Crab Fishing

[den]

The quicker you cook them, the better they will taste with more paste.

 

[Brynglas]

Hi all,

As far as I'm aware there are no poisonous crabs in UK waters, and the most common species that we have make great eating. As Den has already mentioned, Spider crabs which fishermen can't give away in this country are sold for goodly sums in Spain and Portugal where they know a thing or two about seafood.

As far as preparation goes, crabs, as with all shellfish needs to be cooked as freshly as possible, however they will keep in the bottom of the fridge overnight (still alive) crabs should not under any circumstances be stored in fresh water.

When it comes to cooking, I land them straight into a big pan of boiling water (sea water if it's clean anough in your area) and give them about 15 to 20 minutes for big brown crabs and a little less for the spiders.

Pull the crabs out of the water and turn them onto their backs, You should be able to get your fingers into the carapace just below the mouth and pull the shell off the belly, this will expose the 'dead mans fingers' which are grey/brown coloured fibrous finger shaped things , these can be easily removed in more or less one piece, scoop out the cavity and you will see the brown meat, the white will be in the claws, which you can crack open and pick out with a crotchet needle or similar ( I'm never without mine!!).

The meat can be eaten as it is, with hot butter drizzled over it, or it can be mixed with mayonaise or a curry sauce, whatever tickles your fancy.

For those of you who are travelling up to Islay, the seafood available is fantastic, if you get a chance to go for a pint in Bowmore, and if you can collar one of the local fishermen they're usually more than happy to give you a couple of huge brown crabs for the price of a pint or two (No jokes please about getting crabs for the price of a pint!! I'm offended terribly easily!! )

Hope that this helps.

 

[leon-1]

Thanks for the tip, I daresay if we get the chance we will pick up some seafood whilst we are there. :biggthump

 

[tomtom]

when you are below the age of about 8, or below that age where you are allowed to use fish hooks, crab fishing is the number one sport where i come from, haveing tryed a tested most biats i say this, dont believe anyone who tells you cheese is good!!!
beacon is second best, but the best thing to do (and if i tell you this i should probably kill you) is on my way "down the river" i pop in to the butcher and ask him for a bit of pig skin!!! its the best!
record number 96 crabs in just under an hour!
keep it under your hat

 

[dataphage]

Just for the record folks the "dead men's fingers" in a a crab are just it's lungs - despite the name.
:wave:

 

[stuart f]

Crabs are one of the deadliest baits for sea fishing but they must be in the right state,during the summer months crabs molt in other words cast off their shells,they have to do this in order to grow,when they,re in this state they,re called peelers and are deadly for catching fish, they just seem to go nuts for them.When looking for peelers look at the back of the crab along the back where a seam can be seen,if its a peeler it,ll look as if the top shell is coming away from the bottom,another way is if you squeeze the crab and if bubbles appear along the seams of the body it usually means the crab is getting ready to molt as they pump water under their shells to aid the casting of the shell.To use them just peel off all of the shell from the crab and you,ll be left with a soft crab full of juices that sends the fish wild and begging to jump on your hook.Sometimes when looking under rocks during the summer you,ll find a crab thats soft to the touch, not hard like a normal crab, these are crabs that have cast their shells and are hidding out of the way waiting until the calcium in their skin to solidify thus making a new hard shell,these are known as softies,they,re not as effective as peelers but do the job anyway.

In Britain it is illegal to use Brown(edible)peeler crabs in certain areas of the country, one guy has already been heavily fined for using Brown peeler in a competition,so steer clear of Browns.

So if your out bushcrafting on the coast and come across a peeler don,t pass it by,use it because its a superior bait to all the others and it just might get you a meal a lot quicker than conventional baits,and its easily gathered thus saving energy.

