Plenty of sandies about

[Moonlighter]

;D
Dropped the Surtees in at Cleveland late Saturday afternoon. Headed over to Peel and dropped our pots in. The pros had their pots up in 2-3 meters so that's the depth we targeted too. ::)

Dropped Anchor on the reef to fish the dusk session, but it was quiet, only a few undersized squire boated. With lightning showing to the north and west, a quick glance at the mobile phone showed a solid line of rain heading steadily SE, so we pulled the pots after a hour and half soak once for 6 nice crabs.

6am Sunday back on the water and over to check our pots after the over-night soak.

The first one came up heavy, you beauty, we thought! Yes, a couple of crabs in there but also a shark, possibly some kind of gummy, in the with them. All up we got 10 nice keepers, threw back probably triple that number. So left the pots in while we went searching for squid.

For those who were wondering, the bar this morning looked pretty iffy. And the washing machine area on the run in was pretty damn sloppy.

Well, the squid didn't play, so the call was made to collect pots and head home.

So after the final hour and a half soak this morning, we picked up another 12 crabs, mostly real nice quality ones. Shows that the morning session on a rising tide can often be the best time to chase these little suckers!

A total of 28 nice sand crabs. Fed 3 families very nicely for Sunday Easter lunch, thank you very much! Plus quite a few left over in the fridge for tomorrow. Mmmmmmmmm!

Did I say that there isn't anything much nicer than sand crab so fresh that it was swimming only 4 hours before you eat it?

Well, there isn't!

Bait was whole poddies. Pots are getting a bit daggy, they must be near 10 years old, and are the Orange coloured 4 for $60 specials from Tackleworld bought all that time ago. So you don't have to pay big bucks for pots to catch plenty of crabs.

Might have to get some new ones after this year's season ends.

[rosco1974]

sure are plenty of crabs but just as any share farmers,i have been workin 8 pots for a few days getting between 14-20 crabs a day,most days 4-6 pots checked sometime in the 24 hr soak...had 2 pots out the 8 not done this morning for 15 keepers,pulled the pots out..would of loved to see the tally for the day if the 6 pots where not raided..we got ours in 5 mtrs of water over mud way..good big crabs

[marto78]

;D

Did I say that there isn't anything much nicer than sand crab so fresh that it was swimming only 4 hours before you eat it?

Well, there isn't!


We caught one that was cuddling up to a jenny on friday out the front of the jube in about a foot of water. The nippers were great but the rest of the crab tasted like utter crap, I ended up binning most of it.

All the prawns we caught and the crab purged themselves of this black gritty silt stuff in the bucket before being cooked.

[Daryl McPhee]

Top and tasty catch Grant. Well done.

[BeastMaster]

Happy Easter Moonlighter
Mate !!!!!! , I must have missed your call to come down for a crab sandwich !
Nice feed, well done .
I might head over to Moreton on Monday morning in search of a few school mackerel.
Regards
Beast

[Moonlighter]

There was no answer when I called Beast! Your phone must be on the blink!??

Happy Easter to you and your crew too.

It should be a good morning tomorrow.

We saw no bird action near Peel nor up the Rainbow today. Zip. No one trolling for them either. Though I hear the spanos are still going off on the coffee rocks on slow trolled levies or chin weighted gar.

Ready for for a kip now. Belly full of toasted crab sandwiches, plus Brendan did up some deal where you wrap a slice of bacon around a mixture of crab and pinko crumbs, lightly seasoned then cooked in the frypan. Yummo!

[Seahorse]

Stop it, ur killing me here. Lol

[Short Fuse]

A few crabs up this way as well Grant. I put 4 pots out of Scarborough on Saturday evening and pulled them on Sunday morning for 8 sandies. I dropped the pots back in on low tide Sunday afternoon in the mouth of one of the creeks that I told you about. Got 4 nice muddies in the first flush of the tide, but it went quiet after that so I pulled the pots in and headed home. About to drag them out of the ice and clean them up ready for cooking.

And, as I said in the text last night, the catties were going off. At times it was difficult to keep both rods baited up and in the water. I know most will scoff, but, crimp the barbs on a wide gape hook to make removal easy, and toss out a bit of mullet fillet on 2kg line and they are a fun way to fill in time between checking the pots.

cheers

Jeff

[castlemaine]

Obi-wan
Fished the noosa river, over Easter, only to yield hundreds of cat fish, bull shark and one whiting who lost his way and found himself on my wife's hook, went 37cm. She was impressed. No muddies. River was like chocolate.
Friend camped at Teewah and caught several flatties in one gutter, smallest 42cm largest 67cm all on Zman Baby Bass, all were CPR.
Still having troubles with my boat, taking it to a different mechanic this time.
Hope you left some crabs out there for me.
Cheers, Padawan

[Moonlighter]

Obi-wan
Fished the noosa river, over Easter, only to yield hundreds of cat fish, bull shark and one whiting who lost his way and found himself on my wife's hook, went 37cm. She was impressed. No muddies. River was like chocolate.
Friend camped at Teewah and caught several flatties in one gutter, smallest 42cm largest 67cm all on Zman Baby Bass, all were CPR.
Still having troubles with my boat, taking it to a different mechanic this time.
Hope you left some crabs out there for me.
Cheers, Padawan

Grasshopper, keep at it, you will soon be getting amongst them! Patience!

[Scalem]

sure are plenty of crabs but just as any share farmers,i have been workin 8 pots for a few days getting between 14-20 crabs a day,most days 4-6 pots checked sometime in the 24 hr soak...had 2 pots out the 8 not done this morning for 15 keepers,pulled the pots out..would of loved to see the tally for the day if the 6 pots where not raided..we got ours in 5 mtrs of water over mud way..good big crabs

Hey Rosco, the share farmers must know its you, the number of crabs you take home I think they should do the honourable thing and leave at least a six pack in there instead, so they make sure you have something to wash them down with::);D What does everyone do when they empty the pot of crabs, I would love to know how to stop them from having a blue, they drop claws if I throw them in a bucket with or without water, same with the esky where they take a few minutes to calm down in the ice. ( mostly use frozen cordial bottles I pull out of the freezer) I don't use party ice as it adds expense, and the other reason I don't is because fresh water might leach out the flavour if not enough salt water is thrown in with them.

Scalem

[Moonlighter]

I empty the pots into a nally bin or 20L bucket and then sort and check sizes between lifting the next pots.

The good ones go straight into an esky with crushed ice salt water slurry. Very rarely get many that drop claws.

[robsue]

Scalem

I have an esky with frozen bottles, same as you
when I leave boat ramp I put sea water in the esky and usually by the time I get to crabpots, water is getting cold, as soon as crabs hit water they calm down, leave them in the water at home till ready to cook, and don't lose claws this way

after cooking straight back into icy water for cooling process