Velvet Swimmers

[peter.m]

I\'ve seen posts on this before. In my opinion they aren\'t as good as proper shore crabs but they do work at times. I\'ve had codling, dabs and whiting on them. The dabs loved the legs and nippers tipping off rag at south shields. Whiting were taking them meant as codling baits in a match at Roker in December.

The best weigh-in of this winter in our club was helped by a few fish to these and one of our lads finished about 4th in the CIU using them.

They are not the done deal but if you tip off or use in conjunction with other baits throughout a session I think they\'re better than no crab at all when it might give you the edge. Keep them in a flask and only use them a couple at a time and they can go back in the freezer without getting wasted.

[Brashy]

I dont use them, me mate had a few flatties on them off the groyne and thats all iv see, thats taken them.

[Ant]

I\'ve caught fish on them which I didn\'t think I would do because they don\'t look as though they going to be that effective. I agree with what Peter said as I always use cocktails of baits rather than just a single bait. I don\'t think there are that expensive either considering the size of them.

[crack-off!]

Tried them twice,the first time by themselves in a perfect sea on cresswell carrs and they were crap!(did get 2 fish on plain worm) the second time i used them to bulk up \"proper\" crab baits at craster and managed a couple of fish.I would never use them again by themselves,but would mix with the normal crab to bulk up baits. . but then again mussell will do that for a fraction of the cost and probably fish better too!
VERDICT? =SH**E!!

[Ell]

Anyone tried eating them

[BriH]

Aye - dip them in tempura batter and deep fry them , you need some sort of dip (chilli and ginger or a nice rice wine and dark soy sauce ) but the thought of eating a peeler is the hardest part of eating them , strange when you consider we all use mussel ,but dont think twice about scranning a bowl of them with garlic and tomato sauce and a loaf of french stick. :P

[Ell]

Brian, you wouldn\'t risk cooking the ones from Tackle shops m8 (would you? ) I\'m sure straight from yer Asian supermarket they\'re lush and not quite as likely to require a dose of anti-venom to bring you round. Anyone tried eating Razor-fish, not bad apparently

[mark]

Brian, you wouldn\'t risk cooking the ones from Tackle shops m8 (would you? ) I\'m sure straight from yer Asian supermarket they\'re lush and not quite as likely to require a dose of anti-venom to bring you round. Anyone tried eating Razor-fish, not bad apparently

tried em raw and cooked. I quite like raw shellfish, the worst part is thinking that thing my well be alive for a bit once it hits your stomach! I\'ve read that, depending on whats in your stomach already, Oysters can live over half an hour in yer stomach, wonder what they\'re thinking about down there

[Ell]

\"White Lightning\" springs to my Oyster\'s mind

[tartanpete]

used these velvets a few times with mixed results,to be honest ive no faith in them at all,its been said before here and else where that there out of date eatin crabs...cant believe the artical in sea angler this month, just cause a guy catches a fish on them this warrents a half page artical on them,this is not the first time these have been fetured in the angling press,headline should read...\"DONT WAIST YOUR MONEY\"...stick to what we know really works.wonder if we will see them in the shops next year?...cheers pete

[Patrick_Pending]

Pete,

I just read the article in Sea Angler. I am amazed that they devoted a half page to this. The fact that the guy only tried them once and they worked is hardly conclusive proof of the effectiveness of this bait - If enough people tried jam sandwiches as bait you can guarantee something would swallow one

The letter appeared in the \"Points of View\" pages written by Stewart Brown of Newcastle upon Tyne (he apears to be a regular contributor) maybe he\'s a NESA member to

Between the two of them they caught 2 Bass and 3 Coalies on 16 baits (i.e 2 packs of four crabs which they cut in half) . That makes two and a half fish each (better than my average day) but not exactly a big haul for a miracle bait.

Looking back over the posts in this thread some people have had some success, but most people aren\'t impressed.
It is clear that these crabs catch fish (at least sometimes) but I certainly don\'t believe the hype.

I\'m off to make some jam sandwiches which, believe me , are a killer bait for shore caught marlin.

[macky]

i have used them twice in the summer months around skeggnes for smoothhounds.
and yes they do work had a 9.5lb and a 10.5lb

would consider trying them again this summer too

macky