Some good refrences to the WA fishery on here , this was done by SA fisherys as a risk assessment.
AS far as rec catching goes , you be a pioneer I would say , good luck dealing with fisherys , there track record recently has been less than stellar, IMO.
Interesting how on page 5 is says champagne crabs fished way back in 1997 to 1999 became not sustainable even after few short years,
and that was taking just 50t a year, the TAC is now set at around 14t a year.
I can't speak from experience regarding the Snow or Crystal crabs but I fished for Kings in SA professionally.
I also can't speak of Kings in WA waters but i know there are boats here that chase them.
You'll get them anywhere from about 120 - 400 meters.
Find the mud in about 160 and you will be a good chance of getting into them.
The tricky aspects of them are the tides out there, you can loose gear easily if you get a screaming tide. I'm sure you know from fishing wide what the tide can be like. You really need to have your gear down for a few days, a week is even better to give them time to crawl.
You'll need lots of holding bait to keep the smell for long enough for them to crawl, roo tail/hands works well, swell seems to help.
We used to string 20 lines of 5 pots. Its going back a while now but i think we had 50 fath between each pot. SA type pots but instead of stainless mesh we'd use the heavy cod end of trawl mesh as the kings are hard on the gear. We used standard red placcy necks in the pots which you'd think would be too small but we'd still get 10kg males in them. So justy a SA style cray pot with heavey trawl mesh.
It would be definately worth a crack if you knew you could get gear down one week and get back to it the next, you'll obviously need a commercial style winch, the 200ltr drums with the top cut off works well for storing a fuck load of rope which you'll need as it comes off the winch.
You will need hefty floats to ensure if you go all the way back to get your gear and the tide is screaming you can at least find them. Thats a catch 22 also though as the more float action you have the more chance you have of a screaming tide relocating your gear to antarctica.....
If you do happen to get a few ensure you have some cable ties to secure their claws so they dont fight and trash each other. Watch out for the bitches, as usual they are the fiesty ones
I can't speak from experience regarding the Snow or Crystal crabs but I fished for Kings in SA professionally.
I also can't speak of Kings in WA waters but i know there are boats here that chase them.
You'll get them anywhere from about 120 - 400 meters.
Find the mud in about 160 and you will be a good chance of getting into them.
The tricky aspects of them are the tides out there, you can loose gear easily if you get a screaming tide. I'm sure you know from fishing wide what the tide can be like. You really need to have your gear down for a few days, a week is even better to give them time to crawl.
You'll need lots of holding bait to keep the smell for long enough for them to crawl, roo tail/hands works well, swell seems to help.
We used to string 20 lines of 5 pots. Its going back a while now but i think we had 50 fath between each pot. SA type pots but instead of stainless mesh we'd use the heavy cod end of trawl mesh as the kings are hard on the gear. We used standard red placcy necks in the pots which you'd think would be too small but we'd still get 10kg males in them. So justy a SA style cray pot with heavey trawl mesh.
It would be definately worth a crack if you knew you could get gear down one week and get back to it the next, you'll obviously need a commercial style winch, the 200ltr drums with the top cut off works well for storing a fuck load of rope which you'll need as it comes off the winch.
You will need hefty floats to ensure if you go all the way back to get your gear and the tide is screaming you can at least find them. Thats a catch 22 also though as the more float action you have the more chance you have of a screaming tide relocating your gear to antarctica.....
If you do happen to get a few ensure you have some cable ties to secure their claws so they dont fight and trash each other. Watch out for the bitches, as usual they are the fiesty ones
believe it or not, they used those bloody folding amateur pots for snow crabs. But they were strung together in large numbers, can't remember, maybe 50 on one rope and heavily ballasted? They had the advantage of being able to be hinged open and stacked withut taking up too much deck space. This was north of Kalbarri up towards Carnarvon, working 200-400 metrs, IIRC? left them for at least 3 days for a pull, and I remember that the fisherman I was talking to about it saying they were fished down in an area very quickly, and you had to keep moving. Crayfishermen used to get them a bit in their pots when they were getting out towards 120 fathoms, (approx 200m) when they were chasing the whites over the edge.
