A quick question about crab.

[tich]

Just a passing thought, during the summer season, we take the boat out & whilst fishing we drop a few lobster pots, just on the offchance of catching 1or 2 we were never very lucky, just the odd few now and then, what I did notice was a lack of edible crab, in the 5or6 years we have had the boat we have landed a good few lobsters, 10 to 20 per season, say 1 every trip but no edible crab, Is there any out there??, we use normal lobster pots baited with mackerel bits and cod heads, any ideas ?? cheers, we normaly drop them off Whitley Bay Lighthouse area,

[dazzer]

You need to leave them soaking overnight and haul them in the morning.
More crab & lobsters crawl at night than they do during the day.

[Durham-Lad]

Fresh bait for crabs stinking for lobster....usually the norm.

[Kev1n]

I had a dozen lobsters and no edible crabs last year, this year was exactly the opposite, with only a few undersized lobsters showing up and several crabs per pot. This was from the same area as your pots, no idea why it went like that.

[tich]

bait,

all the bait we used, was fresh or fresh frozen,we tried soaking the pots over night, + 2 or 3 days, other times we left them for 4 or 5 hours, seemd to get more lobsters on the short soak,than the long, weather they were getting out, I dont know, or the crabs wernt getting in .

[dazzer]

weather they were getting out, I dont know, .

If you use parlour pots, they cannot get back out at all as the pot has an internal monk leading into the parlour where there is no return

[tich]

thats the sort we use, guess Im just a little unlucky, I like crab ,lobster is ok but a bit overrated for me,I have made a crab pot, its like a big football with the top quarter cut down and folded in to form a lip , made it out of an old wicker plant pot holder It looks quite professional,only dropped it twice with no luck,