queensland Brisbane River Session #94 (Crabbing!)

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Well this is the next report from #91-#93, which will be up soon. This is a lot more exciting though, and I'll admit it. I had way more fun! The plan was to try and catch some muddies in the Brisbane River, after tips, which I'm very thankful for, from some members (thanks heaps @Kat, @benno573, @RustyHooka, @Drop Bear). 

Anyways, the first task was to prepare my pots. On quarantine day, or one of them anyways, I got some gutter guard from under the house, and a bunch of cable ties. I very approximately measured out the height of the pot, then added a few centimetres, then I cut three long rectangular pieces, than one smaller one, and ziptied them together, then cut them in half, then put a bottom on them and in the pots were two bait bags . I then got about a meter of line, threaded it through the top, then tied a swivel to one end and a long shank hook with the pointy bit snipped off on the other. Before I tied the hook on I'd put the line back through the swivel. So, I'd effectively made a self-tighten bait bag. Nice!

The arvo we decided to put the pots out I had to bait them up. I got out the old snapper frame from report Snapping Success, as well as lots of assorted baits including pike eel, mullet, chook drumsticks, old fish remains (unidentified), and that was it. Now, I loaded one pot with chook, some pike, and some snapper skin. The other pot, which seriously struggled to get the big snapper head in, was eventually loaded. I stunk of bait, was covered in flies, and was feeling yucky, but I washed up and ate my tea. Then, Dad and I loaded the yak, with my Shimano Crank and Diawa Magforce combo with a soft vibe, as my theory was the fish would be down deeper rather than up high in the water column.

Stench was bad, but bait was good to go!

Anyways, we got to the park, and launched the yak. We loaded everything in the yak, and after some discussion, I was to be squished up in the middle with the pots at the front. The tide was going out so we shot off down stream to deploy the pots. I was squished and couldn't paddle but Dad was making us fly along. We spotted some good looking ground so we paddled around 20 metres from the bank, where we were hoping it would be deep and salty, and got the first pot ready to deploy. Of course the rope was tangled, so after the five minutes it took to fix that fiasco we'd drifted away. We got to the spot, and the pot, which had a paver, about 20 meters of rope, and two milk bottle floats, was deployed. It sunk down, and we were excited to do the next pot.

The setup

Anyways, we went down about 200-300 metres to deploy the next pot, which was the opposite side to Three Pylon Creek. It was dropped in, and it had around 15M of rope. We were a bit worried about this one, but it looked good enough, so we were off to Three Pylon Creek. The third and final pot was a little orange one, with half a mullet bait spiked in. Our hopes were not high but this pot was deployed, in the shallows, in hope of an muddies running off from here.

Now, we could have a fish. I dropped the pink Zerek soft vibe down, and started doing jigs. I would lift it about 1-1.5M up, then let it sink back to the ground. I probably would've done this three or four dozen times, before we decided that I'd give it a cast for a while. I could flick it rather well, so I guess my reel prefers heavier lures. I flicked it up, around, and near the mouth of the creek to no avail. After about a dozen casts Dad and I parked it and decided we'd be better off going up and beginning the long slog upstream. We went to a jetty with lights, and gave the lure a few more flicks here, and with a near snag we kept going.

Vibing away

We were almost back at the park, but we dropped the vibe down near the jetty that we have seen bust ups at before. Hopefully there will be more if the river clears up. We did maybe three dozen big jigs of the vibe here, but there was no action to be had. It was certainly deep for 4 metres from the bank, which I guess is a good thing!

Anyways, we were back home a bit past nine and totally drench, so got into the shower and bed and set the clock for 6:30AM to hopefully go and get some crabs! Here are the stats of the trip quickly.

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 3:15PM, 1.6M, High, 9:10PM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 68%

Temperature: High, 21^oC, Low, 20^oC

Rain in last week: Lots of drizzle, but a bit of sun

Fish Caught: -

Tackle Used: Shimano Cranx Baitcast Rod, 5-8KG, 6"2', Diawa Magfroce Ci4, 15LB Braid, 20LB FC Rock Leader.

