Catching crabs
Submitted by carnarvonite on Thu, 2016-01-14 15:43
For the last few mornings I have been travelling round Mounts Bay road to Charlie Gardiner hospital and have noticed numerous boat fishing for crabs in close to shore and all in my opinion are doing it wrong.
Firstly, they are coming down wind [I know this is the easiest way to pick up the floats] and secondly, coming in with the sun behind them.
The reasons why are, coming down wind and with the sun behind you, it creates a shadow that goes over the pot and seconds later the actual boat and scares the crabs before you get to the floats resulting in any crabs on the edge of the pot to scarper.
Would be interesting if it is any of our members doing the crabbing to find out how they got on
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
I agree
After the pots are down and time is up I always "buzz" the first pot to check the lay of the line. Then approach the float away from the lay of the line. Mostly this would be from down wind or current.
Ease up to the float then neutral and once the deckie on the port side lets me know they have it I break sharp starboard. Usually keeps the pot nowhere near the boat and allows the puller to get it to the side easily.
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
crabing in nickol bay compared to down here
crabbing in nickol bay was so easy , drop your nets by the time you had your last net in it was time to pull your first net , down manduraha way I have found you have to soak your nets a lot longer , just got back from nsw I don't understand the crabbing rules over there they can only use those tangle nets to crab with, not allowed to use the double ring drop nets we use here by the time you pull the tangle nets over there every crab is dead including the undersize 1s because they leave them overnight
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Chase them
In Carnarvon, its much the same , 3 laps of your nets and you have your boat limit of 40 with two people on board but every so often you will have to chase a net that a tiger has taken a liking to and bolted off with resulting in yet another mangled net and a sewing job to patch it up
grantarctic1
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 03/03/11
Fun to watch
Always fun to watch the boats crabbing, half do ok but the rest LOL.
I always lay the line of pots into the wind and retrieve them facing the wind. Easy to keep the boat straight in and out of gear until the net is checked then move forward to the next one.
One tip, I paint the first and last float a different colour than the rest, that way you know wear to start and finish without wondering if you have missed any .
bleicester
Posts: 219
Date Joined: 10/09/14
depends on depth I guess
Shadows etc would probably be a factor in shallow water like where you saw the guys crabbing. Deeper water I'd go for whatevers easiest for the deckie. The best way to tell if the crabs care about the shadow is to attach a gopro type camera to the crab net (you see videos like these on YouTube) and see whether they scamper away when the shadow approaches.
Error 404
Fish not found
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
LOL
Love the "dude" trying to stuff his face whilst still banging the wife!!! LOL
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
Anyfishwilldo (not verified)
Posts: 23
Date Joined: 01/01/70
If it was the morning maybe
If it was the morning maybe they couldn't see their floats. There have been a couple of times I've had to pull down wind because the sun has been that bad... I crab in between 1.2m - 1.8m of water and have never had a issue with crabs scampering because of shadows.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Easterly wind
Was an easterly wind with the sun behind them
shortfuse
Posts: 211
Date Joined: 02/01/12
Never had any problem
Never had any problem myself, crabs are not the smartest critter going around even when you dive for them they frequently sit there claws pointed up waiting to be grabbed. No rocket science required catching crabs in a boat , scoop or diving