posting this for a fellow member.
regards,
keechie
posting this for a fellow member.
regards,
keechie
Thanks Keechie - I appreciate your posts on the forum as well
Robert
i preffer the round pots for muddies but dillies for the sandies .
we use rectangular orange ones and seem to catch a few crab in them
Regards
Dylan
Agree with Nico - Round pots for muddies and dillies for sandies (all these crab posts are making me hungry)
Any pot for muddies. Its not the pot that makes the difference, its the quality of the bait, where you place and the tide you work.
I think a lot of people will say that their pots are robbed, but i think you will attribute most to the fact that the funnels are not tight or the mesh pots are not closed properly. The crabs can get out just as easy as they got in.
I used the CrabnGear pop-up pots.
They catch crabs well enough if there are crabs to be caught and they are very convenient to use and store in the boat.
Prior to using these, I just used to use those $7.50 collapsible rectangular pots that you can buy at various places. They would catch crabs but are not environmentally friendly.
The problem with using those pots is that the openings are very wide so that not only will you catch crabs but anything else that wants to swim in there. I have caught several shovel-noses in them and two wobbiegongs once - which makes them very heavy to lift but also sometimes the by-catch drowns in the pots. I understand that turtles often drown in these types of pots.
Even with the smaller, tighter openings on the pop-up-pots, I still get lots of very unwanted by-catch in some places - eg sometimes hundreds of starfish if they are placed too close to the Sandhills but I don't get the bigger fish in them.
I agree with what other people have said on Ausfish that those cheap wide-mouth pots should be banned.
Last edited by charleville; 23-02-2008 at 01:20 PM.
[quote=TheRealAndy;770506]Any pot for muddies. Its not the pot that makes the difference, its the quality of the bait, where you place and the tide you work.
hi andy, what tide & bait is the best? does the bait depend on time of year or area, or can you use the same bait all year round? thanks bill...
[quote=BILLSMITH;771163]Use mullet, the freshest you can find. If you can get live mullet (cast net) then use that. Once the crab is in the pot, he is not going to leave if he can eat the fish. If its crap fish they are more likely to try and find a way out. Dont forget to keep those funnels real tight, and dont let them sag. Also, as others have suggested if you have real big funnels, then you are going to get a lot of by catch. I usually dont get much more than the odd cod and the occasional bream.Originally Posted by TheRealAndy
The time of year makes a big difference. Winter is not real flash for crabbing as they are normally holed up to shed the old shell. If you do catch them they are usually empty as they have not grown into the new shell.
As for tides, I always seem to get better yeilds when there is big flow, ie when the difference between high and low is quite big. Leave your pots in on the turn of the high tide.
Once thing people tend to overlook is the maintenance of the pot. Always make sure your funnels are tight, and retie them if they are sagging. Also make sure that the opening that you use to retreive the crab is also closed tightly. If using mesh pots wrap the drawstring around the frame once to pull it tight.
When setting the pots, make sure the funnel faces the direction of the bank, or where the most likely chance of the crab hole will be. In qld with with 4 funnel pots this is not so critical.
thanks TheRealAndy,
I had never thought of some of those things including faceing the funnel towards
the bank,
cheers,
jamie
Ahhhhh, To be young and Free
Always used round pots for muddies with fresh whole mullet.
I use the round orange ones and have done quite well, but I know roo meat outfishes fish skeletons where ever I have gone. More to do with roo meat being able to hold blood for good lengths of time where by other meats tend to go pale with a loss of blood after a short time. Definitely worth cutting off some roo legs next time you see a road kill. :-)
Propunter
Round orange ones in my boat, had a couple of blue rectangles but didn't seem to be as effective, no science in it just my thought.
Trevor
hard to go past the old roo tails for muddies
I like the dark rectangular nets for muddies.
Nice and cheap so if you lose some to tides or thieves then it doesn't hurt as much as losing $50.oo round pots.
I also modify them a bit in an effort to try and keep the crabs in the net (once they get in).
Fished in creeks with the openings positioned as per tidal flow they are hard to beat.
Shane
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