After 62 years of being on the water, local fisherman Miles Lewis, 79, tells it like it is: Stone crabbing is repetitious.

The process starts with baiting traps with mullet or pig’s feet. Then, a week later, Lewis and a crew of two pull them from the water to see what they’ve caught. Lewis monitors roughly 5,000 traps spanning Anna Maria Island to Casey Key during stone crab season, which runs from Oct. 15 to May 2.

During that time, Lewis’ wife, Margaret, whom he’s been married to for more than 60 years, meets him at various jetties to collect his catches and then drops some off at Walt’s Fish Market in Sarasota.

“I have the best stone crab thanks to these guys, because they drop them off the same day they pull them in,” says Brett Wallin, Walt’s 43-year-old, fourth-generation owner.

Lewis was among the first people to get a stone crabbing license in the 1980s, and a moratorium on them means no new licenses can be issued. But, during season, stone crab lovers with a Florida fishing license can cast up to five traps. The practice is considered sustainable, because crabbers are supposed to break off one claw and then release the crab, which will grow a new appendage over the course of the next year.

With flavors bursting from the shell, enjoying stone crab is simple: crack, dip, enjoy, repeat. Stone crab purchased at a fish market comes precooked. If you are catching your own, boil the claws in salted water right on the boat, drop them in an ice bath to halt the cooking process (that also causes the meat to pull away from the shell) and then crack them open and eat the naturally sweet claw meat cold, dipped in drawn butter or mustard sauce. “Never reheat them,” says Lewis.