Hard Backed Crab....again

The Great Wallsendo

The Great Wallsendo

Well-known member
Trying to resolve the conundrum of not having peeler crab...

What about....crushing a hard back crab to buggery and cocktailing it with a liberal dose of mussel?

Or (following the lead off that eBay fella)...mashing up shore crab and combining with something to bind it together when freezing (bread?)...again cocktailing it with something fleshy and smelly like mussel...

Sound feasible or stuff of nonsense?
 
Think they gotta be peeling state as this is when they take on alot of water to blow the shells. This makes them nice and jucy. Thinks that is how it works. But if some one has tried this please share results.
 
hard backs will catch wrasse:D i was told many year ago about an old fellow in whitley club that used to do something similar but uses cotton wool and lashed it all on with cotton thread and caught fish:D:D how true i dont know, but the guy who told me knew his bit:D:D
 
The Great Wallsendo said:
Trying to resolve the conundrum of not having peeler crab...

What about....crushing a hard back crab to buggery and cocktailing it with a liberal dose of mussel?

Or (following the lead off that eBay fella)...mashing up shore crab and combining with something to bind it together when freezing (bread?)...again cocktailing it with something fleshy and smelly like mussel...

Sound feasible or stuff of nonsense?
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Hi wallsendo, when it comes to fishing then nobody could say for certain your idea wont work as there is always the exception to the rule.
I do know for a fact know the lincolnshire peelers paste does not work. ( I have tried it).
I was once reliably informed that when crab are in the peeling stage then they give off a scent and it is this scent the fish pick up on.
I am not a marine biologist and could not prove or disprove the above theory so i believed it, does anyone no any different?
 
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can someone tell me why, after catching winter cod and you gut them they are stuffed with small hardbacked crabs, yet if you used a hard back crab for bait you get zilch.
 
I've seen small hardbacks mentioned as bait, but each time it's been for fish of the non-gummy variety - ie owt with teeth to crush them... Not a lot of those on our coast bar the odd wrasse..
 
Its not so mysterious, a cod has extremely well tuned senses like sight, sound/vibrations, taste and smell. As it hunts the sea bed it uses all of these senses, and a small hard-back crab is an easy "moving" target. if you want to fool a cod with a small hard-back as bait, it needs to be presented in the right way (like a lure).
 
The Great Wallsendo said:
Trying to resolve the conundrum of not having peeler crab...

What about....crushing a hard back crab to buggery and cocktailing it with a liberal dose of mussel?

Or (following the lead off that eBay fella)...mashing up shore crab and combining with something to bind it together when freezing (bread?)...again cocktailing it with something fleshy and smelly like mussel...

Sound feasible or stuff of nonsense?
Click to expand...

a recipe from one of me pals up the west coast, best done when the lady of the house is not present....

get the blender or food processor...

throw some shore crabs in ( in shells) mussels (in shells), bits of old lug, runny, and squid, plus any other shellfish thats to hand -razor, clams etc

blitz the whole lot in the blender, the shells get blitz to a paste which binds it all together. get some tube gauze finger bandage, and slide on the end of a funnel then poke the fishy goo down the funnel into the finger bandage to make fishy 'finger' sausages tide off with cotton.

they freeze well and are easy to hook up and beeing inside a cotton gauze bag are reasonably crab proof

he swears by em and always does fairly well with them when I've been out with him
 
hi just been looking thro adtrader and there is someone advertising crab for sale from margate he says 50p a crab and he says they are large nothing mentioned about delivery etc that is if he is prepared to post,our local shops i would of thought will have some in pretty soon though.
john
 
YoursTruly said:
Hi wallsendo, when it comes to fishing then nobody could say for certain your idea wont work as there is always the exception to the rule.
I do know for a fact know the lincolnshire peelers paste does not work. ( I have tried it).
I was once reliably informed that when crab are in the peeling stage then they give off a scent and it is this scent the fish pick up on.
I am not a marine biologist and could not prove or disprove the above theory so i believed it, does anyone no any different?
Click to expand...

I've heard the scent/pheremone thing as well...and it's prob right as it's sounds feasible enough.

Loads of people have said the same about the eBay lincolnshire crab as well so I'll steer clear of them I think...

I like the idea that Mark gave...although it'd be an "out in the yard" job as not even I could bring myself to do it in my kitchen :D
 
The Great Wallsendo said:
Trying to resolve the conundrum of not having peeler crab...

What about....crushing a hard back crab to buggery and cocktailing it with a liberal dose of mussel?

Or (following the lead off that eBay fella)...mashing up shore crab and combining with something to bind it together when freezing (bread?)...again cocktailing it with something fleshy and smelly like mussel...

Sound feasible or stuff of nonsense?
Click to expand...

I can say through experience that the ebay fellas round strange sort of waxy goey type crab things did not work for me either, I can also say that the burkerley (not sure of spelling) rubbery crabs didn't either, whether brown or the blond type. I can remember vividly trying these out, looking over my shoulder expecting to see a big fat fella holding his stomach laughing so hard that he dribbled. :D

I do think the blender thing would work though, but would have horrible visions next time I used it, it's bad enough blending a banana protein drink with a tin of tuna and trying to drink about a pint and a half of it for your supper let alone the thought of some slimey mussel and ragworm nipper going down your throat with it as well :o
 
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Consensus from a bit google seems to be that they're excellent for wrasse and bass, most using crabs sized from about 10p diameter to slightly bigger than a 50p, hooked from the underside near the rear and out through the top of the shell.
 
bearing in mind what people have found inside a cods guts i think they'll eat anything they pass, have heard story of tin cans and all kinds of bits and bobs being found inside of them, but to be honest i'd rather have a pack of yellows and some fresh muscel then 100 peeler anyway :o lol
 
phill_itofish said:
bearing in mind what people have found inside a cods guts i think they'll eat anything they pass, have heard story of tin cans and all kinds of bits and bobs being found inside of them, but to be honest i'd rather have a pack of yellows and some fresh muscel then 100 peeler anyway :o lol
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caught a cod with a flip flop in it stomach once.... worth a try??:D:D
 
did an experiment with that lin CON shire rubbish couple seasons back, two rods, both with twin hooks, on one, hook up using rag or lug, lower using "the crab", other rod, upper hook using "the crab", fished over here, on merseyside and a fair few places in wales, the "crab" took absolutly nothing ever, even the bane of my life on welsh beaches - the dogfish never took the "crab", never actually met or seen anyone that has caught on the stuff
 
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