Landbased Crabbing - 'success' ......?

[kmcrosby78]

Put four pots in .....

Got four pots back .......

Caught two crabs - one was too small, the other just legal

Too empty so put it back

Have been driving past a spot that looked worth putting pots in landbased lately so with the tides and bit of rain around decided this weekend I'd give it a go.  Put them in yesterday arvo - first three spots had good access (ie. not to difficult). The third of them was at a 90 degree bend in the creek so I sort of wished I didn't have a fourth pot rigged up with bait ....... had to go through a fair bit of mud (and long grass) to put it in.

Checked them this morning. First three totally empty - oh great, now I have to go and get all muddy just to retrieve the fourth empty (presumably - it was only 20-30m from the third pot) pot ...... Well, the fourth pot had the crabs in it so I now have the conundrum of next time do I go through more mud to see how far upstream I can set them.

QUESTION: The creek has steepish banks and the usual drains that are completely dry at low tide. My pots were in the water in the main stream opposite the drains - would it be worth trying pots up in the drains themselves? They'd be out of water at low tide but I'm wondering (my crab knowledge isn't as deep as it should be ...) whether at certain times of the year do the crabs stay up in the drains?

Anyway, had a go, got out of the house and a bit of exercise so I'll do it again sometime to see if I can start to crack the code.

[Old Scaley]

Hey Kelvin, my crabbing knowledge is also not great, but I am pretty sure you are required by fishing regs to place the pot so that it is always covered by water. I think the crabs do go up the drains, perticularly on the big tides.

i haven't had a line in the water for weeks and it is driving me crazy.  Might have to look at landbased options if the weather doesn't settle soon. 

[Luvit]

Pots have to be covered at low tide.

It looks quite fun to do from the banks but you would need to be covering yourself in some strong insect repellent.

That's a great start. Some including myself don't do that well in a boat a lot of times.

[kmcrosby78]

There you go, never knew that about the pots having to be covered, but then thinking about it, your bait wouldn't smell real great being out of the water!!  Surprisingly Wayne there weren't any mozzies or sandflies and I only finished setting them at about 5pm. I'll try it next on a full moon cycle to see if that helps and still try a few more times as what I've read seems to indicate the quality of crabs gets better around April-May.  Other thing I remembered is Dad has a canoe so will have to put that in some time and get to spots not often frequented. Want to suss out some crabbing spots before my boys are old enough to tag along me (and put more pots in .....).