Brisbane Water Crabbing

[whiskey299]

Session 1
Crabbing season officially started for me on the weekend and thankfully no donut. 
Only complaint I have is the weather man get the rain forecast wrong. Was expecting 1-5mm not 20mm!

Luckily the crabs and fishing kept me busy. Caught probably close to 18 blue swimmer crabs and kept the 
smaller models in my livewell to swap out for upgrades. 

Session 2
So I’ve been wanting to tag a flathead for a while now and today was my chance.
As I was heading out to the blue swimmer crabbing grounds I saw a big school of bait so I threw a soft plastic on the ultra light setup to see if any jewfish were around. Instead a solid flathead slams the plastic on the drop. After a quick measure 71cm, I tag the flathead and unfortunately did a poor job of it. It was positioned like an antenna lol. Baitfish will see it coming from a mile away.

I found out later that palegic tags should not be used for flathead as there are special ones for these species and also DPI NSW are only interested in flathead tagged in Rec Fishing havens. So I guess this will be my first and only flathead tag! I will still submit my green tagging card incase it ever gets caught again which is very likely due to the slot limit NSW has.

Crabbing a was a bit slow to start off with but soon picked up as the current started to flow. It didn’t take long to bag out on crabs just in time as the wind had started to pickup, so I decided to pack up and head home early. Lucky I did, by the time I had reached the boat ramp the wind was howling pretty bad with white caps everywhere.

All crabs are line caught as crab traps are not permitted in Brisbane water.

Water temp 23C

Crab and squid pasta sprinkled with chilli flakes for lunch, a bit of work to extract the meat but you can get pretty efficient at doing this with practice.

[noelm]

Well done….it is indeed crab season, line fishing for them is quite simple and gets good results.

[jenno64]

That is a sensational catch, what is your set up for catching the crabs?

[Basil D]

wow, thats a spectacular catch

[bessell1955]

That looks to be a great day crabbing. 

[whiskey299]

22 hours ago, noelm said:

Well done….it is indeed crab season, line fishing for them is quite simple and gets good results.

Thanks

 

18 hours ago, jenno64 said:

That is a sensational catch, what is your set up for catching the crabs?

I use a simple handline rig with a fruit mesh bag to help prevent pickers.

 

17 hours ago, Basil D said:

wow, thats a spectacular catch

 

15 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

That looks to be a great day crabbing. 

Thanks it's great fun catching them

[Pickles]

AWESOME result in crabs @whiskey299 and a solid flattie, well done. Never ceases to amaze me how inaccurate the weather reports are given all the technology we have.😵‍💫

[bookwa]

Great catch and an excellent video!  I accidentally caught the biggest mud crab ever in Brisbane water, pulled up my anchor and he was caught in a tangle of fishing line and somehow it had jagged on my anchor.  Probably had been like that for weeks, if not months.  I lifted him on board, put him on an Eski lid and untangled him. I fed him on shredded mullet flesh for about an hour and he was ravenous!  I released him after an hour or so and away he swam.  I have a photo somewhere of that crab with a beer can I placed in his claw for comparison and he could close the claw completely without even denting  the can.   

[whiskey299]

16 hours ago, bookwa said:

Great catch and an excellent video!  I accidentally caught the biggest mud crab ever in Brisbane water, pulled up my anchor and he was caught in a tangle of fishing line and somehow it had jagged on my anchor.  Probably had been like that for weeks, if not months.  I lifted him on board, put him on an Eski lid and untangled him. I fed him on shredded mullet flesh for about an hour and he was ravenous!  I released him after an hour or so and away he swam.  I have a photo somewhere of that crab with a beer can I placed in his claw for comparison and he could close the claw completely without even denting  the can.   

What a crazy story and more amazing is that you fed the crab and released it!

I've caught about 3 muddies while targeting blue swimmers and still trying to figure out where they hang out.

You can always tell the difference between a blue swimmer and mud crab when using handline, the weight on them is very heavy.

