Mud crab for dinner...

[chewy01]

With the weather looking decidedly dodgy for boating the decision was made to try for a few crabs in a new area that we havent crabbed before.Some of you may recognise the creek. Andy and i walked 6 pots in to the creek and surrounding mangrove flats.When crabbing a new area i like to split my pots between pots that will be in the water at all tides and pots that will only be in water a couple hours either side of high tide.Two large metal pots were used as well as 4 rectangular collapsible pot(8 dollars each) Some pots were baited with fish frames and some with my favourite bait,fresh chicken frames. Just a tip for crabbing newcomers,always make sure the bait is secure in the centre of the pot,so the crab cant reach thru and get the bait from the outside.Also,weather important or not i always like the entrances to face the direction of the water flow.Saturday morning i awoke to pouring rain.Andy had soccr early so i went by myself.Two of the pots in the creek had been opened and thrown on the bank so these were moved into the mangroves.One of the metal pots baited had 3 bucks and a female,two of the bucks being legal and two of the other pots had one legal each. They were all rebaited and all put into the mangroves. For me the best place to look for is anywhere a drain/gutter runs out.Bearing in mind it doesnt have to be big,or have any water at all at low tide, so long as it looks like there will be flow thru the mangrves at high tide so disperse the bait scent.This morning,accompanied byAndy(sid the sloth)at 5am,we headed off again.The first four pots were unproductive(im thinking in such a narrow mangrove strip,i should have moved the pots further from where i had them the night b4) The two pots i did move,to hide from the share farmers,had a total of 3 legal bucks as well as four smaller ones. One of the bucks,well over legal,was a bit light when pressed on the side of the shell and was returned to his drain(to be caught next big tides)
Crabs have now been cooked,awaiting eating with fresh bread n butter and cracked pepper,washed down with a cold beer...
Just as a side note,Anyone buying mudcrabs,dont always grab the biggest,as often they wont be super full.If you look underneath, a good crab will normally have a dark cross forming on his shell, and normally a smaller jst legal crab will be pretty full.Enough of this..i have crab to eat.
Ps, just a couple tips for the cheaper rectangular pots, Keep the funnels tight with a cable tie and put a cable tie in the middle of the funnel,effectivly making two shorter funnels. his will stop the majority of crabs escaping,while making little or no difference(imho) to the amount of crabs entering the pot.Its a bugger having this available only 15 mins from home....though maybe i need to move closer..

[Two Utes]

You poor thing!! Having to travel 15 minutes from home to secure such a great feed..I feel for you....Now hand over some of that crab before l get real angry!

Nice work Paul.

[Birko]

Nice one chewy.

We also had a bit of sucsess on the crabs on the weekend as well. The little creek behind my home has its boat ramp closed at the moment due to being up graded, so a creek that normally gets flogged is now near on empty. My neighbour aross the road has a private ramp down the back, so me and a mate jumped on that ramp and put in a toatal of eight pots on satuday lunch and pulled them on sunday lunch for a total of 10 keeper bucks. Probably another 4 would have been under by 3mm or so. Not that many jenny's What a difference a quiet creek makes.

Birko

[happygilmour]

Nice work there Chewy,

I love mud crab and although its a bit of a pain,taking pots,baiting, checking etc the old mud spiders sure taste tops!!!!

Some good tips there as well, i also mod my inlets to my pots and am a big beleiver that the entrances should face the water flow, you always see people throwing them in willy nilly with now thought...

cheers

[Talina]

Nice Chewy!! Very bloody Nice!!!

I have heard so many great reports recently about Crab captures around the place....Good to see theres a few around & the pros aren't catching them all

I might have to go put some pots in I think

[gecko]

Some good tips there chewy, I must get into the muddies more. Ive got a few pots here that I never take out.

Ive been getting a lot of crabs nick my bait while jack fishing lately. I can usually wind em up to the boat and get em in the landing net, but they can sure make a mess of a net. Now I try to see if its a buck before landing em, but they dont like turning upside down while chewing bait. I must get those pots out. Thanks for the tip on facing direction.

Andrew

[Creek Vermin]

Nice work chewy. Isn't it a baarstard when the just unders a full as a goog.. It's good when they're just over though.
Cheers. Keith

[chewy01]

thats a cracker Keith..Hey have you ever had them that look like that,but move really really slow, they look like they should be full,but are empty and near death. i got two this year and threw them back as the two i got last year had really thick shells,like 4mm on the claws but were devoid of meat. One of the pros reckon the get a parasite/disease that stops them from moulting their shell,but i dont really know. Very nice crab that one..

[Creek Vermin]

Never come across one like that mate. I find the meat sticks to the shell when they're that full though. Not that I'm complaining.

[chewy01]

Yea thats the go,when u have to use a knofe to cut the meat out,these sick??crabs are pretty bizarre..loook like they have severe arthritis