Mud Crabs this year

[kc]

Is it just here or is this the crab season from heaven?? I have been hearing about massive amounts of muddies around since Feb and finally got my sh!t together and put out some pots overnight 1k from Abel point marina.

First pot 11 big bucks and one jenny. Kept best 10, then let go 17 legal bucks from next 3 pots (& only 2 jenny's and 1 undersized buck) What the?? Talked to a mate who has not even been putting out pots. Just walks the banks at Sinclair bay and gets 10 honkers in 15 minutes, any time the tides are right...and it's been going on for months. Lots of old locals saying they have never seen crabs like it. Is it all along the NQ coast or just a Whitsunday thing?

Noticed the wholesale price has dropped from $25 to $11 in Sydney so must be sh!tloads in the markets.

KC

[chief]

Yeh mate notice a pro in the brissie river has been consistently working the from the boat passage to well upstream for the last month or so. Seems to be doing alright as well.

[BAR UP]

I wonder what the next few seasons will be like, Peter.

[sandbankmagnet]

Had a better than average year in the pumicestone passage. Not my best, but pretty good. Haven't been in there since Easter though. Good to hear they're still around.

[bugman]

KC,

I can say that it aint the same down here on the Tweed River. I'm a fair way upstream I've got to admit but it's been shocking around our place. I think it's just the amount of fresh up about these reaches with all the rain. I think the boys downstream near the mouth are doing it better.
It's that fresh off our pontoon - eels (freshwater) are now probably outnumbering the bream.

Brett

[kc]

It's been amazing here (Whitsunday's) & barra as well (which seem to mean the 2009 spawning recruitment for both male crabs and barra were "off the charts"). If the October barra (which should be 60+)are anything like the March/April barra (at 50 to 55cm) it will rival the best barra fishing anywhere in Australia. All it seemed to take was a couple of good wets and a local (but major) reduction in commercial inshore netting (market forces not regulation).

These fish (& crabs) have nothing to do with the realease of big fish from prossy dam...however this can only be a good thing during the next spawning season in any case.

It is however, unprecedented in my 30 years here. Never had crabs in both such numbers and in such "gender imbalance" and barra in numbers beyond belief. i.e. 100+ in 2 hours within 1 k of the main marina in Airlie Beach.

If this is globval warming....bring it on =)

[bermo82]

I agree sandbank magnet. North of the Brissie River I haven't done all that well this year as in past years but I have heard of some good catches around logan/pimpama and in the jumpin pin areas. I could def handle walking the banks and find a cheeky feed as your mate did KC. got to love NQ.

Cheers

Bermo