[noelm]

26 minutes ago, whiskey299 said:

What a crazy story and more amazing is that you fed the crab and released it!

I've caught about 3 muddies while targeting blue swimmers and still trying to figure out where they hang out.

You can always tell the difference between a blue swimmer and mud crab when using handline, the weight on them is very heavy.

You will get muddies just out in the open, but to target them, you need to trap right in close to Mangrove trees, or in small side creeks, but they can be anywhere, I have seen one on the surface out near the shelf…..why/how? Beats me.

[bookwa]

After heavy rain and flooding trawlers out of yamba often get muddies in their nets.

[bookwa]

I now remember I do have a photo of that crab at our holiday home in yamba and I’m hoping to be up there before Christmas so will post it.  Pre digital of course!

[sashkello]

Wow, what a haul! Nice videos as well mate, subscribed!

Can you please clarify the process you use when employing this rig? Do you rest the bait on the bottom or suspend it? It looks like the hook is there not to hook the crab, but to only hold up the bait and then you simply get it with a net when it's close by - is this the correct interpretation? That's why you're doing it gently I guess... Sorry, this is probably a very dumb question, crab can't really get hooked up like a fish I reckon... 

[whiskey299]

7 hours ago, sashkello said:

Wow, what a haul! Nice videos as well mate, subscribed!

Can you please clarify the process you use when employing this rig? Do you rest the bait on the bottom or suspend it? It looks like the hook is there not to hook the crab, but to only hold up the bait and then you simply get it with a net when it's close by - is this the correct interpretation? That's why you're doing it gently I guess... Sorry, this is probably a very dumb question, crab can't really get hooked up like a fish I reckon... 

The bait sits on the bottom and the hook is only there to hold the bait. The crab will hold onto the bait and eat while you slowly and gently pull it in and then net it swiftly. Often they will let go especially when they have the bait and haven't bitten through the mesh.

[ireallylovefishies22]

On 11/22/2024 at 11:08 AM, noelm said:

You will get muddies just out in the open, but to target them, you need to trap right in close to Mangrove trees, or in small side creeks, but they can be anywhere, I have seen one on the surface out near the shelf…..why/how? Beats me.

I've heard female muddies swim out offshore to release their eggs. Strange as to why it was on the surface though 

[jenno64]

Great vid and method you use, I must try it!

[savit]

On 11/22/2024 at 10:20 PM, whiskey299 said:

The bait sits on the bottom and the hook is only there to hold the bait. The crab will hold onto the bait and eat while you slowly and gently pull it in and then net it swiftly. Often they will let go especially when they have the bait and haven't bitten through the mesh.

It is fun from the kayak, but on the beach I cant outrun them to the water 😆.

[kantong]

fantastic catches. That looks a fun way to catch these critters

[leonardgid]

thank  you for sharing , i was just wandering  if you get any octopus  on that  rig also ?  i know that there a few of them around in brisbane waters

[Larkin]

What a haul! That technique of yours certainly doing damage. Good size to those crabs too

well done mate!

[whiskey299]

On 11/25/2024 at 12:20 PM, savit said:

It is fun from the kayak, but on the beach I cant outrun them to the water 😆.

It's fun for sure and they can definitely get some speed when swimming

 

On 11/26/2024 at 1:02 AM, leonardgid said:

thank  you for sharing , i was just wandering  if you get any octopus  on that  rig also ?  i know that there a few of them around in brisbane waters

Yea I've had a few octopus latch on but it's very difficult to net when it's near the yak as they let go.

 

On 11/26/2024 at 7:04 PM, Larkin said:

What a haul! That technique of yours certainly doing damage. Good size to those crabs too

well done mate!

Thanks there's heaps around, the other weekend I caught around 34 exploring a new spot.

[kymbo56]

Mate, brilliant post and great follow up discussions.

and thanks for all the great info, most of my bluey catches are by-catch, now I might target them more intently, cheers