Mud Crabbing made easy> for some!!

[smashed crabs]

Guys this morning i sunk a holding pot with 10 muddies in it tied up.i'm going to feed them every day,hoping they will get a bit more condition(cooked a couple & about 3/5 full).Has anybody kept muddies like this & if so for how long.A pro told me that they will feed tied up but if i untie them they will just attack each other.
i'm gunna keep a real close eye on them & if it dosen't look like there gaining condition i'll let them go.
we got 15 last nite (4 mates & 16 pots)great nite with the boys.

cheers jason

I also know of another pro who has done this but it's best to let them go to do their thing, they will feed and condition up but you need a very big cage because if you dont and a crab drops a claw which they can do it will reek havock on the others.
Also if you have croc's and turtle's in the area they will have a go.

Best to let B grade crabs go and from the same spot you pulled the crab from.
You have a really good chance of catching them again when they are in much better condition.

I once marked B grade mud crabs by carefully punturing a 1/4 inch hole in the shell and realeased them back on the same spot i caught them from, in time i caught nearly all the marked crabs again close to and on the spots i originaly caught them.This only relates to crabs caught from their home range under normal conditions.

Could you tell me under what conditions did you catch your crabs ,stuff like did you have plenty of rain , did you catch them all over the place or isolated to a specific spot? I will be able to tell you what your chances are of recapture if you can give me a bit of info

cheers

[soulfish]

I also know of another pro who has done this but it's best to let them go to do their thing, they will feed and condition up but you need a very big cage because if you dont and a crab drops a claw which they can do it will reek havock on the others.
Also if you have croc's and turtle's in the area they will have a go.

Best to let B grade crabs go and from the same spot you pulled the crab from.
You have a really good chance of catching them again when they are in much better condition.

I once marked B grade mud crabs by carefully punturing a 1/4 inch hole in the shell and realeased them back on the same spot i caught them from, in time i caught nearly all the marked crabs again close to and on the spots i originaly caught them.This only relates to crabs caught from their home range under normal conditions.

Could you tell me under what conditions did you catch your crabs ,stuff like did you have plenty of rain , did you catch them all over the place or isolated to a specific spot? I will be able to tell you what your chances are of recapture if you can give me a bit of info

cheers

smashed crabs they were caught after a week or so of rain on & off,also the first couple of hours of the run in tide on dusk.locations varied from drains to edges of mangrove banks over about a 3 klm radius.How ,why does it reek havoc on the other crabs when one drops a claw?I did notice 1 had dropped a claw when i fed them this arvo,think i'll let 8 go in the morning & experiment with 2.we don't have a crock problem in brissy yet mate but pricks knockin your pots off we do.


cheers

[smashed crabs]

smashed crabs they were caught after a week or so of rain on & off,also the first couple of hours of the run in tide on dusk.locations varied from drains to edges of mangrove banks over about a 3 klm radius.How ,why does it reek havoc on the other crabs when one drops a claw?I did notice 1 had dropped a claw when i fed them this arvo,think i'll let 8 go in the morning & experiment with 2.we don't have a crock problem in brissy yet mate but pricks knockin your pots off we do.


cheers

The crab that dropped the claw is not happy and probaly sulking or dying from stress.

The crabs still has spare claw to smash crabs and when he grabs another crab that crab will probaly drop a claw also just trying to defend its self , so on and so forth.

We have our fair share of robbers up this way so when you go crabbing put your pots in on the tides that the following tide make it impossible to gain access to them.

Up here i like to pick a drain that has access at low tide, a drain where i have to go under the trees, when the tide comes in even i cant get to them untill the next similar tide the following day. Another way is to use the big tides to go over trees in certain creeks,these creeks are usually higher stands so low tides access is impossible untill you return the next day.Just pick out the spots that are hard to get to, spots where the window of opportunity to check them is limited, 99 time out of a 100 the hardest places to crab are better than anywhere else, areas like this havnt been flogged out and always produce good crab and robbers couldnt be buggerd to go look when the pickings are much easier elsewhere.
If you can gain access to your pots in all tides then so can everyone else.

cheers

.

[ROBENDOG]

Pumicestone Passage just out from Whitepatch - NOV09

Was a pleasent surprise.....usually a sandcrab spot.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[rids01]

I'm starting to think that my new 'secret spot' isn't so secret, I keep pulling in a pot full of females, someone must have already cleaned the place out.

Either that or it's some kind of mud crab lesbian bar.

[smashed crabs]

Nice crab

Your muddie looks different in the shell than the muddies up here and is almost round.
We seem to catch two slightly different shelled crabs up here as well, one we call a rat who never grows very large and only averages from 1/2 to 3/4 kg and is usually always full and the other grows up to 2 1/2 kg and quite often empty.
We also have a muddie up here that is found around the foreshores and is mostly always undersize and has very spikey points on the shell and is quite orange in color.

[smashed crabs]

I'm starting to think that my new 'secret spot' isn't so secret, I keep pulling in a pot full of females, someone must have already cleaned the place out.

Either that or it's some kind of mud crab lesbian bar.

Spots that have a lot of jenny's are good to know because they draw in the bucks, if you arnt catching bucks its because he is sitting in a hole holding on to a jenny, Sooner or later he has to come up for air

[smashed crabs]

Here's a photo of some crabs from an area that is rarely ever fished,we averaged 200crabs a day for 4weeks and only fished the place once or twice a year.Crabs will build up to great numbers if they get a regular spell

[BayDog]

Damn thats a huge catch rate, I take it you're a pro?

Can anyone shed some light on moon phases Recently crabbed on a full moon with VERY poor results and was later told that crabs like dark night to get on the move. Is this true, what is the best phase of the moon to crab?

[smashed crabs]

Damn thats a huge catch rate, I take it you're a pro?

Can anyone shed some light on moon phases Recently crabbed on a full moon with VERY poor results and was later told that crabs like dark night to get on the move. Is this true, what is the best phase of the moon to crab?

Ex pro , got sick of the wankers that dont give a rats and dont know the meaning of substainable fishing practices, there are a lot of good pro's but i dont like the current rep for crabbing as he is nothing short of a criminal and a lying bastard who thinks he owns the Hinchinbrook Channel, enough said

in regards to the moon it realy dont make much of a difference to muddies, it is all about where you put your pots.
I recently crabbed the big tide in the channel and got 6 for 4 pots, on the big tides It is best to go in as far as you can get .
Big tides go in and smaller tides go out , its as simple as that.
Tides i dont like are tide with little or no movement, unless there is good rain or you have spots with good crab holes that you can place the pot at the front door.

Also if you want to avoid soft crabs or what we call B-grade crabs make your funnel entrances tight, only a A-grade crab will pull himself into a pot with tight funnels with ease, funnel entrance hight of around 5cm to 6cm is ideal, to test you pass a closed upright fist through the funnel, if your fist passes through with great ease then the entrance isnt tight enough, you need to be able to pass you fist through with some restriction.
If everyone had the same funnels you would nearly always catch A-grade crabs, some commercial fisherman dont give a shit and will catch everything just so no one else will catch them but the facts are B-grade crabs arnt worth the effort and fetch bugger all at market. Selective crabbing ensures better quality all round and who knows but maybe that B-grade crab gets the chance to knock off a Jenny before he is caught again

With everything it is purely up to the individual

cheers