Cray season
Submitted by wadetolley on Sat, 2008-09-13 21:45
HI there!
JUst a few questions..going to try and catch a few crays this year around hillarys...going to use pots. What date does this years season open? Has anyone caught many offshore out of hillarys? At the start of the season do they start in close? Whats the go with people talking about reds and whites? What bait do people use (hopefully wrasse)? Sorry about all the qusetions...any help would be great..thanks
STAAL LOVER
Posts: 406
Date Joined: 13/05/08
Crayfish
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/FishingRockLobsters/index.php
The best bait being CAT !!!!! But allas your not allowed anymore!!!!
ALWAYS TIME FOR FISHIN'
boofhead
Posts: 533
Date Joined: 13/03/08
hahahaha
hahahahahahahhahahahaha
cheers Jes
When you go fishing and you catch something, that's good. If you're making love and you catch something, that's bad.
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
Crays
The "whites" are early season crays...normally tough to get with pots at the very beginning because they've just moulted (or ar still in the process of moulting) so their shells are soft and they're not too keen on wandering away from their hidey-holes looking for a feed. If you get them diving they are soft and squishy. VERY generally, they harden up around the first week of Dec and that's when the pot catches start taking off.
Most years, the whites run is accessible to small boaters for most of December, right up to Christmas, before they head right out to the edge of the shelf. If potting for them, you're better off setting up along sand/weed edges just off hard reef, as opposed to potting on the reef itself (which is what you do for "reds" fishing). When fishing the edges, even the pros, with all their expensive equipment, still like to wear the polarised sunnies and use their eyes to set the gear, if the water is shallow enough. I used to work on the boats and we would generally load all the gear on first thing in the morning, even if it was catching, so that we could set them later with the sun higher and the edges more visible.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Cat is allowed, but it has
Cat is allowed, but it has to be skin off now IIRC?
STAAL LOVER
Posts: 406
Date Joined: 13/05/08
MEEOOWW
Back when I was a kid thats how we made our money!!!!
50c a rabbit but $2 per cat!!! The cray fishermen at Horricks use to get quite excited when we had cat!!!! They said it out fished any other bait by far and the crays would fight over getting in the pot(bigger ones winning of course)!!!!!!!
Skinning it would defeat the purpose as it's the fur that the crays love!!!!
The most common now would be blue mackeral or salmon heads
ALWAYS TIME FOR FISHIN'
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Yeah, bristles is why they
Yeah, bristles is why they banned em.
STAAL LOVER
Posts: 406
Date Joined: 13/05/08
Live export
To japan ! Because they eat EVERYTHING in the crays they were getting fur balls in the head!!!!!
Don't eat the crap I say!!!!!!!!!!!
ALWAYS TIME FOR FISHIN'
alfred
Posts: 3097
Date Joined: 12/01/07
You will be able to get a
You will be able to get a free supply of bait at the North Mole at Hillaries. Is it legal to use hooks to catch cats?
18 Outrage, Johnson 140hp 4stroke and 190 Outrage, 150 Mercury Verado
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
I HATE CATS
Im alergic to cats....i would have to get the mrs to bait the pots !
IF YOU EVER NEED A LIMOUSINE...CALL LAKES LIMOUSINES BALLAJURA
MOBILE O416 341 256
PH 92496113
EMAIL lakes@iinet.net.au
WEDDINGS, AIRPORT TRANSFERS, LIFT HOME FROM THE PUB...GIVE US A CALL !
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
Anethitise them first
or they will scratch the hell out of you, paticulary those sneaky Siamese bastards. A good anasthetic is a pick handle.
Big Kev
Posts: 441
Date Joined: 10/06/06
Cat Fixer
A little piece of lead works a treat.
Kev
FISHING IS MY ADDICTION
Daisy
Posts: 789
Date Joined: 24/01/08
I've heard that if you put
I've heard that if you put them in the freezer for a while they go to sleep, or is that the Crays, hang on I'll get back to yas on that one.
