This weekend is the 15th annual Stone Crab Festival in Naples’ Tin City.
The fun starts tonight (Oct. 24) with fresh crabs, live music, local artisans and vendors. The ceremonial cracking of the first claw takes place.
Dallas Ryan of Island Crab in St. James City said the season is off to a good start. "From what they have pulled and what we've seen, it looks like a pretty promising year," he said.
It’s early in the season, though, which usually means a few kinks for the fishers.
"With stone crab all the boats sit pretty much all summer long, so the boats aren't ran. And then you get out there and you have boat issues," he said.
In spite of that, the haul looks good, considering the season just opened Oct. 15.
"I got roughly eight to 10 guys that go out and crab for us. And they seem to all be pretty optimistic."
This bunch prays for some wind to stir things up.
A little bit of weather would help," Ryan explained. "Generally speaking, is, the clearer and the calmer the water is, the less crabs that you catch. We start getting these fronts come through, and it turns up the water, the crabs come up out of the sand, and then we're able to catch more of them that way."
So far the supply is plentiful enough, Ryan said.
The festival runs through Sunday.
