Haven’t seen much on here about crabbing, and not sure if the “Inshore Discussion” is the correct place to discuss this. Does anyone on here crab with out pots, by using lines, weights, and chicken necks. If so, anyone got a sugguestions on paerticular places/times/tides to go. Dock or boat, don’t matter
A bad day fishin’ is better than a good day at work!
Yep, my wife loves to crab and I love to eat her crab rice. We have never used the “traps”, preferring to use a weighted line with a chicken neck/back and a dip net. Driving down from Columbia, we can’t always target a specific tide for crabbing so I can’t honestly say low is better than high or vice versa. We usually find a place to beach our boat, near the marsh where she can wade in ankle deep or so to net the crabs. Any of the inlets between Bull, Capers, Dewees, etc… seems to produce crabs. We used to catch quite a bit in the creek before Shem creek but it did not really produce much this year. Good luck and happy crabbin’.
last weekend we caught enough crabs with pots and hand lines to steam them Fri and Sat night and feed about 15 people…also broke down and brought home (4) gallon ziplock bags of crab…they are thick in the creeks right now…moving water also helps with catching them as well…
The Morris Island Lighthouse www.savethelight.org
Yea, I’m been crabbin’ recently off a dock in Daniel Island. Can’t tell which tide is better, however once the tide started coming in, it was coming in so fast that by the time you got the crab high enough to net, he usually was taken off by the tide. We had our best outing (off the dock) a couple of hours prior to low tide through a couple of hours after low tide.
I happen to love to crab with a line, weight, and chicken back/neck. I need to get me a trap though, put that out first, crab all day, then whatever you get at the end are bonus crabs and sometimes that can make or break a meal. What is the average cost of a good trap?
A bad day fishin’ is better than a good day at work!
Gamecock…Crab traps come in a couple of sizes. I usually prefer a 1/2 trap, as it travels better…doesn’t take up as much room as a full trap. Last 1/2 trap that I bought was approx. $50 for a complete rig including yellow bouy.
Sol Mate
Mako 20B
225 Optimax
just make sure it has rebar (is that spelled correctly?) or some kind of weight. my father brought one down from virginia to use and we tossed it out… 3 hours later it was half a mile down the stono with a good tide. mine sat there in a ripping current and didn’t move since it’s weighted down. recently i used both in a creek nearby, checked in the morning and the one without weight was gone (if someone would’ve taken it then i’m sure they would’ve taken mine too). my lesson learned: if it doesn’t have a weight then don’t toss it out unless you tie the (**() thing to a tree.
gamecock: chicken necking made many excellent childhood memories with my father… try the intersections of creeks into larger creeks, esp just off the bottoms or ends of oyster bars. also, around any dock around low tide since many of the crabs that would otherwise be hunting in the grass will be in the channel. key is to pull that thing in as slowly as you can, then stick a long-handled dip net down behind the crab fast while he’s in the water, then uphill as fast as you can scoop. as you mentioned about going off the dock, if you are crabbing in more than a couple feet of water and have to retrieve the bait vertically, use drop nets and pull them up fast upon retrieve.
dad’s method: cut stakes to 12-15", mark each at 5" with sharpie for size check, cut a point on the other end, wrap 20’ of stout line and a 2-3oz pyramid sinker. stick each in the bank ten feet apart and teach the kids the importance of patience and the thrill of the catch!
shamrock: if the trap walks even with rebar, zip tie a brick into the corner that the line is tied to… also, more line scope = less vertical stress… in really high flow areas the commercial guys use a finder buoy behind their main float too.
drawback to half traps is that the crabs don’t have a “holding area” up top, and if left out for more than a few hours, they will destroy all your bait in short order. when competing for food, they will also mutilate each other enthusiastically. if stone crabs are present, there can be some significant mortality.
I use the small open top crab traps from a boat or off the dock. They do well but I find best is the incoming tide.
The topless traps stack easier in a boat.