Here Kitty kitty hehe
-----------------------------------------------------------
Happiness is fishy fingers with a stiff rod in my hand
The view expressed in this post is that of a self opinionated bullshitter and does not reflect that of this website, it's owners, mediators, other members or anyone else for that matter :-P
STAAL LOVER
Posts: 406
Date Joined: 13/05/08
Put them in the freezer
so they are easier to cut up with the band saw into the right sized baits!!!!
Trying to cut them up fresh is messy and smelly!!
As for the method of kill !! Cross bow or "z" bullets in populated areas!!!!!
ALWAYS TIME FOR FISHIN'
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
thanks
Thanks for the tips, but i am worried if i start carrying dead cats around, people will start calling me BAD BOY BUBBY!
IF YOU EVER NEED A LIMOUSINE...CALL LAKES LIMOUSINES BALLAJURA
MOBILE 0416341256 OR PH 92496113
EMAIL lakes@iinet.net.au
WEDDINGS, AIRPORT TRANSFERS...ANYTHING!
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
This is an interesting topic
This is an interesting topic this time of year.
Last year we started with the pots early Dec off Mandurah.
Started really slow, with i think only 1 to start with.
After xmas was getting better, we only stayed on the 1 reef system all season, and were managing to get 2-4 per couple of days from 4 pots (Not big numbers but was the first year for us).
Eventually we ended up with enough to keep us happy and a feed for the family. We went through a fair part of the season with the pots in, until around March they were pulled out.
End of march we headed to Hamelin bay for 2 weeks holiday, and took the pots with us.
Talking about the reds and potting on the reefs, thats exactly what we did, with great success getting close to 3 dozen crays and 4 or 5 jumbos in the mix, with the rest all being big crays.
But at a costm, with 6 pots in the water we only came home with 1 :( lost 2 plastics, and 3 woodens with the one we managed to retrieve being heavily damaged.
The pots were left in during a front that came through, and when that came through the swell picked up to over 4 metres.
Potting on 10 metre reefs didnt stand a chance. Didnt have the dive gear either and just out of my free dive range.
Cheers
DAVO 1
Posts: 111
Date Joined: 02/07/07
Crays
Early bird catches the worm.Pulling the pots just before sunrise will increase your catch.Season normally opens around middle of november
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
early bird
Pull them early to beat the poachers davo??
IF YOU EVER NEED A LIMOUSINE...CALL LAKES LIMOUSINES BALLAJURA
MOBILE 0416341256 OR PH 92496113
EMAIL lakes@iinet.net.au
WEDDINGS, AIRPORT TRANSFERS...ANYTHING!
DAVO 1
Posts: 111
Date Joined: 02/07/07
Only had problems with
Only had problems with poachers a couple of times in the last few years in the metro.Mark your pots on your gps and you will find out if they have been pulled and just move them away from that area.I have noticed that if we pull the pots before the sunlight hits the water we get more crays.I saw some underwater video footage of a pot full of crays once and they can escape once in the pot.
harro
Posts: 1959
Date Joined: 07/02/08
agree
yes guys watch ur times, the fines are heavy.. i had a cple mates do pots in perth and most of the time they were pulled by others before they could get to them.. i,ve done pots down here,, not bad but get alot more diving.a good hint is to find a good spot, mark it gps, drop ur pot and dive down and hid the float under the reef,,
has worked for me in the past.. if u can be bothered..
but once i dived in the morning and saw loads of crays on the outside of the pot.. musta been around 30 or so crammed around it, with only a cple inside..
:::: Bass Hunter ::::
DAVO 1
Posts: 111
Date Joined: 02/07/07
First few months are the
First few months are the best in close.I found the pots alot of work for little return in the last few months of the season and dont bother any more.Most of the pro pots are out very deep by that stage.Staal lovers link gives alot of info and is updated just before the season starts.Crays for chrissy day always hit the spot