A few plate size sand crabs.

[rixter]

Went fishing around Lakes Entrance a few days ago, not much on the fishing scene , but did manage some nice sand crabs.
Most of the smaller ones were consumed the night I stayed there , the other lot kept on ice and consumed when we got home; apart from 3 whoppers I saved.
I Just pulled them out of the freezer and cooked them up tonight, gee they are good eating ! . Close to the taste of mud crab imo ( which is my favourite ) , really sweet meat , no sauces needed. Better than Blue Swimmer crabs I recon'.

These were the 3 I saved for last, defrosting and rinsing off in the laundry sink.
Then 1 of them cooked on a dinner plate ! . :dinner:

Around the biggest ones I've caught yet. I've caught a few big ones close to this size on the 90 mile beach , but the 90 mile was unfishable (blowing a gale) when I went , so I just crabbed bullock Island pier.

Cheers , Rick.



EDIT: I've had a few people asking me about places to catch crabs , regulations , types of nets allowed , and in what areas and when they can be used.

One crab that is a pest and cannot be returned or used as bait etc is the European Shore Crab , the following link to info on this specific crab is as follows.
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries/pes ... crab-flyer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All the info and rules is on http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , under the recreational fisheries section.
I'll clear up a few of the local rules for around our area anyway, of which I know for sure; and a few tips on locations and baits to use.

Hoop nets may be used all year round in WPB , PPB, and the Gippsland Lakes System, other areas have a closed season around September I think ? ( check DPI ). So as far a all our local bays and Gippsland lake system` , you can use a hoop net anytime.

For Saltwater , Maximum of 2 hoop nets per person , top ring maximum of 50cm wide , and a max net depth of 50cm also, tagged with your name and address on them.
An easy waterproof way to tag the hoops/line is to get an clean empty small plastic coke bottle or whatever, write your name and address on a piece of paper , put it in the bottle and tighten the lid back on, then tie a knot in the line around the neck of the bottle; up near the end of the line closest to you where you have a loop at the end of your rope to hook it over a pier stump.
90% of the time DPI don't mind if your hoop nets aren't tagged , so long as there aren't many people about and everyone is manning their hoop nets.
The main reason for having to tag your hoop nets with your name and address is: if a pier is chockers with people with hoop nets ( like Bullock gets sometimes ) , people sit in their cars sometimes while waiting in between checking their nets. If your a DPI bloke and walk up a pier and see 40 nets out , but only 2 people on the pier , and people sitting in cars , they don't know who own what , or how many nets each person is using .... if you get my drift

As for crabs , there is no size limit , just a bag limit of 30 crabs maximum (any size) or 1 litre of crabs ( eg . you could fit around 200 small bait crabs into a 1 litre container), so one or the other. Per day, Per person.

If you hook other legal size fish in these nets , it is legal to keep them.

The rules change for freshwater (using them for crays and yabbies etc / more nets allowed, but less catch allowed) , check DPI for the freshwater hoop net rules in your area.

Aussie Disposals have good quality 50cm hoop nets for around $5 each (thickish brown netting material), these are the ones I prefer. Don't bother with the smaller 40cm hoop nets with small green fine mesh netting , as they fall apart in no time , and snag easily.
There is also larger hoop nets a lot more expensive, 'just' over regulation size but usable and dpi don't seem to mind , you choose if you risk it and use them !. These have a top ring around 60cm wide, corrodable steel hoop rings , and thick red string netting material (although larger gaps in the net loops too which allow smaller crabs to fall out).
A lot of people use these nets too. I think the DPI 'sort of' turn a blind eye to these 'red netting' hoop nets , as a lot of nets gets snagged , and these nets are 'just' over size for regulation rules , but probably the most eco friendly nets available; as the netting material and metal hoop corrode away if snagged, compared to other nets which don't corrode away at all; tangling up other fish and so forth.
Then there is some of larger hoop nets again that have just showed up recently in k-mart , these have a steel hoop of around 80cm wide and have like chicken wire instead of netting material. These hoop nets / according to dpi rules / are well above size limits and illegal to use , as are the opera house nets which are also sold at most fishing stores and k-mart/big-w etc. These kind of nets can only be used in private dams on private property.

Baits: Any old scraps , Squid scraps , Fish heads , raw chicken carcass etc. The older and smellier the better (road kill works great).

Locations: for crabs , pretty much any surf beach or rocky/coral areas with good tidal inflows. This is why Bullock Island is a great area and tonnes of crabs , it's amongst a rocks area that is close to the heads flowing feed into the lake area on tide rises.
As with the bay areas , rocky areas and piers close to the heads produce some good crabs, also areas deeper in the bays closer to rivers, docklands produces a few. The pier at rye in PPB produces Huge spider crabs around this time of a year , they malt their winter shells and they are in the thousands around rye each year. Around mud flats and mangroves you usually find crabs of other species on low tides.

If your into hunting some big crabs , Stony Point at flinders has the goods also pretty much throughout the year. To the right of the pier is a small beach , more to the right is mangroves/trees in the water. Hit this area at low tide , walk in the shallows amongst the mangrove trees and you will find huge crabs sitting at the base of the trees ( a round 30cm to 60 cm under water ) , scoop them up or whatever.

