1st time Mud Crabbing on 11/5/13

[Luvit]

Giday,

A couple of weeks ago I bought a mud crab to try and could not believe how good it tasted. Since then I have bought another 3 and really enjoyed them. It's getting to be an expensive habit. :whistle:

So I bought 4 pots labelled them as required and read a lot of the posts in the this section of the forum and I'm going to give it a crack on Saturday up at Caloundra, Pumicestone Passage. I think I am at the end of the season but I going to have a go anyway and see what I can learn for next year.

From the posts I've seen I will fishing close by to keep an eye on the pots.

A report to follow.

cheers,

Wayne

[sehrguht]

Crabs are here year round. definitely easier in the warmer months but ive seen the crab whisperer in action and he pulls a good feed even in the middle of winter.

Good luck out there, ill be crabbing friday to wednesday up in the sandy straits so hopefully theres some good muddies still around.

[Luvit]

Well the weather was fair on Saturday and I coped a couple of drenching's but I stuck at till the end. Launched at Caloundra and navigated down the passage hitting a few mud banks on the way. :S

Picked a spot to throw the pots in and have a fish. Heeding everyone's warnings I kept the pots in view all the time. I flicked soft plastics for a while and caught a 37cm y/fin bream, then a 45cm flathead & then a 47 cm flathead. Later in the day I pulled the hooks on a much better fish of some description that kept pulling drag and then the hook pulled.

Time to check the nets after 2.5 hrs only 1 small bream that was released. Disappointed moved the nets into some deeper water to see if would change things, another couple of hours and pulled them again for nil. This wasn't working so I went looking for some mud banks now the tide had reseeded a lot and I dropped them on the side of a mud bank in a 2-3m water. fingers crossed.

Earlier I had seen 4 boats hitting an area with softies and thought I'll have a look around with the sounder. I picked up some good solid marks on the sounder so I tried with the soft plastics again, but the wind and the rain & tide was making it very hard to fish and I was getting cold.

After an hour I had enough and it was getting very late in the afternoon and I still had to make my way back without hitting the banks. :blush:

First pot nothing and threw the bait (Mullet) back in, second pot I was overjoyed to see a Muddy and lucky for me it was size and a male.

The third & fourth pot produced a female in each that were released.

For my first time and not being in the height of the season I was happy to come home with a crab.

I learnt a lot and will be able to navigate a lot better next time and pick more suitable locations now I found were some live.

How did you go sehrguht?

[Luvit]

Well after spending about 8 hrs to catch the one muddy I was looking forward to eating it.

I bought salt water home with me to cook it in. Cooked it up and placed in an ice slurry and then into the fridge to enjoy the next night.

My son and I were foaming at the mouth, (we set up a table in the back yard to keep my wife happy, she doesn't like crab juice splatted every where in the house) we proceed to gather our little bowl of crab meat. Going by the taste of one of the legs is was going to beautiful.

I then asked my son to help move the table so we could wash the crab juice off the table, I placed the bowl of meat on the chair while we moved the table a couple of meters away.

This is the funny part to my son and wife. I turned around to see our 10 month Rottweiler finishing the last off my hard earnt crab!

They saw the funny side, I'm still fuming.

[Surfingant]

Ooh that's harsh Wayne, very very harsh.

[sehrguht]

Good job on putting the effort in, i find a solid overnight soak to be best and positioning the pots so they never get out of the water at low tide. and being on an outside bends of a creek or if its small right in the middle of the mouth of it.

Im not usually one to be excellent at crabbing but in the past 4 days up nears garys anchorage and in kauri creek we cleaned up 30+ keeper males. Barely any females around it was pretty easy.

Reef fish and spanish mackeral frames were the go.

About to cook a few on the bbq!

I always just eat it as i go. Too impatient to peel a whole one!

[getrigged]

Ouch!,

[Woggie]

Yeh mate definitely keep an eye on your pots. Way too many share-farmers around unfortunately

[Luvit]

Thanks fellas

Here's the culprit

[bogan]

You never got to eat your first crab

[Luvit]

Nooooooooooo

Happy to accept donations muddies

[sweresy]

great looking doggy; that now has a taste for high end seafood...