Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3625 Nov 24- Dec8 2017 | Page 7

VOL.36 • ISS. 25 Nov. 24 - Dec. 8, 2017 5 Getting Crabby! < It’s that time of the year again. The nights are chilly, the days are shorter and Thanksgiving is looming. This is when Norcal saltwater anglers turn their attention to rounding up big tasty Dungeness crabs! > For many salmon heads like th ese represent the gold standard in terms of crab bait. To be sure a bloody oily salmon head will attract the attention of crabs, but once the crabs are inside the trap they will make short work of salmon heads and when they do that trap is no longer fishing. presents Ready, Set, Soak: Your Guide To Rounding Up Norcal Crabs! F or Norcal outdoor enthusiasts, the fall has so much to offer that even if the season stretched out for six months, a sports- man would have a tough time sampling all the great action the fall months have to offer. A very preliminary list looks something like this. Stripers in the Delta, trout chasing bait at reservoirs, duck season, deer season, pheasant and quail sea- sons, lingcod moving shallow to spawn and….Well you get the idea, so much to do, so little time! If you’re a saltwater angler, there’s likely one more thing sandwiched near the top of your “fall to do list”…I’m talking about crabbing. The general crab season is now under- way! I’ve been crabbing on and off for the better part of 40 years. It’s fun, it’s addicting and if you’ve never had fresh cooked crab you are really missing out on some fabulous eating! Some of the folks reading this have probably been crabbing longer than me and there are undoubted others who have never crabbed but would like to. With crabbing season about a month away I’ll toss out some of what I’ve observed over the years. I think this information will likely be most useful to the new crabbers out there, but there might be a thing or two that will reso- nate with the veterans too. There is a bunch of different crabbing gear on the market and we don’t have room for a full-blown gear discussion. If you are a boater looking for gear I would advise that you buy traditional cage style pots that are heavy so they stay put. For the would-be pier anglers out there, I’ve done very well with super simple net ring traps weighted with a quartet of lead sinkers. Glossing over the traps, what I really want to take a close look at are the corner- stone concepts of crabbing including best times, locations, baits and baiting strategy. If you are fishing from piers you really don’t have a choice about where you drop your pots (don’t worry there are dozens of productive piers and jetties dotting the coast). Boaters on the other hand have the luxury of being selective about where they drop their gear. You can find Dungeness crabs in areas of rock, but you’ll find the largest numbers of crabs on bottoms composed of sand or sand and firm mud. I try to set my pots in water ranging from 25 to 60 feet deep max simply because I don’t want to kill myself pulling deepwater sets. Early in the season it’s easy to find productive shallow water action. As the season progress and the shallows get cleaned out a bit, you’ll either have to move deeper or do some prospecting to find some shallow water areas that have been over- looked. When we refer to the best times for saltwater fishing, we are generally referring to the tides. As a general rule, I like to crab incoming tides that are of a moderate size. Current is essential to crabbing success because it’s the current that broadcasts the scent of your bait. You want a long steady current flow, not a big surge. Typically, you get this kind of flow with an incoming tide. The outgo tends to produce heavier current. If you leave your pots out overnight you’ll obviously be working multiple tides. Day crabbers should stick with incoming tides if they have a choice. So now that we’ve got an idea of where and when to drop our gear, the next step is getting a supply of high quality bait. A lot of FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg ^ Poultry in the form of turkey drum sticks like these or turkey wings are dandy crab baits. Not only are crabs drawn to poultry, but they also seem to have a difficult time dealing with the tough skin. Poultry baits tend to last longer than fish baits and as a result a trap baited with poultry usually attracts crabs longer than one baited with fish heads ^ If you want to super charge your crab baits invest in a jug of Pro-Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant Oil. To use it, simply put your bait in a bucket, pour the Pro-Cure solution over it and allow the bait to marinade for a day. You’ll be pleased with the results! CONTINUED ON PAGE 18