Mud Crabs in dillies

[Truck]

I am fairly new to the old crabbing game, and have purchased a few dillies to put out while i am fishing for a few crabs now and then. I have noticed they are very good when it comes to catching Blue Swimmers but when a muddie gets in them they are just too strong and leave you with big holes throughout your dillies!!!
I just thought I would start a topic so more experienced "crabbers" can comment on this topic, Are dillies stricktly sand crabs only or is there stronger nets you can put in them to catch muddies or some other tricks?? please comment :-?

[brentasauros]

yer..use..mud..crab..pots..will..catch..both.

[mickstar001]

yeah buy the rectangular pots buddy never tear!

[lil_boatie]

I heard that the retctangular pots were not as good because the crab only has two areas to gain entry and if the current is too strong it wash the crab away. I find the round ones better.

Cam

[Just_chips]

Have a read through the info on this website (www.crabngear.com.au) and if you would still like to know more then give them a call or shoot them an e-mail, they are very happy to help with any questions.

Cheers Kev

[Panda]

Dillies are very good for catching mud crabs but must be checked frequently or they will rip the net to pieces.

You can buy heaver net for use in dillies if you are getting muddies.
They are still a bugger of a thing to get them untangled though. A trick for extracting crabs from dillies is to get a piece of steel rod about a meter long, curve it a bit and bend a small hook into one end. Now put the straight end in the rowlock and hang the dilly on the hook from its apex. This keeps constant tension on the net and helps to stop the crab from retangling himself as you are trying to get him out of the tangled mess.

The secret using dillies for muddies is to check them frequently. At least every 20 minutes. To check them you dont have to pull them up. Just very gently take up the slack on the rope and hold it like a fishing hand-line -- just as if you were fishing and feeling for bite. If there is a crab tangled in the dilly you will feel his struggles sending vibrations up the line. Simple!

[bidkev]

Bugger the dillies....too much arseing around trying to untangle the buggers.

Rectangular or round, it's your choice. Rectangular will also catch fish (had plenty of cod but never caught one in a round) Despite that, I prefer the round simply because there's more room and the crabs don't chew each other up. They don't stack as well in the boat though.

Make sure the entrances are facing tidal flow. With the more professional of rounds this doesn't matter though, as there are 4 entrances. Make sure the keeper is pegged down and doesn't float or else the crabs will just sit on the pot and feed through the mesh.

Generally, the rounds are better made and jennies chew through the rectangular.

I have *never* had a pot that is really up to standard. Rectangular or round, the entrances are all crap. With the rectangular, cloes up either side with cable tie, taking the tie to the roof of the pot. The weight of the crab coming in will drop the jaws of the opening to the floor of the pot and allow one that is already in, to get out. Same with the rounds. Put your hand on the opening and press down. 9 times out of 10 it will touch the floor of the pot. Useless! Wire it up to the top of the pot so that it won't drop down. It doesn't matter that the opening of the pot is closed, the weight of the crab crawling onto it will make it open and when the crab drops to the floor it will close behind it.

kev

[ambo]

hi all just new here names ray live at coolum new boat 2mthsago 1st boat

[major-defect]

I don't like using rectangular pots up here,the crocs stick there head in and eat your crabs. Sometimes I've found half a crab in the furthest corner.

[DICER]

mudcrab snacks in the munchbag hey....

probably a few crocs wearing square pots as well.

I'm all for the round collapsable pots with the drawstring

[MAL]

Yes you can catch all sorts of things in crab pots. ;D ;D ;D

Cheers.

MAL.

[Panda]

Dillies for muddies have a specific use.

Advantages are --1. They produce results a lot quicker than pots (if theres crabs about). 2. They are light weight and take up very little room in transit.

Disadvantages are ---1. Its time consuming to untangle muddies from them and especially difficult in poor light. 2. If you leave them unattended for too long the crabs will chew their way out. 3. The easily snag on sunken logs and rocks, especially if you are land based and pulling them up over a rock wall.

Having said that its been my experience that dillies will outfish (out-crab) pots at least 2 to 1 if used within their limitations.

The circumstances where I use dillies are when I plan to do a bit of fishing for a couple of hours and want to try for a crab or two. This usually occurs in the more busy areas like near boat ramps where you wouldn't want to leave pots unattended, particularly overnight.

As an example of how the two techniques compare I will recount an experience I had a while back at Cleveland boat ramp near the VMR. We went down to try for some bream for a few hours one evening. My mate throws out his pot and I put out two dillies. At the end of the few hours the score was dillies 2 crabs and pot nil. Had we left our respective pot and dillies in overnight the score would have been no doubt reversed.

[devocean]

My latest dilly design works a treat. Buy the dilly pot for around 4 dollars each. REplace netting with trawler mesh. Then take more trawler mesh and cover complete dilly making sure the mesh is tight all the way round. I use zip ties to fix the trawler mesh to the dilly.

Then cut holes in the trawler mesh on each side giving you 4 openings with about 10 cm from the base of the dilly. They are almost a half crab pot half dilly. I like to use these as the missus pulls them up wrong and they often fall out. Will send photos when camera is fixed

[12Ply]

Thanks everyonefor all your feed back!!! I actually went out yesterday with a mate of mine, we had 7 dillies and we were catching so many crabs we really didn't have too much time to get a line in!! We were checking them every 10-20 minutes and would have caught 25-30 crabs all up ( both sand and mud) including the biggest mud crab (jenny) i have ever seen!! still got a few holes in them but nothing like we did last weekend. I think the trick is to check them as regularly as you can also ( as panda was saying).

decocean, your idea sounds like an interesting one!!would like to see photo's of the finished product.

[Wazza77]

Dillies are great and i find that usually if you have a big hole in em its probably cause someone else had checked it and probably cut it out.

I find that they usually get so bloody tangled in them it would nearly be impossible for them to get out without a bit of help but thas just me..

[themissionman]

Hi... just thought i would throw my two cents in... have recently moved back up to the sunshine coast recently and out trying to catch a feed over the past couple of days. Lots of pots in the Maroochy up around Bli Bli up... lots of people out saying stay and watch ya pots cause they wont be there when ya get back.. I use the round collapsable crab pots which are the thick rope ones.. have recently brought some cheaper round collapsable ones to compare to the good ones as they are expensive... put four in prior to tide turn today then pulled them about an hour on the run out tide... mostly female's of a good size with one massive one... i did manage to score one really good sized male... so guess who's my entre tonight!! :P
Not sure what the answer is to the pilfering of other peoples pots let allone their crabs.. i thought we were all fairly descent folke but things must have changed... i know that if i see one boat put in some pots then another checkin them i would be up anchor and over askin what tha and would expect the same... :o
cheers and thal for the good read on the thread.. :)

[DICER]

I've had many muddies go into drawstring round pots within 1-5 minutes. Depends on where you put them!

[spotjo]

we got 6 last week in one pot all bucks and all in a matter of 20 mins only the first pot produced the other 3 caught none in 4 hrs



Jo