How To Catch Crabs? Guide Step By Step

Catching crabs is not only a professional job like fishing. There is a lot of fun catching crabs and don’t require skills, experience or any expensive equipments. Some tricks and a good time can provide enough crabs for a tasty dish. But, how to catch crabs?

There are so many different processes and techniques to catch crabs. Some are easy, while some may be difficult based on crabbing areas. Some techniques require more effort than easy ways, like crab pot or dropping a trotline.

Hit this post and know how to catch crabs with some tips that make sure you come home with a full bucket of crabs. We will also discuss tips and tricks that can save you from laws.

What Is Crab Fishing?

Before catching crabs, let’s try to know what crabbing fishing is and the nature of crabs. Crab fishing means crabbing, and it is a method of catching crabs from the bank of the beach, deep water, or farm. Now-a-day, crabbing is a commercial and professional fishing business universally.

Some people take it as a recreational and fun activity for family or friends camping. Crabbing is a catching process of crabs that sounds simple. But you can’t catch crabs anytime while you want. You should abide by some rules and regulations for catching crabs.

Law Of Catching Crabs

When you are thinking of catching crabs, even for camping fun time, you should keep in mind you have to abide by some laws. There have some restrictions, and they are also different according to the crabbing areas.

The restrictions are: how many crabs can you catch, what types of license you need, the size of crabs, and the area and time for targeting crabs. If you have no idea about it in the past, you can go to your local marina and talk about crabbing.   

For example, in Florida, you can normally catch female crabs. But you can’t catch egg-bearing female crabs to eat or harvest, and it is completely illegal. Another law is every person can’t use more than five or six crab traps legally. Plus, the traps should be pulled manually. This law is to save the population of crabs in Florida. 

When you are situated on the East coast of the USA, you can permit Blue Claw Crabs. If you catch any spider or green crabs, you have to release them instantly. Those types of crabs are restricted because they aren’t safe for eating. Like this law, you have to know about the laws and restrictions in your area where you want to play game fun with crabs.

How To Catch Crabs: Let’s Learn

There are some easy and popular methods to target different types of crabs. You can use them according to your special preference and what gear you have on hand. Let’s see the processes at a glance in more detail:

Method: 1 (Use Crab Pot)

• Collect Equipment: Gather square trap crab pot (10-20lbs), scrap net, thick crabbing gloves, a culling stick (5-inches), and a storing container. If you need it, you can use an electric crab pot puller.
• Get Ideal Bait: There are so many different types of bait that professional and sports crabbers use. You need to experiment to check what works better for you. Basically, chicken necks are popular. You can use frozen fish that decomposes more quickly than fresh fish.
• Select the right place: Different crabbing areas cover different types of crabs. Pulling the crab pot in the right place depends on what types of crab you are trying to pick.
• Leave the pot overnight: Leave the crab trap pot overnight. Naturally, crabs are nocturnal, and they wander around for looking food. Ensure you have put the pot in place from where you will pick the next time.
• Remove the crabs: next day, check the left-out crab’s trap. If you get enough crab into the trap, pull it out and remove the crab from the trap. Hold the crabs and pick them up into the ice storage container.

Method:2 (Use Trot Line)

• Collect Equipment:

This method requires a long line, a boat, two buoys, right bait, a prop stick, a dip net, a hook, some snoods & clips, two long chains, and some heavy sinkers.

You should pick two buoys with 5-lines between 20 to 100 feet. A mainline and 2-lines attach to buoys, and the other 2-lines attach to anchors. The dip nets will assist you in collecting the caught crabs. It will make your task very easier.

The prop stick attached to your boat and fixes your line works better for running line or pulling the line out of the water. It will make your line come up smoothly and can’t knock off the crabs. And a hook needs to pull up the lines from the bottom.

You also need some snoods and clips for hooking the perfect bait to the mainline. Snoods have to be 6-inches dropper lines and attached to the baits. And the mainline needs to be attached with 3-inches stainless steel mini-clips. 

• Select The Right Time & Place:

The trotline method is some tricky than other methods. You need to understand the right time and right place for crabbing.

The best time to set the trotline is early morning, after a hot and muggy night. During that time, the crabs are running and moving around the water. Morning is also the best time for removing the trotline with crabs.

The right and the perfect place for setting the trotline is parallel to the seashore, where the bottom dives away. It can happen between 5-feet to 12-feet deep.

Prepare the trot Line: Knot the bait using snoods and clips onto every 4 to 5 feet of the lines. The lines must be weighted on both ends with 2 to 3 feet of galvanized chain.

Take about 20-feet long 4 small length ropes. Attach one of them to anchor and attach the rope to the buoy. Then attach another 20-foot rope with the same buoy and attach a chain to its end. Now attach the mainline to the chain and do a similar task for another side.

Read also: Best Crabbing Spots in Washington State

• Get Ideal Bait:

Salted ell and chicken necks are the best baits for this method. Cut them into ½ by 3-inches that perform better to catch crabs.

• Drop The Lines:

Now drop the first weight with the buoy, adding snoods plus baits. After dropping the first one, drop the second line and place the next buoy with the anchor.

• Pull Up The Lines & Collect Crabs:

After dropping the lines, go back to the starting place with the boat and use the hooks to catch the crabs. Bring your mainline slowly to the water. Slip the line over the roller so that the lines float on the water at about a 40-degree angle and keep it extended.

You can net the crabs when they come up to the exterior of the water. Do it very fast so that the crabs can’t release the bait. In this situation, you need to take the help of another person.

When you catch crabs, you have to drop the lines again. So, repeat the process and get crabs more and more.

Read also: 7 Best Long Beach Fishing Spots: How to Catch Fish Like a Pro

Method: 3 (Use Hand Line)

• Collect Equipment: This process is very easier than the above methods. For this process, you have to collect a dip net, a string long enough to reach the bottom of the water, and perfect bait (chicken neck, eel, or frozen fish).
• Tie the line Down: Just tie the lines down with bait and wait. When the crabs get the bait and get attached, you can take this moment and pull it fast.
• Draw the line again: You have to tie the line down again for another crab when you get a crab.
• Put the crabs into the cooler: Though this process is lengthy and you need to wait to get crabs one by one, you should keep a cooler with ice. So, you can put the crabs into ice and keep them fresh after a long time.

Read also: How To Catch Fiddler Crabs Like A Pro – Tips And Techniques

Final words!

Wow! What the best and easy technique they are! We hope you have got how to catch crabs from deep water using some equipment. We also think you have overcome your tension and are afraid of crabbing. If it is right, we wish good luck for you. Enjoy a good crabbing!