Lures Used: Zerek Soft Vibe

Humidity:  90%

Air Pressure: 1019

Weather: Cloudy, Cold, Drizzly, Uncomfy

Anyways, after launching the pots in, we had to follow up with retrieving them the next day - Easter Sunday! The yak was launched, once again with minimum gear, but a different lure to try and snag a flathead this time. We were hopeful to get the pots, but were not sure what to expect.  Dad was not that enthusiastic with the rain!

We shot down past the first couple of jetties, flying along with the tide. It was nice and relaxing, with light showers going over us. We got to where the first pot was, had a look, had more of a look, and realised our pot was no where to be seen! Numerous things went through our mind, but we thought it had either drifted, though unlikely as it had a brick in it, the floats had been pulled under, but also unlikely as two milk bottles is a fair old pull for the old river, or it had been carried away with some debris. We set off, disappointed, to hopefully find the next pot. Well, we got there too, and alas, no crab pot was to be seen. We decided to go and collect the little orange one from Three Pylon Creek, which we did, and unluckily that proved pointless. It was put down though and I had a fish. I'd already given my lure a fish for ten or so minutes at some pylons opposite, but my cheapo-K-mart-Tsunami lure on a 1/6^th jighead was deployed. I gave about 10-20 casts slow rolling and hop-hop retrieving (and a mix) for nothing. We were holding onto one of the pylons, but by now I'd switched to a Z-man Motor Oil Grub Curly Tail 2.5 inch plastic, on a 1/8^th jighead. I did the same with this, and still received nothing. It's worth mentioning I had a couple near snags, slow rolled my lure right in front of a rock bar, and saw the v-shaped line of something chasing some mullet or something similar. While we were here, we saw the milk bottle bust up from the depths, and then it went back under, then came up again, and then by the time we'd stopped fishing gone again, which was disappointing. We gave it more of a fish on the other side, and just as I was casting, something exploded up right next to us (as in less than a metre away). Now I know it was in the area of the floats but I wouldn't of thought they'd go up then straight down which makes me think it was something big that would've been fun on my lure. Lol. 

We gave the front of Three Pylon a fish before we left, and of course I over shot my cast by about a metre (embarrassing moments). Anyways, Dad was trying to prod my lure out with a paddle, and then, a bloody wasp flies down, and stings me square in the middle of the nose. "YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHHH!" was all that could be heard for the next few seconds before the wasp was, well, no more, and I had a bloomin' sore nose!

Anyways, back we paddled against the tide to the jetty, with only 1/3 pots. We hatched a plan to come and get them a few hours later than original, at tide change. This was a good idea, and after a quick break, Dad, my sister, and I all set off. We got to the jetty, launched, and got paddling away. Good news - the first pot had resurfaced . After some untangling from what appeared to be a gum tree branch, we pulled it up (Dad did). I was in the front of the yak, so the pot could be loaded. When the pot was lifted, to our utter surprise, we had one! Yippee! I was squealing like a twit, mainly because I was scared (did I mention I'm a bit of a crab wussy ) but we set off for the next pot. After an uneventful paddle across glassy waters, we pulled up the second pot. Guess what? This had one too! Yay!

The crabs

They were loaded into the yak and we set back off, with the tide assisting us. We got to the jetty, unloaded the pots, and the bait, and after lots of ginning around we had the first crab out. We measured him, and he was over fifteen, meaning he was legal. The second one, in the orange pot, didn't want to move one bit. We couldn't get him out! We then measured that one, and decided we'd take him home to eat and let the other go. We put him on the jetty after some photos and watched him scuttle back in - hopefully to increase the crab population at the local park. 

Coming in

After we got home I got everything out of the yak and then tried to get this crab out of the bloody pot. He didn't want to budge! Dad had the idea I spray him out with the hose, so after a long and hard spray, and some plying of the claws with pliers, old mate crab had been released out of the pot. Now, we had to tie him! Not really knowing what I was doing, I tried to wrap the string around his claws and legs. It ended up being what could only be described as the worlds worst crab tying job, but it held. I got some ice and made a salt water slurry, and in the crab went (to kill him). 

Holding it

I rung up my mate and asked him if he wanted to try some Brisbane River Mud crab, and he agreed. He had eaten a fair bit of crab before, so I guessed he'd be a pretty good taste tester. Soon after, I met him at his house, and we set off. I hooked up my buggy with the esky and a few other handy things, and rode to the Scout Den. I unlocked the den and got out a gas cooker, some gas, pot, water (salt), and lit the stove. We eventually got it boiling so we untied the crab and lowered him in (not cleaned, just whole). We set a 12 minute timer, and in that time I chopped and buttered some white bread. I had a nice little platter ready for the crab. The twelve minute time went off, so we got some tongs and lifted it out. We ripped off the legs and gave it a taste. It was cooked well we thought, but boy, there must've been something wrong with that crab! It tasted like a prawn you missed when cleaning your cast net after being in the net for two days! Yuck! I felt pretty bad about not eating him all, but we gave it a go. So any ideas as to why the rotten taste? Water quality? Cooking method? Bad crab?

Cooking and cooling

Anyways, we cleaned up, packed up, and set off home disappointed. I'm glad I can catch crabs somewhere but I don't know if I'll keep another one for a while... Thanks for reading this report, and if you're wondering why it's not just in with the other ones, Dad thought it would be too long to be put in with those . Here are the stats - 

Statistics of Trip - 

Tide: 4:00AM, 2.2M, High, 10:54AM, .6M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 65%

Bait Used in Crab Pots: Mullet, Pike eel, Chook Drumsticks, Old fish scraps

Tackle Used: 12lb braid mainline, 10lb FC Rock Leader, Abu Garcia Veritas Rod, Diawa Shinobi 2500 reel.

Lures Used: Tsunami Sand worm with 1/6^th jighead, Z-man Motor Oil grub with 1/8^th jighead.

Air Pressure: 1018

Weather: Overcast, rainy, wet, cold

Humidity: 86%

Wind: - (glassy)

Overall Success Rate: 70% - we got crabs but the taste was disappointing .

Cheers Hamish

[Kat]

Great job Hamish.  If you do some reading and research I believe the taste of the crab is probably more likely to do with when it has molted.  If it has recently molted it fills itself with fluid to get rid of the old shell and until it grows back into the new shell the space is filled with that watery fluid.  Don't give up - you should have kept the other crab because it may have tasted slot better.

Cheers Kat

[Brodie_S]

Sounds like a decent sesh but yeah shame about the tastes 

[Neil Stratford]

Epic effort ,  and great read .

I think Kat may be right , sounds like you may have kept and cooked up an empty crab.

Look underneath the crab for a dark chocolate or golden colouration ,  this usually means they’re full.

Be careful though,  the full crabs are really strong and more difficult to handle.

The  ones which are shiny white beneath and very clean looking  are usually empty and poor eating.

Good to see you got out and had some fun .

At least you got away with all your fingers and toes intact.

 

Great effort !!

[Old Scaley]

Bad luck Hamish, empty crabs do taste putrid. You will only make that mistake once. The other lesson you have probably figured out is to try to pick up the pots at top or bottom of the tide in areas where the run is strong enough to hide your floats. Keep trying mate, you will get a cooker soon.

[kmcrosby78]

Nice work catching some crabs Hamish, keep persisting and just like your fishing you'll work out some patterns and will hopefully catch some tasty full ones. Just to clarify, did you use the water from the river to cook the crab or just tap water with salt added?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

12 hours ago, Kat said:

Great job Hamish.  If you do some reading and research I believe the taste of the crab is probably more likely to do with when it has molted.  If it has recently molted it fills itself with fluid to get rid of the old shell and until it grows back into the new shell the space is filled with that watery fluid.  Don't give up - you should have kept the other crab because it may have tasted slot better.

Cheers Kat

Hey Kat

Thanks. I guess if it has molted in some dirty water then it might've not been nice.

8 hours ago, Neil Stratford said:

Epic effort ,  and great read .

I think Kat may be right , sounds like you may have kept and cooked up an empty crab.

Look underneath the crab for a dark chocolate or golden colouration ,  this usually means they’re full.

Be careful though,  the full crabs are really strong and more difficult to handle.

The  ones which are shiny white beneath and very clean looking  are usually empty and poor eating.

Good to see you got out and had some fun .

At least you got away with all your fingers and toes intact.

 

Great effort !!

Hey Neil

Oh, that would make sense too. I didn't really know how to tell if he was 'full 'or not, so we just checked he was legal. I had a hard enough time handling this one so if we get a big brown one I think that will be for Dad to handle  . Thanks for the advice.

1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

Bad luck Hamish, empty crabs do taste putrid. You will only make that mistake once. The other lesson you have probably figured out is to try to pick up the pots at top or bottom of the tide in areas where the run is strong enough to hide your floats. Keep trying mate, you will get a cooker soon.

Hey Steve

Thanks, yeah, I won't be taking another crab home that looks like him again, that's for sure. I had some idea that crabs could be empty or full but I had no clue it influenced the taste. And I will certainly be sure to check on a tide change tide next time, it would make it so much easier than needing to come back and forth . 

18 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Nice work catching some crabs Hamish, keep persisting and just like your fishing you'll work out some patterns and will hopefully catch some tasty full ones. Just to clarify, did you use the water from the river to cook the crab or just tap water with salt added?

Hi KM

Thanks, crabbing is fun so I think I'll do more of it over time! I know it may have been a factor but I made my own salt water, I've seen lots of mixed opinions about it so I figured I couldn't go too wrong  (which I did, but hopefully not from the salt water). 

Cheers Hamish

[kmcrosby78]

No problem making your own saltwater Hamish - better than using water from the Brisbane River (particularly down your way ). Once you (or your Dad) get more comfortable handling the crabs, try pinching under the carapace (crab body) - this will indicate if the crab is full or empty.

[Kat]

8 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

No problem making your own saltwater Hamish - better than using water from the Brisbane River (particularly down your way ). Once you (or your Dad) get more comfortable handling the crabs, try pinching under the carapace (crab body) - this will indicate if the crab is full or empty.

Ha ha.  Given my recent experience I am not sure I will ever be brave enough to do that - but yes I have been told and shown you can sort of push certain parts of the crab to see if it is empty or full.  The other way is definitely looking at the colour of the shell - if it is nice and clean it has probably recently molted.  Also look at the teeth on the claws - if they are sharp and looking unused it has also probably recently molted.  And yes they taste horrid.  But a good one tastes great

[RustyHooka]

@Kat such good ideas, thanks for those.   Must admit I've not noticed a difference in the taste of Brissy river crabs that aren't full - but it makes a lot of sense - particularly given the state of the river after 3 weeks of runoff and pretty dirty water.....  or maybe it's because I like them chilli style....

Hamish - I'm stoked that you and your dad caught some though, absolutely terrific to see - and thanks for your snaps.

 

[Kat]

7 minutes ago, RustyHooka said:

@Kat such good ideas, thanks for those.   Must admit I've not noticed a difference in the taste of Brissy river crabs that aren't full - but it makes a lot of sense - particularly given the state of the river after 3 weeks of runoff and pretty dirty water.....  or maybe it's because I like them chilli style....

Hamish - I'm stoked that you and your dad caught some though, absolutely terrific to see - and thanks for your snaps.

 

Ha ha.  I have recently been crabbing myself for the first time.  I have started writing a report and will post it soon...

[Brodie_S]

5 minutes ago, Kat said:

Ha ha.  I have recently been crabbing myself for the first time.  I have started writing a report and will post it soon...

Same although when I go crabbing I get massive mud crabs when using baits on rod/reel setups intended for flathead or Jew and then when I try and land them they drop the bait and swim to the bottom .then I go check the crab pots and I only get tiny blue swimmers or small mud crabs and sometimes small leather jacket and bream somehow end up in the crab pots 

[Ed.]

That would be annoying. You could try tying a couple of very large loops of line around the bait so when you pull it up, there will be a good chance that the muddie will have some of it's legs tangled up in those loops. That will help to pull it up but don't know what effect it will have on any fish you are targeting!

[Gad]

Thanks for the read Hamish, glad you got some reward for your efforts.

Sometimes the colouring of a crab can be deceiving as to whether it has recently moulted or not and  is full or not. I`ve found the fool proof way of checking the fullness of a crab is; turn the crab over and using your  your thumbs and fingers either side of the carapace to hold the crab, press firmly on the abdomen plates (using your thumbs) adjacent to the third legs….if the shell flexes at all, the crab is not full.

Good on you guys for making the extra effort to go back to check for/recover your pots that were `missing` on your first checks…
so many numpties out there would have jumped to their conclusion that ‘share farmers’/low life`s had stolen their pots, and then flooded fishing/cabbing sites/FB pages with their false tales of woe

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 06/04/2021 at 8:41 AM, kmcrosby78 said:

No problem making your own saltwater Hamish - better than using water from the Brisbane River (particularly down your way ). Once you (or your Dad) get more comfortable handling the crabs, try pinching under the carapace (crab body) - this will indicate if the crab is full or empty.

Yeah, I would've thought that too. Lol, it's not Dad who can't handle them, it's me, it took about fifteen minutes to try and pick up that one crab .

On 06/04/2021 at 8:53 AM, Kat said:

Ha ha.  Given my recent experience I am not sure I will ever be brave enough to do that - but yes I have been told and shown you can sort of push certain parts of the crab to see if it is empty or full.  The other way is definitely looking at the colour of the shell - if it is nice and clean it has probably recently molted.  Also look at the teeth on the claws - if they are sharp and looking unused it has also probably recently molted.  And yes they taste horrid.  But a good one tastes great

 I'll be looking forward to your report Kat. Thanks for the tips.

23 hours ago, RustyHooka said:

@Kat such good ideas, thanks for those.   Must admit I've not noticed a difference in the taste of Brissy river crabs that aren't full - but it makes a lot of sense - particularly given the state of the river after 3 weeks of runoff and pretty dirty water.....  or maybe it's because I like them chilli style....

Hamish - I'm stoked that you and your dad caught some though, absolutely terrific to see - and thanks for your snaps.

 

Hey Rusty

Cheers! Hopefully not the last crabs I catch either  

22 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

Same although when I go crabbing I get massive mud crabs when using baits on rod/reel setups intended for flathead or Jew and then when I try and land them they drop the bait and swim to the bottom .then I go check the crab pots and I only get tiny blue swimmers or small mud crabs and sometimes small leather jacket and bream somehow end up in the crab pots 

First world problems. Lol. 

1 hour ago, Gad said:

Thanks for the read Hamish, glad you got some reward for your efforts.

Sometimes the colouring of a crab can be deceiving as to whether it has recently moulted or not and  is full or not. I`ve found the fool proof way of checking the fullness of a crab is; turn the crab over and using your  your thumbs and fingers either side of the carapace to hold the crab, press firmly on the abdomen plates (using your thumbs) adjacent to the third legs….if the shell flexes at all, the crab is not full.

Good on you guys for making the extra effort to go back to check for/recover your pots that were `missing` on your first checks…
so many numpties out there would have jumped to their conclusion that ‘share farmers’/low life`s had stolen their pots, and then flooded fishing/cabbing sites/FB pages with their false tales of woe

Hey Gad

I'm glad you enjoyed. Thank you for the tips about checking the fullness. The next time we catch some/if we catch some we will have to try doing it that way. Yeah, I always here about stolen pots. I think that if people put in a bit more effort then they'd find them just how they left them!

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

Nice one mate. 

2 crabs is pretty fun. 

It sure is very disappointing to catch a huge crab only to discover it is empty. 

 

[Drop Bear]

and thanks for a great report. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Nice one mate. 

2 crabs is pretty fun. 

It sure is very disappointing to catch a huge crab only to discover it is empty. 

 

Thanks Drop Bear. Yep, it was all fun. Next time I'm hoping they'll be full!

Cheers Hamish