's a luxury or however you want to look at it, but they have a clientele that's like. It's worth a couple bucks to me to get it from you.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, exactly.

[Interviewer]

Because I like how you do it.

[Luke McFadden]

Right.

[Interviewer]

And I like the things you think about right.

[Luke McFadden]

And. Right.

[Interviewer]

And I like the way you treat everything. And I'll just pay a couple bucks more.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. And right now, that's where I'm. That's. That's how I'm making it work. You know, I don't know if it's always going to be like that or where that side of my business is going to go, but right now that's, you know, that's. It's a lot more work, man, on the back end. And you. I mean, you got to be 100% committed to everything. And there's, you know, you're responsible for every part of that process now, you know, which is a humbling experience. You know, when I got into it selling my own, I thought like, oh, man, all the crab buyers, they make all the money, you know what I mean? Like, and then you become the guy selling retail and you're like, holy crap, I gotta keep these little bastards alive all week. I'm dealing with a bunch more people. I got a retail operation to keep up, you know, Facebook pages to run ads to make, you know, it's. I mean, it's nuts, man. It's like, you know, it's every. Every part, you know, of the vertical integration you're responsible for, you know, which is good in the long run, I think, but it takes a lot of time. There's a steep learning curve. But it's funny because as you mentioned, like, you can come visit the cow. So my retail spot, the crab stand is. It's called Bakken Point Seafood. But I. It was just a grass lot, right? So I started there just selling crabs out of the bed of my truck. And I bought this little grass lot for cheap in the next town over. And I put some gravel down and then I got a refrigerator trailer. I was selling out of that. And now, you know, especially since I've kind of leaned into the whole story of it to build a crab stand. I bought a, like a 41 foot, like, wooden crab boat that was sunk and tore it all down and rebuilt. Took the engine out, just decked the inside, built a canopy and turned it into like my retail spot. And then I dug a hole in the ground and put the boat into it. So it looks like it's sitting on the water line. And then we backed the fridge trailer up to it because everybody that would come to the crab stand was like, had a story about crabbers or their granddad was a crabber and, you know, they used to buy them off the boat and everybody wanted to come see the boat, and so that's not really feasible, But I just thought it'd be cool to like, bring the boat to the people. So now you can. And the boat's got a good story. You know, we tell the history. The family that owned the boat, you know, they've come and visited it. Like, they're just really glad to see it not out to pasture, you know, so it's a little unique, but it's. It's. It's one of those little things that people really like, you know what I mean? They like to be able to come and see an actual real, legit, wooden, Deltaville built crab boat and then buy crabs off the boat, you know? You know, and take pictures with it and whatever. And it's a good landmark, you know what I mean? You can't miss the 41 foot crab boat buried in the ground, you know what I mean? The only one in town.

[Interviewer]

You get a landmark mark, you get some education.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah. And I have stuff there that I've set up with, you know, different kinds of commercial fishing equipment, just that, you know, for people to look at and check out, you know, stuff like that.

[Interviewer]

That's great, man. The whole thing's cool. So here's the last question for you. It's day three of the tournament. I don't want to get into who's doing what and who's getting what. Day three of the tournament, right. Every day there's different rules, different objectives, right. Different fish you're supposed to catch. What's your. I'll tell you what I think, then you can tell me, all right. Where. This is where I'm heading with this. Of all the days of the tournament, today's rule set is the most exciting to me. Yesterday's was the least exciting to me. Where do you sit?

[Luke McFadden]

I. I don't know the rules for today.

[Interviewer]

You better find out.

[Luke McFadden]

Right? That's what I'm saying. I've heard like a bunch of different things, so I don't know exactly what, you know, what is gospel. It would be.

[Interviewer]

I want to give you a tip, a competitor tip, friendly tip between competitors.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

It would be very wise for you to dig in on the rules for today.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Before you head out.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, we just.

[Interviewer]

Because other days it's pretty simple.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah. But I mean. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like we've heard. Last I heard, you were still making that up. Making them up so you could still win it today.

