Advice for keeping dungeness fresh

Dredging this one up to get advice.  Got 10 crab today, not enough time to cook them tonight.  Have them in about 20 gallons of seawater with an aerator going in an open 27gal black storage bin.  They seem happy and active, but what do you guys think?  I am hoping to cook them in the morning.  Should I suck it up and steam them tonight, or do you think they will be fine in the am?  The temp should stay between 50-60 all night.  Anyone do anything similar?

For just overnight, I keep it simple.  Bag of ice in the cooler, wet towel or burlap on top of that, crab on the towel, block of wood taped on the rim of the cooler to keep the door slightly ajar (a rolled up rag works just as well).

Thanks Tedski.  Do you think the current config poses more of a risk to the crab that the method you are suggesting?

15 minutes is nothing!!

i bring an icechest with newspaper in it.  when i get the crab, i dunk the newspaper to get it wet, then set the crab on top with a bunch of those icechest frozen hardpacks.  crab will tear into soft packs.    i have never had an issue.  guess what?  this is when i buy them at a Ranch99 two hours away. 

hell, i once did this in big soft icechest and flew live crab back to my family in texas.  i went from a friends seafood distribution company, in South Sanfransisco, straight to the airport and flew to El Paso texas.  my family had water boiling when i got there, and the crabs were lively as heck!!

Reporting back, the crabs were all very healthy after overnight.  They were in 20 gal of seawater in a 27 gal bin with a bubble box aerator from Amazon going on fresh batteries through a PVC to the bottom all night.  The crabs were also very active.  I had to fish them out a bit cause they were striking at me when I reached in.  Lol. They are all cooked and cleaned now.  Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!!

Success never looked so delicious 

Reporting back, the crabs were all very healthy after overnight.  They were in 20 gal of seawater in a 27 gal bin with a bubble box aerator from Amazon going on fresh batteries through a PVC to the bottom all night.  The crabs were also very active.  I had to fish them out a bit cause they were striking at me when I reached in.  Lol. They are all cooked and cleaned now.  Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!!

Thanks for the update.  I didn’t get a chance to post and say that I do this all the time because by the time I get home, rinse off all my gear, and put it away, I’m usually too tired to cook crab.   The only difference is that I use a plug in fish tank bubbler so I don’t have to worry about batteries. 

I have a power outlet in the back of my truck, so I use it on the drive home as well.   I transport my catch in a cooler full of sea water with the bubbler chugging away.  Been doing this for many years.  It may be overkill, but it keeps the dungies super lively.   Your experience with how lively and aggressive they are when you finally get around to picking them up is the same as mine.   I got pinched so many times that I eventually bought and use a pair of crab tongs that I got from Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/King-Kooker-14400-Crab-Tongs/dp/B00B4BNAOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

A recent Youtube video I saw mentioned that doing this also allows the crabs to purge whatever they had been eating and you get cleaner crab butter as a bonus with the fresh crab.  I personally can't wait until I cook it most times, finding the wind down waiting for them to be ready one of the best parts  .

Thanks for the update.  I didn’t get a chance to post and say that I do this all the time because by the time I get home, rinse off all my gear, and put it away, I’m usually too tired to cook crab.   The only difference is that I use a plug in fish tank bubbler so I don’t have to worry about batteries. 

I have a power outlet in the back of my truck, so I use it on the drive home as well.   I transport my catch in a cooler full of sea water with the bubbler chugging away.  Been doing this for many years.  It may be overkill, but it keeps the dungies super lively.   Your experience with how lively and aggressive they are when you finally get around to picking them up is the same as mine.   I got pinched so many times that I eventually bought and use a pair of crab tongs that I got from Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/King-Kooker-14400-Crab-Tongs/dp/B00B4BNAOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

That sounds like a great system for keeping them fresh. Do you cool the water at all? How well does it work when it is warm out?

Thanks for the update.  I didn’t get a chance to post and say that I do this all the time because by the time I get home, rinse off all my gear, and put it away, I’m usually too tired to cook crab.   The only difference is that I use a plug in fish tank bubbler so I don’t have to worry about batteries. 

I have a power outlet in the back of my truck, so I use it on the drive home as well.   I transport my catch in a cooler full of sea water with the bubbler chugging away.  Been doing this for many years.  It may be overkill, but it keeps the dungies super lively.   Your experience with how lively and aggressive they are when you finally get around to picking them up is the same as mine.   I got pinched so many times that I eventually bought and use a pair of crab tongs that I got from Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/King-Kooker-14400-Crab-Tongs/dp/B00B4BNAOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

That sounds like a great system for keeping them fresh. Do you cool the water at all? How well does it work when it is warm out?

Thanks for the crab tongs link!  I had the same question regarding temperature.  The cool late november days and evenings made storing this tank in the garage pretty much perfect.  I doubt the water fluctuated much between 50 and 60. 

Thanks for the update.  I didn’t get a chance to post and say that I do this all the time because by the time I get home, rinse off all my gear, and put it away, I’m usually too tired to cook crab.   The only difference is that I use a plug in fish tank bubbler so I don’t have to worry about batteries. 

I have a power outlet in the back of my truck, so I use it on the drive home as well.   I transport my catch in a cooler full of sea water with the bubbler chugging away.  Been doing this for many years.  It may be overkill, but it keeps the dungies super lively.   Your experience with how lively and aggressive they are when you finally get around to picking them up is the same as mine.   I got pinched so many times that I eventually bought and use a pair of crab tongs that I got from Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/King-Kooker-14400-Crab-Tongs/dp/B00B4BNAOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

That sounds like a great system for keeping them fresh. Do you cool the water at all? How well does it work when it is warm out?

That’s mainly why I use my big cooler instead of just a bucket.  The cooler keeps the water cool on hot days, but it is so rare that I fish for dungies when it’s warm.  And, I usually get water at the end of one of the piers near the boat ramp instead of at the beach.   The water at the beach usually has so much sand in it. 

A recent Youtube video I saw mentioned that doing this also allows the crabs to purge whatever they had been eating and you get cleaner crab butter as a bonus with the fresh crab.  I personally can't wait until I cook it most times, finding the wind down waiting for them to be ready one of the best parts  .

I can confirm that this is true.  The crabs definitely come out a lot cleaner after the soak. 

Thanks for the crab tongs link!  I had the same question regarding temperature.  The cool late november days and evenings made storing this tank in the garage pretty much perfect.  I doubt the water fluctuated much between 50 and 60.

The crab tongs are a real finger saver.  I never get pinched by the crab that I’m grabbing.   It’s always one of his other buddies in the cooler that always seems to get me. 

I only use a game bag on the kayak and hang it overboard in between hauls.  I've never had not-clean crab, so I don't know if it's helping or not an issue in the first place.  Regarding crab being lively, they're cold blooded.  The whole point of putting them on ice (for me) is to make them not lively.  No tongs needed, no complicated bubblers or large volumes of water.  Either way, the crab splits in half when I smash it on the side of the bucket.

this is going to be my Christmas meal.  Dungies and some oysters.  raw and BBQ'd

hope it doesn't rain on my fire.