 

[den]

Around june i put peeler spider crabs in my pots.These are deadly for bass

 

[den]

It’s fair to say any meat, fish or shellfish including crab will attract crabs. There is no need to bring any bait from home when all your bait can be collected at low tide.
When I’m potting I tend to use white fish as bait, oily fish baits (mackerel) attract too many small fish to the pots
When using a drop net from the shore you will tend to catch small shore crabs to small to do anything with. These can be crushed and returned with the drop net to increase your chances of catching crabs and prawns. Not a very nice thing to do to a crab which you are not eating I agree, but as with most things like that they are the most effective.
Den :-D

 

[den]

As you can tell i'm spider crab crazy. T:

 

[Keith_Beef]

I'm off to the coast at the weekend and was thinking of chucking a few crab lines out...... What should I use as bait?

Ed

I once caught a load of crabs on the North Lincolnshire beach when I was about ten.

I took a length of line, tied a stone at the end and tied a starfish about two inches above it. Chucked it in a pool, pulled out a crab. Did it again, and again, until I was bored. Then realsed all the crabs from the bucket about thirty of them.


Keith.

 

[george]

Has anyone eaten sea urchins?
I used to gather them and boil them up over an open fire in a tin bucket to clean them out just as ornaments but i have been told they are edible.

Rapidboy

It's really just the white roe that you want to be eating and you eat them raw. So be careful about the water you take them from and avoid contaminating the roe with the stomach contents of the urchin.

Turn the urchin upside down so that its mouthpiece is towards you and cut in a circle round the mouth about an inch either side. Pull the mouthpiece out with the kind of tubey bits still attached and throw that away. Give it a gentle rinse out with clean seawater to get rid of any bits of shell, gunge, etc.

If you look inside you will see that several of the "segments" on the inside of the shell are covered in what looks like a kind of white caviarish sort of jelly kind of thing! Scoop it out making sure you don't get any of the red tissue with it and munch away!

Goes nicely on toast and you'd pay about 50 quid for one at a posh japanese restaurant.

I believe there might be issues about them storing up toxins from the food that they eat so although I'm happy to eat them in my area, you might want to do a bit more research about what they eat in yours.

George

 

[den]

I’ve been on the coast for the last three days sleeping on the beech and fishing from the boat in the day.
Whilst out on the boat fishing on the sea bottom, my bait was being constantly harassed by crabs, chewing my bait and dropping near the surface. I knew it had to be spider crabs as I pot in the same area and I mostly catch spider crabs.
The local fishermen use tangle nets laid on the sea bottom to catch spider crabs, so I wondered if I could tangle a spider crab.
I gathered a little mess of lose nylon and attached it to my bait and lowered it again.

[/IMG]



It worked a treat. No more crabs
dropping off

[/IMG]

I'd leave it down for five minutes then pull it up with a crab each time
I even got two in one go. I’m not to sure what they do down there but they were really tangled up.

[/IMG]

Hope it is of some interest
Cheers
Den

 

[rapidboy]

 

[Viking]

Over here small kids fish for crabs with only a piece of rope and a clothespeg to hold the bait. Blue mussels works great, lots of of them in the sea, just pick a few crack them open and get the meat out put it ont he clothespeg and down in the water to the bottom. Soon you will see the crab come out and grab hold of the bait, then you only pull upp and you got yourself a crab.

This is a kids game when families go to the sea, so it´s not hard to fish for crabs.

 

[tomtom]

wow i have never heard of that method before den... i am going to try it ):

 

[Stuart]

great trick Den well done

its the same principle as the washing machine detegent tablet bags the crabs put there claws though to get the food but the barbs of there claws get stuck in the bag

crabs really are very good at getting tangled in things

 

[Pignut]

sorry to drag up an old thread but...............

I was in scarborough on wednesday and noticed that the crab lines they sell in the seafront shops now come with a small nylon bag (Like the washing machins bags)

Is someone on here a cheap crabline manufacturer?!?!?!?

 

[Ed]

Funny you should say that... I do remember a post some time ago about someone making these to sell in a local shop.... It could be them. I have also seen them in porthcawl selling as child crablines.... without hooks.... the guy told me he got the idea from BCUK....probably this thread actually


Ed

 

[Spacemonkey]

Seen them down Bournemouth way too. Last time I caught crabs down there I used beer, and lots of it....

 

[Ed]

ummm.... it seems to be becomming a popular method

Ed