As has been said above, you certainly would need a very good winch the type used by most amateurs would burn out before you got the pot to the surface.
i fished out of Esperance in 200-600m for both the champagne crabs and the Mulataga King crab( the ones up to 15kg) and used both steel crab pots and plastic cray pots with success on the Flying fish 5 (75 Westcoaster).
.thumbnail.jpg "Free diving in boardies")
hilly9
Posts: 282
Date Joined: 13/10/12
I was just reading ryans
I was just reading ryans post and thought the same. What sort of crabs are in those depths?
Sandgroper-WA
Posts: 125
Date Joined: 27/02/11
Isnt it some huge type of
Isnt it some huge type of crab? Spider Crab maybe?
little johnny
Posts: 5329
Date Joined: 04/12/11
There big
White crabs . Huge legs . Can't think of name .,
sea-kem
Posts: 14853
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Snow crabs?
Snow crabs?
Love the West!
little johnny
Posts: 5329
Date Joined: 04/12/11
Yep that's them
Got given one years ago. Taste brilliant. .alzheimers
little johnny
Posts: 5329
Date Joined: 04/12/11
Crystal crab
Unsure.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Snow crabs
Snow or crystal crabs, usually caught around 400 metres
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Light reading on mr crabby
www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/252302/ESD_Risk_Assessment_Deep_Sea_Crabs_Fishery.pdf
Some good refrences to the WA fishery on here , this was done by SA fisherys as a risk assessment.
AS far as rec catching goes , you be a pioneer I would say , good luck dealing with fisherys , there track record recently has been less than stellar, IMO.
Interesting how on page 5 is says champagne crabs fished way back in 1997 to 1999 became not sustainable even after few short years,
and that was taking just 50t a year, the TAC is now set at around 14t a year.
quadfisher
420casts
Posts: 280
Date Joined: 25/03/13
What about Champagne crabs ?
Are these caught locally and in a similar depth ?
My YouTube channel, Fishing Rigs & How To's and more:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr9kJWJYyoaOkHRDu1pxszg
@666percentfishing
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
cmon spongebob read the menu!
Yes all the wa info is in those first 5 or 6 pages.
Not sure if it states depth , but ya feet wont touch bottom out there.
A friend mentioned the other day he had 650 metres out in 450m and didnt touch, ( current).
quadfisher
Mitch88
Posts: 181
Date Joined: 23/09/14
I think it would win Photo
I think it would win Photo of the month if someone posted a bag of caught snow/crystal crab :)
timboon
Posts: 2924
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Howdy Bryce, I can't speak
Howdy Bryce,
I can't speak from experience regarding the Snow or Crystal crabs but I fished for Kings in SA professionally.
I also can't speak of Kings in WA waters but i know there are boats here that chase them.
You'll get them anywhere from about 120 - 400 meters.
Find the mud in about 160 and you will be a good chance of getting into them.
The tricky aspects of them are the tides out there, you can loose gear easily if you get a screaming tide. I'm sure you know from fishing wide what the tide can be like. You really need to have your gear down for a few days, a week is even better to give them time to crawl.
You'll need lots of holding bait to keep the smell for long enough for them to crawl, roo tail/hands works well, swell seems to help.
We used to string 20 lines of 5 pots. Its going back a while now but i think we had 50 fath between each pot. SA type pots but instead of stainless mesh we'd use the heavy cod end of trawl mesh as the kings are hard on the gear. We used standard red placcy necks in the pots which you'd think would be too small but we'd still get 10kg males in them. So justy a SA style cray pot with heavey trawl mesh.
It would be definately worth a crack if you knew you could get gear down one week and get back to it the next, you'll obviously need a commercial style winch, the 200ltr drums with the top cut off works well for storing a fuck load of rope which you'll need as it comes off the winch.
