Crab dawn raid

[Guest Guest123456789]

Headed out this morning with a short window of opportunity. Up at 4:50am  at the spot and lines in water before first light. Before long the hand reel starts spooling, first crab let got before the surface ? 

fished from first light to 7am and managed three ?  a monster let go at the boat.

back home and, cleaned the boat and had the boy at the pool for swimming lessons 8:30am.  Thanks for reading 

[big Neil]

Traditional hunter-gathering at its best Luke. Would make them taste even sweeter. bn

[rickmarlin62]

Nniiiicce

[fat_souvlaki]

Good size blue swimmers mate!

Do you find they just hang onto the bait or do they get tangled in the line?

I want to try and start doing this type of fishing on my next trip.

Cheers ,

John

[Guest Guest123456789]

6 hours ago, fat_souvlaki said:

Good size blue swimmers mate!

Do you find they just hang onto the bait or do they get tangled in the line?

I want to try and start doing this type of fishing on my next trip.

Cheers ,

John

They hang onto the bait. The use of traps or snares are prohibited in Brisbane Waters. 

[MSB]

Hi Luke

Interested to read your post, I also catch my blue swimmers on lines, brickies string lines actually, gave away my crab pots as to many share farmers up here in South East Qld, would be interested to know your setup. Thought you may be interested to know my method.

I thread a N0 4 ball sinker on the line, tie a 4/0 hook on to the terminal end of the string line, bait up with a strip of mullet about 10cm's long by 3cm's wide, drop the baited hook and sinker into a small mesh bag, say an onion bag, tie off the top of the bag so the bait does not come out and throw it in the water. Crabs generally get there main claws caught up in the mesh bag whilst feeding. I net them with an enviro net and drop them straight into an ice slurry in a large esky, puts them to sleep quickly and they cook up superb.

I live 30 minutes from the Pumicestone Passage which runs between the mainland and Bribie Island and always crab the rising tide, regularly pull 10 a session working first 2 hours of the run in. Prefer this method to using crab pots and no problems with share farmers.

Bonus is my Grandson just loves to crab this way and we have a lot of fun using this method.

Thanks for your interesting post.

MSB  

[sam bros]

Nice work mate, they are some good looking blue swimmers

[Guest Guest123456789]

3 hours ago, MSB said:

Hi Luke

Interested to read your post, I also catch my blue swimmers on lines, brickies string lines actually, gave away my crab pots as to many share farmers up here in South East Qld, would be interested to know your setup. Thought you may be interested to know my method.

I thread a N0 4 ball sinker on the line, tie a 4/0 hook on to the terminal end of the string line, bait up with a strip of mullet about 10cm's long by 3cm's wide, drop the baited hook and sinker into a small mesh bag, say an onion bag, tie off the top of the bag so the bait does not come out and throw it in the water. Crabs generally get there main claws caught up in the mesh bag whilst feeding. I net them with an enviro net and drop them straight into an ice slurry in a large esky, puts them to sleep quickly and they cook up superb.

I live 30 minutes from the Pumicestone Passage which runs between the mainland and Bribie Island and always crab the rising tide, regularly pull 10 a session working first 2 hours of the run in. Prefer this method to using crab pots and no problems with share farmers.

Bonus is my Grandson just loves to crab this way and we have a lot of fun using this method.

Thanks for your interesting post.

MSB  

Same as you but without the bag as traps and snares are illegal in the estuary I fish in. You lose some that let go but most you get in which I guess is the point of the rule - sustainable fishing and catching only enough for your immediate needs. Good on you for ditching the traps, frankly they should be banned Australia wide as you don’t need them, they invariably get lost and damage the fishery.

[tyrone07]

Can’t beat that mate, blue swimmer in my opinion is better eating then Lobster

[Blackfish]

39 minutes ago, tyrone07 said:

Can’t beat that mate, blue swimmer in my opinion is better eating then Lobster

Me to. 

both nice but ..............

[tyrone07]

1 hour ago, Blackfish said:

Me to. 

both nice but ..............

Yeah definately wouldn’t say no to either

[Guest Guest123456789]

My son and I caught 5 this arvo. All males and good size