I've also mentioned in the past about using hoop nets on piers to scoop up your catch while fishing with a rod , it's a lot easier carrying around a hoop net than a net with a long or extendable handle, and works pretty good considering it has a duel use too.
Even if just using them as a catch net on a pier to retrieve your catch with a rod , it doesn't hurt to tie some bait to the bottom of the hoop net , and drop it to the bottom while waiting to catch a fish. Then when hoop netting your rod catch, you might find a crab or 2, or a crayfish if your lucky , or some other surprises in the net which can work good as fresh bait also.
Even if nothing is biting on the piers, the nets can keep you entertained while waiting for a fish, giving them a check every 10 to 15 minutes or so , and usually something or another in them.

All the hoop nets come with only a few meters of thin rope attached to the hoop. Buy a few extra 20 meters or so of rope per net and tie it to the standard short rope on the net. Especially for crabbing and throwing them a distance away from snags, or lowering them off high piers down to a deep water level.
I recommend using rope around 5mm to 10mm thick, and tie knots in the rope about every 80cm to 1 meter apart along the rope.
The reason for the knots in the rope is for grip when pulling in the rope&net. Without the knots, especially when just crabbing , and pulling in a wet rope for a few hours every 10 minutes or so with 2 nets; without the knots for grip you end up with pretty sore hands and fingers from slip/rope burn.

:victory:

[hothead]

Yeah, thier real nice :thumbsup:

[Growlermz]

good post, some very good info in there for people wanting to start out in some crabbing

[Fishn104]

Yeh was in lake Tyers on the weekend and got five big ones. I had chilli and galic crabs. Man!!! They are Sooo nice. That was the first time I had them too. I've had blue swimmer crabs. It would be a close call I reckon!!! They both really good!!

[foggybottom]

great post!

[frozenpod]

Blue swimmers are better eating IMO but all crabs are pretty good.

[complete-anglerz-12]

yum yum

[Nude up]

Are they Irish crabs galic ones

[Yabbie]

Good work...any tips on prep and eating techs? :dinner:

[rixter]

Good work...any tips on prep and eating techs? :dinner:

For starters, Thanks for the appreciation by 'some' of the members on the info given , THX , hopefully it helps some people starting out crabbing.

There is a lot of different ways to cook crabs. Some people like to keep the guts/mustard of the crab to add flavour. This is usually done when making a seafood soup, or a sauce to cover a fish.

Crabs can either be cleaned before cooking , or cook whole and clean after cooking. The taste is really no different either way, although it is easier to clean a crab after it's cooked imo.

Crabs , like prawns , have a nice flavour when cold too , cold is the way I prefer crab actually, tastes sweeter.

This is the basic cooking method in which you can eat the crab cold or reuse the meat to use in a hot dish, or as a sauce......
.
Rinse the crabs off at least 2 times in freshwater to rid the crabs of any sand and weed stuck to them.
Boil a big pot of freshwater ( some people like to use sea/saltwater to cook them ). Once boiled thow in the crabs , let boil for around 15 minutes / 20 minutes max. Once cooked , throw the cooked crabs straight into a sink full of cold water. Let them cool off in the water for a few minutes before proceeding to the next step.

Time to clean them. Turn the crab upside down, at the rear of the crab you will see what looks like a small tail, pull this tail up and over peeling the top shell off with it. Now the crab will be shell less. Remove the gills of the crab ( they look like small tenticles/worms under the shell either side of crab). Pull them off , then break the crab in half , and remove any extra hard thin bone structures.
A lot of the Mustard/Guts will come off with the top shell , if making a soup or sauce , keep this and use it in your sauce or soup mix for flavouring, otherwise throw/bin it.
At this stage , the crab is de-shelled , gilled , gutted and broken in half. Rinse it off then throw it straight onto ice to chill it, use it from here and eat cold , or freeze it from this stage to be used later to eat cold or use in a hot dish.

If not freezing for later , It's ready for eating cold from here , very sweet meat . Or de-shell all the meat from claws and the rest from the body , and add the meat to a hot dish with spices or so forth. Also if you like a really deep seafood taste, add the Guts/Mustard (not the gills) to your hot dish for extra flavour also.

This method works a lot better than just throwing the crabs in their shells in with some chilli and garlic , or whatever while they are cooking.

Best to prep the meat first , eat it cold , or use it in a hot dish after the basic cooking and removing from the shell. :thumbsup:

Or just the quick and easy method, although not as tasty and tender imo. Just chop them in half with a clever knife, throw them in some boiling water with spices/curry/garlic or whatever , and boil for 15 to 20 minutes max , then remove and eat while hot. A walnut cracker tool, or multi-grips comes in handy for cracking the claw shells. :lol:

Oh, also, for the sake of the crabs; Do it the humane way and throw them on ice as you catch them, or freeze them before cooking them , even if only for a few hours to put them to sleep.
Especially if you have kids , nothing worse than a squealing live crab being thrown into a hot pot of water live, and freaking the kids out with its screaming !

Cheers , Rick.