fresh water and sand crabs??

[jeffo]

we know that all the fresh water gets the muddies moving in all the creeks...but has anyone noticed how it affects the sand crabs movements? do they much prefer the cleaner water and move offshore with the blue water... or stay in the rivers and bay?

[devocean]

I would say it pushes them out as I have ofte seen sandies swimming on the surface a fir way form shore after big rain

[Aaron_Fogarty]

Water salinity definately affects the movement of sandies around the bay, However to what extent I dont know. I remember reading some DPI reserch documents a while back and they made reference to salinity a few times.
DOES ANYONE KNOW A PRO CRABBER, he would know?
Regards
Aaron

[Jeremy]

I have seen sand crabs swimming on the surface of the water regularly in Moreton Bay and off the Sunshine Coast, and that was in perfectly clean water. Donno if the rain makes any difference to this?

Jeremy

[mackmauler]

There are pros working the southern bay as usual so they cant be far away.

[allniter]

We dropped eight pots around st. helena and green island on friday arvo/evening....
not one legal sandie
plenty of jennies though
have caught a few in the same spots in the recent past...
our plan was that the rain might have stirred them up,
WRONG !!! bugga
Darren

[jugs]

You gotta go further out in the bay Darren! You may also find that by the fact you only had Jennies, that your pots had been checked for you by some sad crabber who couldnt find the right spot and wanted dinner!
There are always lots of pots off Wellington Pt, we have had better success there than St Helena

[Y-Not]

I was always told when I was a wee youngster, That if all you get are jennies & undersized males, then sound around there will be a deeper hole nearby. Apparently the bigger bucks head for the deeper water in any given area.

This pearl of wisdom was passed on to me by a retired pro crabber.

[Y-Not]

I was always told when I was a wee youngster, That if all you get are jennies & undersized males, then sound around there will be a deeper hole nearby. Apparently the bigger bucks head for the deeper water in any given area.

This pearl of wisdom was passed on to me by a retired pro crabber.

[allniter]

Y-not, i agree with the deeper water theory.
Normally we would have collected the pots and headed for other territory, but unfortunately there was a 20 knot northerly blowing all night which kept us in close to the islands.
I wonder if craigie did any good - i think he was heading out crabbing the same night.
Darren

[-spiro-]

This statement seems to be right on the money" Apparently the bigger bucks head for the deeper water in any given area." I've got a hole in Caboolture river that you carn't miss on a couple of good size bucks. The jennies are all around it. I find that sanddies dont like the fresh water and head to saltyer water or deeper gutters.