Mandurah Crabs - Scooping
Submitted by Lowza on Tue, 2017-11-21 09:33
Anyone had any luck scooping this early in the season, went for a scoop Sunday morning perfect conditions covered a heap of ground and only saw 1 undersize which is a first for me!
Just wondering if anyone else had any luck scooping around mandurah.
Cheers,
Anyfishwilldo (not verified)
Posts: 23
Date Joined: 01/01/70
Not too many to be had
Not too many to be had scooping, plenty in the deeper water atm..
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
I was driving along on the
I was driving along on the weekend and noted the Jacarandas and Aussie Xmas trees are already out in full bloom. We should be in for a pre Xmas crab bonanza which will make up for last year's pitiful bounty. Hopefully everyone will still be out chasing stinky crays and the ramps should be nice and quiet
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Paul_86
Posts: 1449
Date Joined: 27/03/09
My mate lives down there and
My mate lives down there and said he got 5 size crabs the other day scooping, he wouldn’t tell me where tho haha. I did read the other day that it’s about 100 underside crabs to every size crab down there at the moment
scottland
Posts: 3031
Date Joined: 10/05/10
Pitiful last year
Pitiful last year? I smashed it last year ahga
i support two teams eagles and whoever is playing the dockers
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Yeah I know and I cursed you
Yeah I know and I cursed you everytime I went to all my spots that produce from 1.8-0.3m on about 7 trips and blanked out each and everytime with crabs all about 2mm undersized. I even checked my hull for an errant banana peel smuggled onboard haha
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Lowza
Posts: 136
Date Joined: 30/10/11
crab
just the amount of area covered to only see one undersize was a worry.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Crab numbers
I go out and wade at night dabbing for a few prawns to use as whiting bait and I have not seen many crabs of any size be it big or small. Normally at this time of the year I will see quite a few very small crabs but that has not been the case this season, in the past I have also pushed the case for opening the crab season after the new year as over the Christmas break quite a lot of the crabs are just 1 - 2 mil undersize and the crabs take a terrible beating each appearing to be caught about 3 -4 times judging by the amount of legs missing from them. If the season was opened later the crabs (most any way) would have reached "size".
I agree it is possible to get onto patches of good sized crabs but, you have to remember that quite often you will have to cover a fair bit of territory to find them and a lot of people just don't put in the amount of time and effort needed to find them, and then produce good catches over short periods of time.
If you don't do well on the first run of pots, move, don't keep flogging dead water. Put 3 pots or so over different depths of water and locations seeking out what depth location etc the crabs are holding. Crabs move looking for food the same as fish and you have to keep moving if they go quiet at one location.
Next time you watch the TV programme "deadliest catch" just think for a moment, you don't see the skippers put all their pots on the one location at first, they put exploratory runs all over the place until they find just were the crabs are located. It's the same thing.
Also remember crabs are by nature nocturnal feeders, so it's early in the morning or early dusk no 10 o 'clock or 3 o'clock starts if you want to do ok.
Hope this helps.
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Patience grasshopper.
I with you mate , we are long term crab scoopers ( as in 35 years ) that barely miss a season , and in most of our slightly better spots , I really wish they would ban it till after xmas too , but its never going to happen with the general public having there holidays over the xmas break.
If I had to pick the best time to hit the best crabs in our spots ( shallow , no nets remember)it would be late january till end of febuary.
And I self impose myself to never go to before xmas anyway , but yep seeing just unders missing bits or worse , is no fun and a waste of the resource.
For first time crabbers , I say that probally 50% of the available ground gets 90% of the attension , so dont be afraid to move around and find your own little honey hole or bank , piece of sand , even if no one else goes there.
Over the years , I have some great mornings , and have got 6 or 8 better crabs just spinning on my own axis , and never moving more than 10 feet , so work that sand and use patience , as sometimes you are just walking straight past them.
quadfisher
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17868
Date Joined: 11/03/08
been out netting the last
been out netting the last few weeks, i have seen plenty of crabs but nearly all were under size. loads of small jennys getting and some not quite size blues. be patient and they will come , hopefully anyway.
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Karak
Posts: 111
Date Joined: 22/06/13
most likely be doing whiting
most likely be doing whiting fishing down that area.
catch limit of 10 crabs to 30 limit of whiting.
Sea goat
Posts: 941
Date Joined: 26/03/17
bit off the topic, but where
bit off the topic, but where is a good place to launch in Mandurah? used to only be limited to scooping down there, but now that have the boat am keen to have a crack with some nets?
cheers!
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
If coming from Perth I like
If coming from Perth I like to launch from Furnisdale which is just off the Pinjarra Road interchange on the Forrest Hwy and you can launch from the ramp or the shoreline there. You can always finish up with a spot of bream fishing once the wind comes in.
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
bleicester
Posts: 219
Date Joined: 10/09/14
Dudley Park
There's a new ramp at the end of Waterlily Drive with heaps of parking
Error 404
Fish not found
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
That's the one. It's only
That's the one. It's only ever about 25% full and gives you good access to the estuary or the ocean
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Sea goat
Posts: 941
Date Joined: 26/03/17
Thanx! will give it a crack!
Thanx! will give it a crack!
Shane O
Posts: 926
Date Joined: 22/01/10
mary street
mary street is a good spot to launch
scottland
Posts: 3031
Date Joined: 10/05/10
Slow start
only 6 on the scoop today
i support two teams eagles and whoever is playing the dockers
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Still not bad. Gonna be there
Still not bad. Gonna be there tomoz night so gonna give it a crack
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Paul_86
Posts: 1449
Date Joined: 27/03/09
Me and a mate got 14 keepers
Me and a mate got 14 keepers down there on Saturday night scooping the shallows. It was a perfect night for it, heaps of just undersize crabs around too