crabbing in mandurah

hi guys.

gonna take the boat to mandurah on sunday and drop some nets in the inlet with the little nephews. havent relaly crabbed form a boat before, usually scoop, but they are still too short!

was gonna use some old fish carcasses as bait, and maybe some spleen/tuna heads? any suggestions?

also what depth best to stick the shallows, or aim for where it drops off like with crays?

will prob jump in and have a snorkel and scoopa s well if nets are failing!

any tips greatly approeciated!

cheers!

goat


still trying's picture

Posts: 1017

Date Joined: 27/06/17

 I haven't been this year yet

Wed, 2019-01-16 13:09

 I haven't been this year yet but am usually in 1-1.5m of water. I normally make a line of pots but then also have some pots shallower and deeper and move nets to where the crabs are. In Mandurah i would recommend chicken wings for bait they are cheap and the stingrays dont seem to go after them as much as fish baits but i always have a mix of both and some spare as the stingrays will be on your pots 

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 rather be fishing

Posts: 100

Date Joined: 05/01/18

 Agree for bait, one of the

Wed, 2019-01-16 13:39

 Agree for bait, one of the people i work with uses chicken carcas and clips them on get them from iga for next to nothing 

Posts: 8026

Date Joined: 07/05/12

Don't use fish on clips as

Wed, 2019-01-16 13:52

Don't use fish on clips as the rays and dolphins make short work of it. I use mulies in a cage and chicken necks on a clip in the same net. 3 weeks ago around the 0.8-1.2m mark was produced the most just undersize crabs by the hundreds

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Officially off the Pies bandwagon

Matty15's picture

Posts: 82

Date Joined: 19/12/11

Crabbing

Wed, 2019-01-16 13:57

 This time of year any baits work, the crabs are hungry with the warm weather. The Estuary is pretty flat 1.5 -2m and pretty much drop your pots anywhere and you will get a feed. Don’t soak your pots too long, after we’ve pulled the last pot (10) we will go back to the start of the line and pull straight away if you wait too long the crabs have already taken their lunch and moved away. A little further up the estuary towards Harvey is doing well at the moment with some bigger models.

Posts: 58

Date Joined: 16/06/15

 I was in Mandurah over the

Wed, 2019-01-16 14:03

 I was in Mandurah over the Christmas break and was fishing the middle of the inlet around 1.6 to 1.7m of water. We were using mullet as bait and would cut each fish up into 3 or 4 pieces then pop them in the red wire bait baskets the cray fishos use. Bait will last all day and gives off a nice oily slick. There was lots of little ones around but we were getting our limit in 2 hours. Good luck.

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 Live to fish

Posts: 865

Date Joined: 30/12/09

Chicken wings for bait and

Wed, 2019-01-16 21:05

Chicken wings for bait and put them underneath the net. The crabs should be pretty much everywhere now but early morning and late arvo are generally the best times.  

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 Get busy living, or get busy dying!

Posts: 936

Date Joined: 26/03/17

cheers guys! just a quick

Thu, 2019-01-17 10:46

cheers guys!

just a quick clarification, if i am brinign a mate on the boat who doesnt have a fishing licence, doe sthat mean we can only keep my bag of 10? or can we go the boat limit of 20?

cheers!

Wes F's picture

Posts: 1059

Date Joined: 07/01/12

Got a feed the other day

Thu, 2019-01-17 11:20

 Depth about 2 odd metres, bait mullet. Location north end of estuary along channel. Can only take 10 per licence max 20 per boat if two licences.

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 Old fishermen never die they just smell that way.

uncle's picture

Posts: 9322

Date Joined: 10/02/07

Still lots of tiny crabs

Thu, 2019-01-17 12:56

 Real tiny!

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs