jenny crabs

[goddy84]

i went crabbing for the 1st time in the pine the other day and all we got were Jenny's ''big Jenny's''
so i had a idea to mark a few with a paint pen ''a few little x '' and the next day we had got the same crabs agen ..
do they get smart and go for a free feed in the pots ..

and should they let a certain time of year say 1 or 2 days where Jenny's can be kept but say only 5 per boat per day at 17cm or some thing just to even a few things up ...

what do you guys think ......

cheers mick

[fishing4life]

hey mate,

yeh i have just moved to the pine and been doing a little bit of crabbing over the last two weeks and only got one buck. It depends how you look at it, if we keep taking all the males then we are going to bring up a lot of jennies in the pots. But if we started taking the jennies then there might not be anything coming up in the pots! i caught a jenny yesterday and it was full of eggs so there must be still some big bucks in there hopefully

cheers matt

[-spiro-]

Sounds like a top idea 1-2 days every 6 months and be allowed to keep say 2-3 jennies per boat not person tho. But i would hate it if in a few years it killed the likely hood of getting any bucks. So who knows if it would be a great idea or not

[sf17fisherman]

well down here in nsw as you more than likly know we are allowed to keep jennies and while we sure don't catch as many jennies as you lot see to be able to we does get a good rate of bucks being caught with bucks landing in net more often than jennies
while your allowed to keep jennies alot of people do put them back however but my thinking is that up your way you may be experaincing too many jennies and they are only getting to be more compeating with the bucks for food and shelter thuse makeing it even harder for yous to get some nice bucks

all i can say for sure but is that the mud crabs are getting better down in nsw and not worst

[banshee]

The reason we can keep jennies in NSW is because they cannot breed,anyone who has caught a jenny in NSW that has been berried up should contact NSW fisheries,of all the people that I know of that go crabing not one has ever found a crab berried up,fisheries have told me that the stocks are washed down the east coast as either larvae or fertilised eggs(cant remember wich one).

[onerabbit]

Ive been catching crabs since I was a kid on the central coast, cant say Ive ever seen a female mud crab with eggs.

I always let the females go because they dont taste anywhere near as good as the males.

Muzz

[RedEmporess]

Maybe you should put a MAROON jersey on the jenny's in NSW to stop you eating them!

[devocean]

I reckon all jennys over 17 cm should be able to take as they dont breed after they get that big. All they do is kill the smaller bucks

[onerabbit]

Happy to be corrected if needed,

But I always believed that mud crabs only get to have sex immediately after the female has shed her shell. At this time she is very soft & no threat to any buck.
On the other hand, put a big crab & a small crab of any sex in a trap, I think the big crab just gets agitated & sometimes takes it out on the small one.

Muzz