Crabbing info

[salmonkiller01]

Just wondering what others have found for crabbing. Last couple trips to my usual spot I have gotten a couple nice males and a bunch of females.
Do the males tend to go deeper in the winter or shallower? I usually drop in 75’ in the summer and do week

 

[salmonkiller01]

So I did some google searches and found that tagging studies showed males tend to go deeper. 40-120m. Will try that or maybe area is fished out from summer crabbing by everyone

 

[kaelc]

I feel like they are everywhere in the South Island. I’ve caught females halibut fishing in 240 feet of water. Males I’ve set traps for in 140-30 feet, pretty consistent at all depths. Some days they are there some days nothing . I’ll check my Charlie white book and see what he says and I can shoot you a screen shot.

 

[scott craven]

It's been slow for male's where we fish. Mostly undersized and females.
It might have something to do with the aggressive commercial fishery

 

[scott craven]

I think DFO needs to look at assigning some recreational only crabbing areas.
The commercial industry takes so much harvest compared to recreational.
Long term it would likely improve stock's.

 

[scott craven]

I really doubt it's DFO that makes that call. Political donations do.

I forgot, the world is corrupt

 

[Whole in the Water]

The local SFAB reps have raised this issue several times over the years with DFO. The commercial sector whines about and says no way and DFO caves to the commercial sector yet again! .

However, I and many others in the public fishery agree that there needs to be some sport/rec only crabbing areas, especially since the commercial sector gets the entire coast line and the ability to fish deeper then the rec/sport sector. Gotta keep trying to make this happen!

 

[Bryan Allen]

Careful--- I see FNs demanding the same senario for thier "traditional territory" . And I dont think they will agree to share with us.

 

[kaelc]

I'm pretty happy with the regs for Crabs for sporties in Victoria. Fish year-round, basically anywhere. Thanks for the SFAB for being at the table and keeping our needs. I don't want to change to what they have down south and no need to stir up a hornets nest. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...-vancouver-island-trap-reallocation-1.6406237

 

[tinboatrobb]

I'm pretty happy with the regs for Crabs for sporties in Victoria. Fish year-round, basically anywhere. Thanks for the SFAB for being at the table and keeping our needs. I don't want to change to what they have down south and no need to stir up a hornets nest. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...-vancouver-island-trap-reallocation-1.6406237

You must not do any crabbing off Willows beach or in Cadboro bay. Those 2 ares used to be awesome for crabbing. 5 or 6 years ago the commercial guy moved in and has carpet bombed the whole area, you are now very lucky to get recreational crab from either area. This can be confirmed by anyone who crabs in those areas. They are 2 spots that are accessible by small boats, kayaks, paddle boards, rowboats etc. something needs to be done about it. I understand that the issue has been brought up to DFO and Transport Canada.

 

[adbk]

Sept, Oct, Nov Dec were when I used to pound the docks for crab on southern Vancouver island so they should definitely be shallow enough. My guess would be that either somebody is checking your traps for you or commercial guys came in and cleaned out an area…

just a guess though..nature loves to throw curveballs, too.

 

[kaelc]

One member does well with short sets off Willows. I haven't done well there for years but have only tried 3-4 times, shorter sets. My buddy got 7 keepers in less than 15 minutes out of Sidney a couple weeks ago. He set and realized he was too close to a commercial string so went to reset and had close to their limit in one trap he couldn't believe it. Hope it picks up for all of us, I haven't had limits anywhere in a long time but I blame myself for not fishing enough traps.

 

[salmonkiller01]

I think the area gets fished hard all summer but in saying that I have a few spots that only produce at certain times. Almost like the crab migrate in, then leave