Crabbing question--from a novice

C

caw

New member
I'll be in the San Juans in a few weeks and plan to try my hand at crabbing. I have some equipment, but more questions than knowledge. The trap I have came with 100 ft. of weighted line. Do I use the whole 100 ft. ---or cut it to a specified lenght and always set the trap in that depth water---or is there way to add and subtract lengths of line as needed for the water depth???? All you Crabbing-Brats give me some advice

CAW
 
Leave the entire 100'. The line (if it is leaded) will sink, thus not creating a hazard to boat props. I usually crab in ~50-75 feet of water and with the tides the extra length of line is a safety gap; odds are you won't lose a pot if it moves or is pushed by tide etc. It's just more line to pull, but it's not a big deal with crab set-ups. Now shrimping...for that you need a puller or a young, strong male on board. :wink:



Just don't drop your pot w/ 100' of line in 120' of water. :x :roll: :cry Ask me how I know.....
 
Every thing Mark said and make sure you read the regs. You need to mark you bouys right and insure your trap is rigged right, that you have the rot cord on your pot. Bait is also a concern. if you are taveling out here and staying on the boat for the week then frozen fish is not easy to deal with. I would use the pellets and if you do you need to soak them in a bucket for a few hours first. Also fresh sand dabs are good bait if you like to catch those.
 
100' of line is not too much and it really depends on where you plan to crab. most people crab in water that is 40-80' deep. I often crab in 120-150' of water in the sound because hardly anyone else does. If your line is standard poly propylene (e.g. not leaded line) you will need line weights to keep it below the surface. These are 4-6oz lead weights that clip onto the line. Even with the leaded line, I sometimes use line weights just to get it to sink faster. If you want to add/subtract lengths of line, just tie a large loop in each end of each line, then you can run one loop through the other and the remaining hank of the added piece though the loop to quickly attach the two lines. I prefer this to trying to tie and untie knots in the line - especially with poly pro as knots easily slip out in polypro line.

You should weight your crab pot a bit to keep currents from moving it around too much. 5-10 lbs is good. The line and buoy can be a significant source of drag in a large current. Also, ALWAYS set your pot in 15-25' less water than your line length and pay attention to where you're at on the tide. E.g. if you set the pot at low tide, the water may be 14' deeper at high tide (14' is a big exchange around here but it happens - 10' is common). Many people have had their pots "stolen" when often the problem is they set the pots in water that was too deep and/or didn't weight the pots sufficiently to keep them from dragging.

As for bait, many things will work. Lots of people like chicken but to me, I can't see trading food for food. I use salmon carcasses (I freeze them after I finish filleting) or I just jig up a flounder, sculpin or dogfish. Oilier bait works better as it leaves a longer scent trail which is why some prefer chicken. Salmon heads work great.
 
Some grocery store meat departments save outdated chicken in the frozen food section and label it for "crab bait".....always worked good for me to lure the crab into my pots and it is cheap.
 
A friend suggested to me to use turkey legs, reasonably cheap to buy. I tried it and surprisingly they work really well. They are tough so they will last most of the day. I pretty much use those when I go. If I could obtain salmon carcasses by catching salmon I would. But if I could catch salmon I wouldn't be messing around crabbing.
 
I've used chicken, canned cat food, frozen salmon heads, fresh & frozen salmon carcasses, fresh ling cod scraps/carcass, collars etc, complete herring I put through a meat grinder and the commercial pellets. Had the least luck with the chicken & cat food. The rest all worked. IMO the best bait would be tuna heads w/ the gills attached. Bloody, oily and tough. But finding them up here is a real challenge. It's what we used back in Hawai'i [for crabbing].

Usually I'll use the ground up herring or pellets in a cage for a scent trail and then hang carcasses, collars etc to "keep the crab" in the pot. I watched "Deadliest Catch" and that's what they seem to do so I copied it. The pellets work great, but can be pricey; about $8 for a bag. But for long soaks they're efficient, clean & easy as Tom noted.

I weight my pots with steel re-bar and zip ties. Cheap and it works. I paint them with an anti-rust coating I use on cars and it works great. I also fabricate a "mast" out of PVC with a donut weight on the bottom and a bright yellow nylon-material flag on top with my red/white float in the middle. SO much easier to find our pots that way and the masts unscrew apart into 3 sections to make storage on board easier. the regs say you can use any flag color/shape etc. as long as the floats are white/red.
 
Thanks for the advice, keep it coming !!! As for the bait issue-----I live in Idaho with little access to ocean species for bait---but I can sure come up with plenty of bass,catfish and other freshwater fish carcasses-----do you think any of that will work ??? My wife would love for me to haul a bunch of fish carcasses from here to the San Juans for a couple of weeks!!!!!
 
caw":3ty6xz8e said:
I'll be in the San Juans in a few weeks and plan to try my hand at crabbing. I have some equipment, but more questions than knowledge. The trap I have came with 100 ft. of weighted line. Do I use the whole 100 ft. ---or cut it to a specified lenght and always set the trap in that depth water---or is there way to add and subtract lengths of line as needed for the water depth???? All you Crabbing-Brats give me some advice

CAW
Click to expand...

I would think you would be able to catch crabs far closer to home....... but you should clear it up with the wife. Have you tried Wallace? Heard some things about that place.....good luck to you:)
 
I don't see why freshwater carcasses wouldn't work although the "oiler" (scent) the bait, the better. Maybe pick up a bag of pellets and experiment. Put some pellets in one trap and just bass etc in the other and see what happens.
 
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