Soldier Crabs

[caine]

are Soldier crabs good live bait, i gave them a crack with no luck.

got out fished by the wife using prawns.

any tips for rigging them as the shells are very brittle and break easy.. leaving dead crab.

i was using the old remove a leg and hook through the hole method

[longtail]

Very small (pea-size) soldier crabs have a soft shell and baited 3 or 4 to a hook are a deadly bait for bream and especially thumper whiting. Worms will always catch more, but the lil soldiers will get you quality.

Used soldiers a lot in Moreton & Tin Can bays many years ago with great success.

Give em a go

[barrykrocker]

some people glue the crabs to the hooks dont they"?

[wyldchyld01]

As mentioned earlier, a bait that is hard to beat for whiting, I push the nose of the hook through the carapace underneath and to the rear of the crab catching just the shell (the hook enters from front and exits to back underneath).

Brenton

[Guest DV8]

Any crustacean or mollusc wil produce bream. Its what they do!!

Davo

[arpie]

We used to use soldier crabs all the time for bait when in Qld as kids - never really saw them much once we moved to NSW. The whole beach/estuary would be alive with them.

I may see them like twice a year down here - & then only tiny ones & you'd count them on one hand! The Qld ones used to be as big as the first digit on your thumb! Monsters. No worries putting hooks in them - they didn't notice them.

Cheerio

Roberta