[Interviewer]

Listen, I want to be clear about something. I had nothing to do with these rules. How you'd know that what I'm saying is true. I would never in a million years have made Yesterday.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yesterday was tough, man. That was a tough day.

[Interviewer]

I would never in a million years have made anything to do with muskies.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

I'm anti muskie.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Anti muskie.

[Luke McFadden]

I thought about that. But I was like, you know, I get it. We're, you know, we're at Lake of the woods and it's known for muskie. So it's like people would be bummed if you didn't involve them in some way. But also if you were to make them like the main course, you know, it would have been a real boring day. It would have been a real radio silence. I mean, yesterday there wasn't much going on.

[Interviewer]

Well, the evening. Well. Yeah, yeah.

[Luke McFadden]

I mean, so today, could it be anybody's game?

[Interviewer]

I think that today there's a lot of point opportunity today. It's a day where there's a lot of different specialties could come into play, a lot of different approaches and tactics could come into play. And it's a day where, like, the kind of guy that can go out and just catch a lot of kinds of fish, it's his day.

[Luke McFadden]

Right.

[Interviewer]

This is not a specialist day.

[Luke McFadden]

I'm glad to hear that. I get fish in the boat. It's hard to catch to, like, dial on one thing.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Luke McFadden]

I'm good at filling a boat.

[Interviewer]

Was. Yesterday was like the most specialist of all specialist days.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Today is a generalist day.

[Luke McFadden]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

When it comes to hunting and fishing, I'm a generalist.

[Luke McFadden]

Same. Jack of all trades, master, a nun.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Luke McFadden]

That's what I like to hear. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

When you're a crab specialist. But you're a generalist in your recognition.

[Luke McFadden]

I have a doctorate in crabbing, but, you know, a miner and everything else minor in general. General collecting of crustaceans and other various critters.

[Interviewer]

Well, good luck for today.

[Luke McFadden]

Appreciate it. You too, man. Thanks for having me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, man. Thanks for coming on.

[Luke McFadden]

Good to finally talk face to face and hang out a little bit. You know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I appreciate it and good to hear about crab and good at tonight at the awards ceremony. Hopefully I'll be the guy with a huge check. Yeah, yeah, we actually got a huge check.

[Luke McFadden]

Did you actually, you actually got a big check?

[Interviewer]

The actual big check.

[Luke McFadden]

Nice. That's cool. Who had to carry that on the plane?

[Interviewer]

This is rolled up.

[Luke McFadden]

Oh, nice.

[Interviewer]

There you. All right, man. Thanks. Stay tuned if you want to find out what happened with the Fish Eater Classic, stay tuned. It's, it's going to be. Videos are going to start dropping on YouTube, so just pay attention. Fish Eater Classic fishing tournament filmed up here in beautiful Lake of the Woods, Ontario at the Crow Rock Lodge, which I would highly recommend to anyone that wants to come and have like a, a freshwater fishing bonanza.

[Luke McFadden]

We ain't roughing it, really. The food is really good.

[Interviewer]

I mean, this place, dude, it's awesome. It's great fishing. Great, great resource. Great fishing. Check it out. Crow Rock Lodge. Thanks, guys.

[Luke McFadden]

Foreign.

[Interviewer]

This is Stephen Rinella from the Meat Eater Podcast. Life moves fast at American Military University. They're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cyber security, IT, space studies and more are designed for service members, veterans and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step wherever life takes you. American Military University made for what's next. Learn more at amuapus.edumilitary. this is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you think about discovering small brands, what store pops into your mind? Well, it should be Walmart. Seriously, Walmart has thousands of small brands and they're all in one place. Just go online or in store. Discover and shop. It could not be easier. Every one of these brands has a real story and real people behind it. They're true American success stories and you can find them all at Walmart. Discover thousands of small [e-mail] today. Check engine ABS or maintenance light on.

[Luke McFadden]

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[Interviewer]

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