You will need hefty floats to ensure if you go all the way back to get your gear and the tide is screaming you can at least find them. Thats a catch 22 also though as the more float action you have the more chance you have of a screaming tide relocating your gear to antarctica.....
If you do happen to get a few ensure you have some cable ties to secure their claws so they dont fight and trash each other. Watch out for the bitches, as usual they are the fiesty ones
Anyway i hope that helps,
Happy hunting
Boon
timboon
Posts: 2924
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Howdy Bryce, I can't speak
Howdy Bryce,
I can't speak from experience regarding the Snow or Crystal crabs but I fished for Kings in SA professionally.
I also can't speak of Kings in WA waters but i know there are boats here that chase them.
You'll get them anywhere from about 120 - 400 meters.
Find the mud in about 160 and you will be a good chance of getting into them.
The tricky aspects of them are the tides out there, you can loose gear easily if you get a screaming tide. I'm sure you know from fishing wide what the tide can be like. You really need to have your gear down for a few days, a week is even better to give them time to crawl.
You'll need lots of holding bait to keep the smell for long enough for them to crawl, roo tail/hands works well, swell seems to help.
We used to string 20 lines of 5 pots. Its going back a while now but i think we had 50 fath between each pot. SA type pots but instead of stainless mesh we'd use the heavy cod end of trawl mesh as the kings are hard on the gear. We used standard red placcy necks in the pots which you'd think would be too small but we'd still get 10kg males in them. So justy a SA style cray pot with heavey trawl mesh.
It would be definately worth a crack if you knew you could get gear down one week and get back to it the next, you'll obviously need a commercial style winch, the 200ltr drums with the top cut off works well for storing a fuck load of rope which you'll need as it comes off the winch.
You will need hefty floats to ensure if you go all the way back to get your gear and the tide is screaming you can at least find them. Thats a catch 22 also though as the more float action you have the more chance you have of a screaming tide relocating your gear to antarctica.....
If you do happen to get a few ensure you have some cable ties to secure their claws so they dont fight and trash each other. Watch out for the bitches, as usual they are the fiesty ones
Anyway i hope that helps,
Happy hunting
Boon
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
In WA, they used plastic craypots
believe it or not, they used those bloody folding amateur pots for snow crabs. But they were strung together in large numbers, can't remember, maybe 50 on one rope and heavily ballasted? They had the advantage of being able to be hinged open and stacked withut taking up too much deck space. This was north of Kalbarri up towards Carnarvon, working 200-400 metrs, IIRC? left them for at least 3 days for a pull, and I remember that the fisherman I was talking to about it saying they were fished down in an area very quickly, and you had to keep moving. Crayfishermen used to get them a bit in their pots when they were getting out towards 120 fathoms, (approx 200m) when they were chasing the whites over the edge.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
That is soooo deep
As has been said above, you certainly would need a very good winch the type used by most amateurs would burn out before you got the pot to the surface.
Ryan C
Posts: 1575
Date Joined: 08/07/10
crabs
i fished out of Esperance in 200-600m for both the champagne crabs and the Mulataga King crab( the ones up to 15kg) and used both steel crab pots and plastic cray pots with success on the Flying fish 5 (75 Westcoaster).
Mrlickalotopus
Posts: 108
Date Joined: 27/07/16
Deep Water Crabs
Champage crabs are all I've seen and taste really good done in black pepper, just gotta watch the spikes on the legs.
Coyote_Dave
Posts: 70
Date Joined: 04/03/13
Had a bit of a google after
Had a bit of a google after reading post and found an old post from fishwrecked about commercial snow crabs off Fremantle.
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/snow-crabs
Coyote_Dave
Posts: 70
Date Joined: 04/03/13
Had a bit of a google after
Had a bit of a google after reading post and found an old post from fishwrecked about commercial snow crabs off Fremantle.
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/snow-crabs