maloolaba spanners

[rosco1974]

took the oldman out for his first ever run out of maloolaba...we had the plan of gettin a good feed of spanners again..we droped the dillies where i got a good feed a few ago...we ended up with 26 keepers out of 2 runs..the turtles there hammered us this time..i had 1 dillie wrecked llost heaps of crabs and a few bait bags...stoped in at the gneerings for a look and there where good shows on the sounder but didn't have any rods aboard..was a good day out but got a wet ass

cheers rosco

[popgun19]

Nice one Rosco,

You certainly are the Crab King. My mouth is watering at the though of Fresh Spanners.

Cheers,
Brian

[littlemac]

nice work rosco, you always seem to the carbs

well done

cheers

brett

[Axl]

Well done mate another nice feed there looks like you have added spanners to your extensive crustation list.

Next time dont forget the rods!!

[sleepygreg]

Just a question......where is all the meat in a spanner crab. Have never eaten one so I am just a bit curious. Looks like they are all body with not many meaty bits. Not trying to be critical in any way.....just trying to learn.

[Captain Seaweed]

Greg I was the same until I saw a youtube video of a lady pulling one apart. I love them now!

here it is, you will probably want to punch the guy in it but anyway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddx7yUiryLo

[Spectre]

G'day Rosco

Thats a nice feed of tasty spanners ...well worth the effort.

What depth r u setting your dillies at ...??
I have been told that if u set deeper than 40 M u will usually avoid the turtles, which ccan be a real pain in ar$e !!! Sharks will also account for the odd crab.
You or preferably the deckie....just get a bit more exercise pulling em up ;D !!!!!

Cheers
Phil

[rosco1974]

phil ,
i have been crabing in the 33-35mtr mark

greg,
i recon u get the same amount of meat out of a spanner as u would get out of a sandie maybe more

axl,
robsue told me the crabs where still a bit scarce so i went up there for a feed instead,

brian,
i recon lethal098 is the crab king of the site..he just doesn't post about his crabbing trips

cheers rosco

[scrubba01]

Hi Rosco
Just got some dillies myself, I do most of my fishing out of tincan and am keen to get amongst the crabs. Just got a couple of questions if I can. What do you look for on the bottom when selecting a spot and how long do you let them soak for?

Cheers Warren

[lethal098]

Rosco, Thanks mate like you i like to chase these crustaceans and over the years i have learnt plenty about them, there is always more to learn as well. Dont think i am the king thats for sure, maybe we can share the title.

Warren, Spanner crabs will be on sand, depth will vary but i generally crab in 30-40 metres. Soaking time again will vary but mostly no more than an hour is plenty, if none there, pick it up and move it.

Are there any pro crabbers up that way that chase them? keep an eye out for any floats when you are out and about.

Cheers Lee

[Spectre]

Good advice there Lee.

Another tip worth noting is that if there is a reasonable swell running ...spanner crab numbers will generally be very low & prob not worth the effort of setting ya dillies.;)

Cheers
Phil

[rosco1974]

mate i left mine in for 40 minutes...and the turtles where on fire this time..hope to get into them again soon
cheers rosco

[Izzey!]

mate i left mine in for 40 minutes...and the turtles where on fire this time..hope to get into them again soon
cheers rosco
Hey Rosco,Igot two pots and tried at the start of the season .No luck out of mooloolabah east of old woman island.where am i going wrong?????

[hakuna]

in my experience I have found that the best food for the traps are trag carcuses, the most spannes I get is near trag grounds/ reef and you have to be within 1k of the reef on the sand is the trick, not in the middle of know where, I drop the pots in 30 to 50m of water.
The only trouble I ever have is someone pulling my traps, releasing the floats, (funny how the two d shackles was un screwed and then screwed back up again, very polite of them) now I run the radar on top of them when I go off fishing elswhere

cheers