Wilton, CT: New Smyrna Beach, FL
When we get tired of ‘chunking and winding’ in the creeks around Bushy Park, we put a couple of big chunks of mullet (the head preferably) on a jig head (or any other rig you have) and toss them over the side. Let the bait sink to the bottom and take up the slack…then just watch the rod tips. Scoop them up with your landing net after reeling them up slowly. This is a good way to crab even if you don’t have any ‘crab lines’ rigged up. For some reason, a big chunk of fresh fish hooked onto a silver trolling spoon really seems to attract the big ‘jimmys’…don’t know why it works but just tried it by accident one day and it outfished the other rigs 2 or 3 to 1. One day a large catfish (approx. 20 lbs.) picked up one of the lines and took off with it. It is really fun to crab this way and this time of year is really good for crabbing anyway. We’ve had some very nice catches using this method.
PioneerLouie
Pioneer Venture 175, Johnson 90
Summerville, SC
The main point is that fresh fish heads or tails usually work a lot better than chicken necks do in most places.
PioneerLouie
Pioneer Venture 175, Johnson 90
Summerville, SC
Thanks y’all for the info - great ideas
A bad day fishin’ is better than a good day at work!
Who sells traps? Anybody near JI? I’d like to get two big traps for some jimmies!
Gamecock,
This is probably what the others said, too (didn’t read the other posts), but we used to use twine or kite string, a 2-to-4-ounce weight, and chicken backs to catch crabs when I was growing up. We’d do it off of floating docks on the harbor. We’d tie the chicken onto the string with a line, and chunk it in the water. After a little bit, you’ll notice the line moving. Slowly pull it in, and scoop the crab up with a net. We’d catch like 40 in a day doing that.
At Seabrook Island, there were rock seawalls at certain spots on the beach that held water at the base, and the crabs would be up in the rocks. We’d coax the crabs out into the open with the chicken and swipe them with the net.
They were pretty big back then. It was a long time ago.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance Agency, Inc.
https://stricklandmarine.net
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
When I clean fish I save the heads and carcasses in the freezer for crab bait. A girlfriend and I can put my little jon boat in a small creek here on James isl. with a trolling motor and have 50 keepers in 3hrs. We can only do it near high tide (ramp is dry at low) and the water needs to be moving for the big crabs to be active, it seems.
I mostly use the line and net method but my girlfriend uses those circle nets. Both work fine with the right technique. I also snagged a folding promar crab trap while fishing this year and that works too. Keep a handy 5" gauge of some kind.
I think (as someone else said) the important fact is that fish trumps chicken.
new guy on the forum but been reading it for a long time. Years ago when I lived in Charleston and fished the harbor most weekends we used to pick up a styrofoam cooler top, break it into pieces to make floats, hang a string with a weight and chicken neck or back on them and put them out near the grass. Put out 10 or so and circle back to pick them up and net the crabs. That was years ago and we would get all the crabs we ever wanted like that but I heard a couple years ago a change in the law made it illegal? Would that be illegal now?
great reading about the fishing, I live in Columbia now and freshwater fish just dont hold my attention like the saltwater ones do.
Dilly, try the Ace Hardware on Folly Rd. It’s located around the Camp Rd. area. Last year they had them in stock
Cool! I did go by there, picked up a nice “square” pot w/ bouy for $54. Also Penny has been giving me some good info on the side about catchin, cookin and keeping em round in the freezer. Should be a great way to spend some time near the water this winter! Glad this thread started up. Me and wifey love crab and it seems a shame to not get out there and try it out. Specially since it’s about $45+ for the meat these days!
Crab baskets are also good for turtles… there were 4 on this pull but two came out. I like the turkey necks or chicken backs, this particular basket I put left over squid… we also caught a couple of skates in it…
I like the baskets over the line and net… just get the metal ones over the string baskets, very cheap at wally world.
How far into the colder months can you crab? I know they are present all year long, but I assume they get a lot slower as the water gets colder which probably results in smaller numbers.
Also, if I were to crab off a boat (with a chicken neck and string), is the best place in the salt creeks, say the ones off Sullivans off the ICW? Any other crabbing spots would be appreciated, but I understand if you do not want to give up your secret spot.
A bad day fishin’ is better than a good day at work!
You may want to try Bulow Landing on Rantowles Creek. They are so thick there that bottom fishing with a Carolina rig is out of the question. More crabs than a CofC sorority house… I see a few folks crabbing there almost every low tide and they are usually doing well. No docks though.