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    Paddle Crab Invasion Archived Message

    Posted by Hardy on 18/1/2008, 10:09 pm

    Hi Fella's

    These bait pinching demons of the sea seem to be approaching plague proportions down here. You are lucky if a bait lasts five minutes. And that is with bait elastic too. I reckon they are onto your bait within about a minute. Then they tow it down into the sand where they have their little feast, unseen by all. Esp the fish. So after five minutes wind in, bait gone. Rebait, cast out, set drag etc. That takes about five minutes. So for every 10 minutes you actually only have " One Minute where you have a chance of catching a fish.

    That is 6 minutes per hour of fish time.

    Why are the Paddlers getting bigger and having a population explosion. The older guys I have spoke to said they were never really a problem in their day.

    My theory is the food chain is being interfered with. The pipi's down here are getting less and less, crabs will snip the tongue off when the pipi is feeding. The greatest predator of the Paddle Crab is our ole friend Mr Lemon, aka Rig, Smooth Hound. Other fish will partake of them from time to time.

    So one has to assume that the population explosion is due to depletion of Mr Lemon. Female Lemons move towards the shoreline during the summer months to give live birth to their young. And what do they strike. set net after set along the beaches where they feed. Recently there were four set nets along the beach I fish, there were nine on a beach several miles away. I have no doubt that along our coastline when conditions are calm there could be up to 40 set nets within a thirty mile stretch of coastline. If each net catches 3 rig then that is 120 female rig gone. They carry around 10 babys each, so that is 1200 potentional crab devourers gone a night. And that process is repeated night after night.

    Offshore the commercial operators use set nets also. Mostly catching males. With most fish being depleted by overfishing, despite the quota system. Lemons are a good source of income. Esp for the Fish and Chip industry and most likely export. So they become the target. I am not having a snipe at the commercial fishing industry. But shouldn't MAF start having a look at what is causing the Paddle Crab explosion. To me it is pretty obvious. Lemons are being overfished.

    What are your views on the matter, no probs if you disagree with me. Do you have another theory.

    And if you are lucky enough to not know what they look like, here is a healthy specimen caught by a mate during a recent local fishing competition. The only ones benefiting off the Paddle Crab explosion are the Bait Suppliers.



    Notice when held wrong side up, you can see his smile.

    Cheers Trev

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