How do you rig Spanner crabs for Bluebone??
Probably only for the northerners, but southerners also raid the north. I have been advised about numerous ways to rig these tough little mudcrap imitations to a hook, but the crab has more often than not been eaten off. I have been hooking it through the claw with the rest off the crab hanging free. I have been told that the bluebone munch on the crab body but cant resist the claw and thus your on. Wrong so far (for me that is).
Even heard of some glueing the hooks on to their back with epoxy!!!?
Now I dont want to use a 100lb+ handline but a descent spin outfit to tackle with them, but I am determined to concurr this elusive beast in a good size. Caught heaps off u/s bluebone/tuskfish, usually as a by-catch targetting other species. I tend to approach each trip with a mission goal but after the Mrs starts cleaning up on all sorts of bottom dwellers on bait I still revert to this smelly habit often. Concurred a few trout now, so mission is bluebone again.
Cheers for any info.
Neels
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
spanner crabs???? ok this
spanner crabs????
ok this might be a bit weird, but what is a spanner crab? Im sure i was just looking at a menu for a restaraunt in Melbourne which had a soup with spanner crabs in it!! (no not an asian restaraunt!). Thought must be some fancy crab because the soup was $31 for entree!!!! Surely they are not rock crabs?
Ryan C
Posts: 1575
Date Joined: 08/07/10
baiting crabs
hi Mate every time we go to carnarvon and further north we target baldies and bluebone with crabs and we usually hook them through the body or through where the legs meet the body(if that sounds right) i dont think you will ever get a hook up every time as these fish normally demolish the crab without swallowing it but hooking through the body usually works ok for me! cheers
SHizz
Posts: 1556
Date Joined: 07/08/05
Normally break off and feed a
Normally break off and feed a few of the bigger legs on the hook first, then put the hook through the side of the crab body and out the other side.
Need a large hook for this kind of rigging, but the blueys don't seem to have any issues with big hooks.
Quobbarockhopper
Posts: 392
Date Joined: 28/05/10
have tried the quickdry
have tried the quickdry superglue flat on the back thing before and it works, but if the crabs are in any decent health Ive found they often head straight for a hidey hole and get you snagged in no time, especially if theres a big baldy on their ass, guess id do the same!
to be honest, I wouldnt even bother with the body at all. after a fair bit of experimenting, Ive found that they seem to like the legs more than the body. just break all the legs off and feed about 5-6 of them through the hook (even the shell around the leg can be pretty hard to get a hook through, and blunts them a bit when you do, so go through the join and its heaps easier n they seem to stay on pretty well.
have also found that using a fairly small strong hook (hoodlum etc) and a light weight is best and just cast it out and let it free drift slowly back to the rocks will get a lot more hits than just dumping it down the bottom with a large ball sinker etc
crasny1
Posts: 7006
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Cheers Guys
Will try the tricks. I think I used the name right Bodie, but maybe there is another spanner crab. The ones I am talking about looks like miniature Mudcrabs, and you find them under rocks in the NW at low tide.
Cheers
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
I haven't used any of the
I haven't used any of the soft plastics yet, or the real thing as far as rock crabs are concerned, what I have had success with for blue bone are blue manner legs. I put the crabs to sleep in an ice slurry and then cut of the legs before cooking the rest of the crab. put 2 - 3 of these on a large hook and the blue bone struggle to resist (haven't caught a baldie yet but I believe they love 'em too). Caught the odd snapper or two using the same rig.
cheers
Fish! HARD!
marble
Posts: 778
Date Joined: 03/09/09
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