how long to leave your pots down

[trapem]

first off, how long does it take a crab to enter a pot ???, or where do you put the pot ???, when do you put it there ???, why do you leave them 24 hours or more ???, what is the best bait ???, and how can i stop my pots being stolen ???.

Commercial fishers leave their pots in the water because they cant carry 50? on board ;D.

what is wrong with getting knowledge ::), using the pot and taking it home ???, you know where and when to catch a fish.

i enjoy crabbing and get a lot more pleasure now being able to take my pots home and a feed, it makes eating mud crabs cheap and pleasurable.

[DaveSue_Fishos_Two]

I rarely leave my pots in for 24 hrs. I usually leave them for as long as I am fishing - maybe 5 hrs. I check them every couple of hours and get good crabs. For me, I like the run in tide, shallow water, as close to the mangroves as possible. I use chicken frames for bait. One to each pot. $1.99 kg from Woolies. :)

Cheers
Dave

[vanurose]

We once left our pots in overnight and the crabs had eaten a hole in one of the pots and got ou except one. The other pot was full of crabs that had a night of torture chamber antics as they had crushed each others shells. So from then on we drop them into the muddy banks and fish closeby and then check them every hour. Each time we check we remove the crabs and refasten the bait pouches as their claws surely rip open all inside. It seems the less time we leave the pots in the more crabs we catch. We usually catch too many and our neighbours love us as they get most of our catch, normally about 10 to 14 crabs in a few hours. In Cairns we have lots of mangrove lined creeks and when it rains is the best as the crabs come out of their mud holes.

[lil_boatie]

Its sad that you carnt trust to leave your pots down :'( , that if you want to get a crab you have to fish next to it. But anyway i put a mullet in it then put it in and fish were i can see it. rember to put your name, and contact details on the pot and rope or fisheries take them, one weekend i herd thay took about 3000 pots.

cheers

Lil boatie

[Flounder]

Geez, I never knew that!! Do fisheries really take them?

[robersl]

yep fisheries do take them if no one is around they will pull up the pot and check that you have your name tag on the pot and take them if not , i do not know what happens if you contact them about getting them back if you egt them or are fined ?


sand crabs i use witches hats leave down for 30 minutes mud crabs i use pots with whiting frames as bait they love them
shane

[_Matt_]

Yeah I agree, leave the pot out while ur fishin, 24 hours too long. Crabs do get out if in there to long. Probably check them every 1.5 hrs. Crabs will eat anything with a good scent on it.

[bigmack]

If you are crabbing with dillies for sandies - this is how it goes for us. We start the the drop and work our way along the chosen area until all dillies are in and basically in a line. With two people in the boat and maximum dillies allowed and fifty yards between each dilly............by the time you have finished dropping in the last one - start heading back to the first one at cruising pace.

Start picking up number 1 in the line and continue - if the sandies are on - they will be in the dilly. It takes them about ten minutes to find fresh bait! leave them in any longer and they get tangled in a terrible mess or big crabs shred the net or other horrible people steal you dillies. From memory our best effort last season was about 60 sandies in an hour or two in Bribie passage. Friends neighbours etc all love fresh crab!

If no crabs in your dillies - move them because they aint there. As an example, we started north of the bridge at Bribie and mucked around for an hour - no crabs. Moved to the Southern side of the Bribie Bridge towards the bay, along the edge of the main channel and it was crab mayhem........that was the 60 in a session day. Early morning run in tide is the one we like.

Hope that helps - Happy Crabbing

[tinnieboy]

I went crabbing in the Fiztroy River @ Rocky about a month ago down @ Thompsons point, talk about having to be bloody quick :o We had 2 pots taxed in less than 20 mins, we set them and got just out of sight around the bend of the river to cast for some mullet upon our return they had goooone!
That wasn't the end either we had another 6 pots set then and had to pretty well stake them out intercepting 4 boats having a look and not a fisho amongst them. Ended up with 1 keeper for the day :(

[barraboy2]

I like to leave my pots in for a few days and check them every six hours but have given up on that too many two legged crabs >:(