Hi All.

I see this topic came up on the Soft Bait thread. Well I have become a kinda expert at catching Crab.I use them on long lines I set. Nope I don't use a motorized Kontiki, I dry set at low tide,let the line soak over High tide, return at low tide and get my fish. Not as sporting as Surf casting, but puts fish in my freezer. I target Rig, on a local west coast beach that is very rough and very tidal and not really suited to Surf Casting. I only set when I have run out of fish in the freezer.

I have developed an even better method, than dry setting, involves a bit of preparation and a deserted beach, that does not have vehicles running up and down on it. Nor has thieves or nosey parkers lol.

Anyway back to Crabs, I can get them down the local estuary by turning rocks. That's if I want the small mud crabs. As I intend to put a 25 hook longline together, to target flounder,using the dry set method or the other method I have developed. But I have found the easy way to catch them is use a Yabbie/Crab Pot. The Yabbie ones have very small mesh, hence you will capture the little buggars. A bonus is you also catch a good amount of fresh yems, so its a bit of a winner.

When I want paddle crabs, well I just head out to beach at low tide, and set in the holes. Plenty of bait size paddle crabs, hang out in them. Come summer I will be targeting the larger Paddle Crabs, as they are great eating. Wade out, when sea is calm, and drop a few pots, wait half an hour, then go retrieve.

I use Farm Electric Fence Stakes. To anchor my pots too, they do an excellent job. All your have to do is remove the foot at the bottom. And then you can push them as far into the mud or sand as you like. And of course I have a float attached with my name etc as required by fishing regs.

The traps/pots are not that expensive and easy to find to purchase. I have also made some of my own. Used plastic mesh from Mitre 10. No frame work required, they are cylindrical pots. Have a funnel entrance way and a walk in. Held together by plastic zip ties. Cheap and simple if you want to build your own. Also your pots will need weight added to stop them rolling around. I use left over garden mesh, make a small cage, add some rocks, and zip tie that to the bottom. I use the same method as a bait holder. Most of the purchased pots/traps come with a bait holder.

As for bait, crabs being crabs will eat anything as we all well know. Including soft baits, they just love them. I use chicken frames/necks. Cheap as to buy. Sometimes I bang a squished up Yem in. I usually set about four pots in a small area. Now if you want to bring those crabs and Yems in, bang in a tin of cheap supermarket sardines,that works a treat. Just half open the tin, and that lovely oil slick and bits of sardines floating off does the trick.

When I get back into surf casting, I reckon I will be mainly using crab as bait. How more natural can you get. Bet snapper love em too.

Have attacked a couple of pics of my home built ones, on these I added a length of dowel to give them a bit more rigidity, zip tied on of course. There is a larger one and a smaller one. I will be adding another entrance way at the other end as it will then fish better. One entrance cone is only half zip tied, I just lace it with a bit of mono. Which I can undo to bait the pot and get my crabs out. To make the entrance cone, just google making a cone.. I will be using the plastic ones also to set out on the rocky ground overnight to catch red rock crab, they are better eating than crayfish, and should make mighty bait.

Now have fun, go catch some crabs.

Cheers Trev aka "Hardy"