Crabbing, Crab species.

A common shore crab.

If you go crabbing then the shore crab is the crab you are most likely to catch, its colour varies from brown, green and sometimes orange or red. The crab changes its shell periodically as it grows; the shell does not grow so the crab sheds it and grows another. If the crab is just ready to pop off its old shell it is called a peeler crab ( because you can peel off the shell and the leg coverings). Peeler crabs make good bait for most species of fish, they usually hide under stones and weed at this stage as they are vulnerable to predators. When the shell comes off there is a short period before the new shell hardens, the crab is now a softy or jelly crab and is also excellent bait. You are not likely to catch peeler or soft crabs, you have to hunt them out at low tide. Wrasse and other fish will eat hardback crabs with no bother, some cod are found to be stuffed with them when gutted.

A Velvet Swimming Crab.

As you can see, the Velvet Swimming Crab is a much more handsome fellow than the shore crab. It is covered in a velvet coat that catches the sunlight to make varying colours. The legs are flattened as an adaption to help it swim in the water. These are not as common as the shore crab but they nip just as hard, and they are usually very aggressive...

Stage one in picking up a crab.

Use your index finger to press firmly enough on the crab to stop it scuttling away. Not too hard or you will damage the crab.

Stage two in picking up a crab.

Having got the crab pinned down, place your middle finger and thumb on opposite sides of the shell and pick the crab up. He cannot get at you; if you are a child you can now terrorise little sisters, mothers, grannies etc with the crab, but remember it is a living creature, not a toy. Don't harm it and put it in a bucket and/or put it back in the sea at the end of your crabbing expedition.

Spider crab

This spider crab is about 40cm across and they grow much bigger, you will need a big bucket to keep these in. This example has lost a claw, this is quite common, it will grow a new one eventually. Spider crabs are vey docile compared with other crabs. The shell is spikey and uncomfortable to hold. Spider crabs nip off hooks and make bottom fishing nearly impossible during the summer along large stretches of the south coast. They are edible, most are exported to the continent if caught commercially.

Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa)

You may find a funny looking crab-like creature with very long claws and long antennae, this is the squat lobster. These grow a body about 10cm long but you are likely to catch specimens very much smaller.

.Hermit Crab

The Hermit Crab does not bother to make a shell on its body, it makes a home in a suitably sized whelk shell or similar and must find a bigger shell at intervals as he grows out of each shell. The crab will draw himself right back into the shell using his armoured claws as a defence. This crab makes a top bait for many larger species of fish and for this purpose can be removed easily from its shell by immersing it in fresh water.

There is another common crab, the Edible crab, when I can catch one in a drop net I will post a photograph.

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Tackle, "Haddock's Rig"

Component parts of Haddock's Rig.

If you have arrived here from a search site looking to set up a standard float rig then click here, this post concerns a cheaper home-made rig that you will no doubt try when you have lost a few shop bought rigs. I found that when float fishing near to piers and rocks, you will almost always lose floats. The cost of a float is not a lot but alternatives to a shop-bought rig cost a few pence to make and, as it turned out, are more versatile. I quite often want to change from float fishing to bottom fishing and the rig shown allows this change to be made in seconds; un-clip the float and put back in your tackle box, un-clip the weight and re-clip to the snap swivel you have taken the float from and you have a simple running ledger. The float is made some of the spongy foam packing pieces that come with many packaged items.  Use a sharp knife to cut the foam to about five inches long and about an inch octagonal cross section, round the ends and insert a nylon cable tie, clip up the tie and trim off the end. The float you have just made will take a standard one ounce weight. Obviously if you make the float longer and leave it almost square the float will take more weight, up to two ounces. If you are fishing lighter weights then you can scale down the size of the float accordingly.

 Another source of material is a foam kid's swimming aid, called, for some reason a 'noodle', 

I picked up one for a couple of pounds from Lidl, it is about 5'6" long and nearly 3" diameter so there are lots of floats in that ! update: Even cheaper.... I notice Poundland were selling them, they were smaller but priced, as you would expect, at a pound.

The sequence for tackling up is thread up a bead, snap swivel, bead and then tie on another snap swivel. The float goes on the snap swivel that is free to run up and down the line and the weight and hook length loop go on the tied snap swivel.... as easy as that.

A rig set up for float fishing a sand eel.

The depth that the bait will be fished at is determined by the elastic band stop knot; just thread one end of the elastic band around the line, back through the band; pull up very tight and snip off ends, like so..........

The float ( like a traditional a sliding float set-up) can then be set to fish at any depth. If I am fishing a regular spot I will tie a permanent knot as a stop at the known catching depth. Any minor adjustment, a foot or two, can be made simple by changing the hook length which is attached to the same snap swivel as the lead by a double overhand loop. The cunning part of this setup comes when dark falls, snap a starlight ( a small chemical light stick) to activate it and just push it firmly through the foam at the top of the float . The light will protrude at either side of the float and give plenty of light to track your float in the dark. Pollack, bass, scad and mackerel can be taken after dark.  revised June 2021

Crabbing.

Crablines, safe type and traditional

Catching crabs is a good introduction to fishing for small children, even the most fretful ankle-biter seems to quieten down when crabbing. You will need, crab line, a bucket that will contain your crabs ( in seawater) for boasting purposes, a long handled net, some bait.... bits of fish, squid pieces, bacon fat and rind all work well, crabs are not fussy eaters. You can buy crab lines from tackle shops and gift shops in any seaside town, these have a line on a winder, a weight, one or two wire booms each with a short length of nylon line and a small hook. A safer and altogether more successful outfit is this; a small drawstring bag of the type used for some washing machine tablets, string and a pebble from the beach to weight the bag. Place some fishy gunge in the bag with the pebble, tighten the drawstring, attach a length of string and there you have a perfectly safe and effective bit of kit for the ankle-biter. The crabs will get tangled in the mesh of the bag and will be most reluctant to let go.

The technique will have to be learned; drop the rig down the side of the wall or pier, wait for a while and gently, gently pull the line up hand over hand with no jerking which will cause the crabs to drop off. As soon as you can, position the net under the crab so that if it lets go it will drop in the net.
Change the water often on hot days and keep the bucket in the shade if you can as warm water will cause the crabs some distress. You will have to learn how to pick up a crab ! They are fiesty creatures and the bigger ones can give quite a nip. Place your index finger on the back of the crab, you may have to distract it with your other hand while you do this; you can then gently press the crab down on its belly with that finger to stop it moving off, then place your thumb and middle finger one on each side of the shell. You can then pick it up whilst it scrabbles about clutching at thin air with its claws. Remember that crabs walk sideways.
There are several different species of crab that you may catch, shown here, the most common is the Shore crab which is green or brown and usually quite small. The Spider crab is a large spiky backed crab with long thin legs, these crabs are right girly things and don't try to nip you like the other types do and usually don't even bother to try to get away. Another type is the Velvet Swimming crab, this type has flattened rear legs to help it swim instead of crawl, then there is the Edible crab and these are sometimes, if you are in the right place, big enough to take and eat. The legal size for taking crabs varies according to the area you are in, usually about 10cm (4") across the shell.
If you are using a line with hooks it is always possible that you will catch a fish, usually a rockling, blenny, pout or similar but occasionally a biggy is caught, A lad had a bass of a couple of kilos in West Bay Harbour last year and I have seen a dogfish and a conger eel caught in Watchet Harbour on a crab line. Another lad caught a dead body on his crab line at West Bay in 2008 but that's another story.