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Sunday morning hit the water on the run in tide. Had to pound across the bay to our favourite spot. 10 traps, a pile of snapper heads and cat fish for bait. Results, 15 good crabs. Kept 10 full ones. Smallest crab was 10mm over size.
Chilly crab, warm crab and fresh mango, watermelon, rock m, honey dew, grapes etc, fresh baked bread and cold white wine. A banquet fit for a king.
Sorry the pic is blurred, I had the lager lense on.
Beautiful looking crabs! We have been getting a few feeds in the Fitzroy as well but there is a hell of a lot of females (illegal to take in Qld) and undersize bucks (smaller than 15cm is illegal in Qld).
We average 1 legal keeper to about every 8 caught.
A couple of the males we caught were on the massive side but were empty so we left them for ron.
Ive been reading up a bit on mud crab biology and one thing worries me about the prohibition on taking jennies in NSW and Qld. The female must moult before breeding, she is carried around by the male for 3-4 days until she is in the soft shell vulnerable stage and breeding takes place, which lasts about 7 hours (lucky Mr Mud crab). She must then harden her new shell, then scuttles off to the deep off shore to lay her eggs. She can retain the sperm for several weeks even up to a couple of months.
If the majority of males have been taken, where will the hordes of females that have been thrown back find a partner to do the carrying and mating? If males are generally smaller because of harvest pressure, they may not be big enough at time of maturity, 90 to 110 mm, to carry the big fat mommas around.
In Malasia the mature females are the most expensive, the crab with its bright orange ovaries is considered more of a delicacy. They don't seem to be running out of crabs either.
Looks like some spurious science behind the ban on taking females.
Pete , i'll stand corrected if im wrong, but from what ive heard the NT crab fishery is in decline and unless changes are implemented the fishery is in danger of becoming a very minor fishery.
The queensland crab fishery has been in review for some time now and it would seem to be currently quite sustainable although quota's maybe implemented in the future.
I'd say that our system of 15cm males and no females seems to be working, and i for one wouldnt like to see it altered.I catch as many if not more crabs now then i did 20 years ago, so something must be working.. ...foxy
It's a strange thing but in more than 40 years of crabbing I have never seen a female carrying eggs. I have heard that they are under the flap but easy to see but I've never seen it.
Hi Dave, probably don't see them in berry because they move out into deep water to deposit eggs. Ive never caught one in berry either, but I suppose there is a chance of catching one on its way outside. Interesting, we caught one undersize crab out of around 15.
foxy, we have no problems catching crabs in areas where there is no commercial crabbing. Same as in NSW. Remote areas likewise if there are no commercial guys. I think the decline is in commercial catch. The area I took those crabs from is closed to commercial and I never fail to get a feed. We can usually pick and choose between crabs and get the number we want for the number of mouths to feed. I usually take one per person and one spare for 5 people. The average size is way higher than anything I caught in NSW.
That being said I reckon that the rec limit is too high. 5 per person is plenty for any body and maybe 15 or 20 per boat. Currently 10 per person and 30 per boat.
The government up here is very reluctant to change anything to do with fishing. The rec fishing lobby is far more powerful up here than in other states. No boat rego, no boat licence, no fishing licence and in my opinion, absurd bag limits that lead to declining numbers. on a recent trip we bagged 5 over size barra ranging from 60 to 90 cm. We kept 1 at about 60 which was ample for about 8 people with a few threadfin fillets (which I prefer to northern carp (barra)) thrown in. Many blokes would have kept the lot.
Commercial fishing in Darwin harbour has been closed for sometime now but the jury is still out on whether the fishery is improving. If it isn't, then that could mean that rec fishing is puting too much pressure on fish stocks. I know blokes who will catch as many goldies/fingermark etc cos they know that there is little chance of being checked. I fish pretty hard up here and only time I have been checked was at the ramp by the cops and that was for flares, water, and safety gear.
Its still the wild west up here to some people. They don't think that the problems that the south has seen will happen up here. But the evidence of decline is available by talking to the old timers, and I don't mean old people, just people who experienced the fishing 20 years ago.
pete i also went out one the weekend and got more than enoght for a feed
i agree with you re the jennys as it sure doesn't seem to hurt nse with the currnet law and even so if i have a few bucks i will toss the jeeny back anyway
I've been to Malaysia and seen the mud crabs they catch over there. I would say that 10cm would have been the biggest one I saw in the fish market, with average size 7 / 8 cm.
There crab pots resemble what we would call - redclaw or yabbie operahouse pots.
Good Morning People - I might have missed thi somewhere b4............but when you are out their wrangling muddies - how do you tell if they are full or not !
...foxy
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