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Hi Chichi: I just stumbled over this lovely post of yours! I as a matter of fact have just eaten a number of these Southern cousins ...myself...here in New Orleans...

Now...in regard to what you do and what others have suggested you do to catch these wonders...for as many years as we have been catching them here..no one has ever talked about shining lights and going after them with hand nets...seems too much work to me...but your bait as the results clearly indicated...good stinky fish as well as chicken parts is usually what we use here...Fish heads to be more specific...(they love the eyes!) and if not that..then chicken necks and chicken backs...).

What I would be curious to do now is to incorporate both techniques...
bait up the nets ..put them in the water...and then shine a light periodically to see if it moves them to move more quickly into the nets...

Regarding what you discovered about all the bait being eaten off to the bone...This would signal me that maybe you could pull up the nets a little sooner in between their sitting in the water..as crabs will sit around and eat all the bait away ....and swim away...if they are not pulled in soon enough...so..when the "crabs are running" as we like to say here...
I would do a little run on the nets maybe every 10 or so minutes rather than longer...

Re your steam and beer method....may I suggest as well...another way..
get some Zatarain crab and shrimp and crawfish boil in bags...(has about 17 different spices in it...along with whole heads of garlic cut in half and couple of cut up yellow onions..a few lenghts of fresh celery..couple of bay leaves and lots of salt...with a bunch of cut up lemons....and boil that about twenty minutes before you put in the crabs..to get the flavor in the water...then throw in those babies...and boil them depending on how many (two dozen about 15 minutes depending on size...gotta kinda just practice with all that....) and see why we go crazy here for our crabs...If you like crawfish with the seasoning ..you will like it with the crabs as well...if it is done right after practice...the crab taste is in fact enhanced not diminished by the additions...

Surely would be fun to go crabbing with you...You have the passion and the practical sense for the fun....

Greetings and all good cheer from way down yonder...come on down here and get yourself some boiled crabs..."Gurl" as we say!