End of Season Spanner Crabs

[Spectre]

Been way too long since the boat has hit the water so ....
With a good forecast of v light N winds a decision was made to head off the top of Morteon at sparrow fart in search of a feed of spanners ...just b4 the seasonal closure last w'end.
Hopes were high for a pelagic or 2 as well.... ;D

8 dillies were deployed in 40 + metres & left to soak. Baits were a combo of whiting frames & pillies.
Fished a few spots in the meantime ....but could only find some rat YTK's to play with ..no keepers tho.
No bait ...no birds ..it was bloody quite all over:o

Not to worry ...bak to pull the gear with deckies Cragie & John doing most of the hard yards ...65 + M of rope is a lot of rope X 8 !!!!!!!!.....thanks lads 8-)
Scored about 10 good keeper crabs & released quite few u/s. Off to fish some more...which produced a donut, apart from some throwbaks....ah well just good to be on the water.
Bak to pull the gear one last time & scored another 10 odd crabs ...happy days ;D
Crabs were not as thick as have seen b4 ..so need to leave dillies to have an extended soak.
Lotsa small ones ..so that is a good sign.

A great day out ...!!!

Cheers
Phil

[murf]

sweet eating to ya :)

cheers Murf

[Tangles]

love the spanners, Craigie always pops up when crabs are about;D

[bugman]

Phil,
No wonder Craigie was hard to get hold of that day. You had him out in the middle of nowhere. You should have driven a bit further down the coast. I went out on the thursday before the closure and bagged out in 1.5 hours - just 2 pulls of two trays. There was plenty around down here.
Brett

[Spectre]

Eh Brett

Yeh ...had to twist Craigie's arm pretty hard to come crabbin/fishin ...but he eventually gave in ...!!
Geez ...u did well then ....you must have lobbed straight on to em.
They can be hard to find some times ...we could have moved the gear around......but didn't bother.
Did u score some XOS ones ...? Ours were mostly average size + a few biggins.....but full of meat.
Presume u are out off the Goldie ..?

Might have to do a run further afield next time.

Cheers
Phil

[bugman]

Yeah Phil ... off the Goldy. Couple of XOS but probably less than previous trips. Put it this way of the 20 I kept I probably put 3-4 on the measure.

Brett

[Spectre]

Roger that Brett.....defn sounds better down your way !
Hope there r still a few about after 20 Dec ...
Might have to throw the spanner dillies in next time I venture south.

Cheers
Phil

[craigie]

Yes phil, The Spanners saved the day as the fish would not play !!
Very good to eat and quite a lot of meat in them for the size !!

Mike, time to test the water for a few Muddies and Sandies too, just in time for Christmas.

Buggy, I'm planning to get back to Somerset for 4 days between Boxing day and New Years, keep it in mind.

Regards
Craigie.

[bondy99]

Eh Brett

Yeh ...had to twist Craigie's arm pretty hard to come crabbin/fishin ...but he eventually gave in ...!!
Geez ...u did well then ....you must have lobbed straight on to em.
They can be hard to find some times ...we could have moved the gear around......but didn't bother.
Did u score some XOS ones ...? Ours were mostly average size + a few biggins.....but full of meat.
Presume u are out off the Goldie ..?

Might have to do a run further afield next time.

Cheers
Phil

G'day Phil,

Don't suppose you're planning to get some after the big seas have dropped?

Bondy

[Spectre]

G'day Bondy

Mate ...defn hangin out to head offshore ...like everyone else I suppose !!!!
But weather doesn't look like backin off any time soon.
Will just have to keep waiting...

Cheers
Phil