Mud Crabs

[CCDrifter]

This may end up not going anywhere but I am going to ask the question anyway.
Last weekend put out the pots and worked them for the two days. I caught a total of 35 legal size mud crabs with only 2 male amongst them. You can imagine my disgust after throwing back so many female's over the course of the weekend..
Question is..... Is there a period in the year when the Female Crabs are not as active and let the blokes out to play...Or is the Nerang River that over crabbed that there are little Male crabs left....
Do Female Crabs stop breeding once they get to particular size??? And if so should QLD government not ammend hte rules to reflect this????
Is this happening in other locations in SEQ

Nathan

[Noelm]

I guess it is a timing thing, just yesterday I went crabbing (sandies/blue swimmers) and I caught mabe 40 females and 3 males, yet a month or so ago, no females at all were caught, so I guess they must come out to "play" or something, I also noticed that very early in the season when we are just starting, the female ratio is also very high, so maybe they mate early and late???

[Noelm]

OH, just another observation, both times there was/had been heavy rain, so maybe the females mate, go to buggery up the creek to lay eggs, and the fresh flushes them down for a while.

[business class]

This may end up not going anywhere but I am going to ask the question anyway.
Last weekend put out the pots and worked them for the two days. I caught a total of 35 legal size mud crabs with only 2 male amongst them. You can imagine my disgust after throwing back so many female's over the course of the weekend..
Question is..... Is there a period in the year when the Female Crabs are not as active and let the blokes out to play...Or is the Nerang River that over crabbed that there are little Male crabs left....
Do Female Crabs stop breeding once they get to particular size??? And if so should QLD government not ammend hte rules to reflect this????
Is this happening in other locations in SEQ

Nathan

Ummmmmm Yep just checked my mobile still Works;D ......... IF u have lost my number i will re send it if u like :P

Cheers
Matty

[CCDrifter]

Hard to split 2 crabs matty.............I am still waiting for a fillet of Mackeral from the other day.....................swap you for a claw

[Scott nthQld]

CC, funny you should mention the Govt openeing up a fishery on jennies as not long ago there has been a 'forum' from stakeholders, on if it were to happen, what were the restrictions.

It has by no means come up on the Govt radar, but people from all sectors seems to be of the opinion that jennies are on the rise, and the buck fishery is in decline.

Any way, have a read of the link to see s few of the outcomes of the meeting:

http://www.fishandboat.com.au/forum/showthread.php?tid=569&page=2

[business class]

Hard to split 2 crabs matty.............I am still waiting for a fillet of Mackeral from the other day.....................swap you for a claw

;D Ill be round Saturday make sure the Coronas are on ice and the pots ready LOL.;D

[castlemaine]

A national DPI would be good!

Sure there's variation in species over the continent but how can NSW have a jenny take from the southern most point of NSW to the QLD border?

Draw lines of jenny take or no-take but do it on research.

I have no idea of what is best unless a good research with competent scientists is done.

I used to work with DPI QLD agricultural scientists but alas policies now are made on votes not science. Hence the DERM ... I'm peeved off they took DPI out.

Huh! I feel better!

Cheers 8-)

[Noelm]

strangely enough, even though we (in NSW) can take females, very few do, even Blue Swimmers, you would be lucky to see more than a handfull a year in peoples catches.

[Scott Ashe]

Hi mate,

My mates and I did a mud crabbing trip to baffle creek (just south of 1770) just before christmas and we had our maximum 12 pots and must have caught 60-70 crabs in total but only 3 or 4 were legal males, so to answer your question this happens in lots of locations.

It was really disapointing though we thought we'd do much better.

Cheers

Scott

[Willo]

Yeh Nath
The Boys were saying that........ you were a bit of a Chic magnet.... LOL LOL::)
Willo

[Member101]

Hi all,

After chatting to a pro at the powerhouse boat ramp in Gladstone a few weeks ago, he mentioned that there would be a trial period to 'legalize' jennies over 18cm. starting July, 2010.

I haven't been able to find anything to back this up though. Anyone heard anything?

Cheers
Steve