I have been trying to catch blue crabs off a dock on Privateer Creek, just off Edisto. Been using chicken with bone in large wire traps. Water is about 5-8 feet deep where I am. What am I doing wrong? No crabs are ever in the traps.
Crabs don’t eat chicken
Put some fish in there and set the pot as deep as you can
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ok I will try that. Why does everyone always tell you chicken necks are the ideal bait?
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They (wings and necks) will work, but so will cat food I suppose.
Crabbers use fish for a reason, it’s just mo-betta
They should be there…try different depths if you can, I’d try shallower (just covering the trap) and see what happens. Goodluck.
Buy some smoked heron. Put it in the trap.
Thanks I will try that
Blue crabs will eat anything. However, depending on the location, they may not be everywhere. I grew up in MD near the Chesapeake Bay, and used to catch them in a brackish tidal creek near my home. It just may be that where you’re trying, they’re not close and not willing to move. I used to scoop them up on the pier pilings, as they would get right on the pilings when they were beginning to shed their shells. Also used to find soft crabs hiding in the grass in the shallows. They go to these places to get away from predators. We used chicken necks, and back then salted eel was a popular commercial bait, but eels were not something we used much. Fish works too. I would catch a Pumpkinseed Sunfish, gut it and tie a string around it and hang it from the pier, and when I saw the string moving, would slowly pull it up and net the crab if I could. If where you’re placing your traps has a strong current, that might deter them from being there. Crabs can swim and move around, and they can be found in many places in a water body, but sometimes there’s variables, that might cause them not to be there. They can be like fish, in being around cover, or structure, especially when they’re getting ready to shed their shells. They can’t fight strong currents well, but with tidal water, still may be close to where there can be strong currents when the tides moving. I knew a place, where rip rap lined the shore to limit erosion and crabs would get in those rocks, and the current could rip through there at times. I agree with what was said about trying different areas, depths and sometimes closer to shore in shallower water. Back when I was a kid, I could wade a lot of that creek, and crabs were not everywhere, but some places, I knew those would be where to look, and that was around the piers, pilings, any structures, and grasses. I’ve fly fished for Stripers where there was sod banks along the shore, and we sometimes used crab flies. The crabs would get in the pockets washed out in the bank, to sluff their shells and grow a new one and Stripers would prowl around those shores, and root them out or eat them as they move in or out. I have known folks who crabbed a lot and they used all kinds of baits for their traps/pots. When i had first got married, we used to vacation in Ocean City, MD and I tried fishing in the bay there. All I ever did was feed the crabs. I would get them eating bait on the ocean side too, but not as bad as in the bay. So, you need to find them, and place your traps where they are.