Crabbing in grand isle
 

Does anyone have any tips for crabbing on the beach at Grand isle. Tried it awhile back with ring nets and the waves just washed them all over the place.
Even thinking of going at night wading with a latern and net. Bringing the kids and just really looking for help, advice or pointers. Thanks

Get two poles. Sticks, bamboo, whatever. Someone turned me on to angled aluminum a couple of years ago.

Get 100 feet of braided nylon, I like a 3/8's sized line.

Get a roll of catfish line or any string really.

I tie weights on the line, 1/2 oz every 15 feet or so, and a chicken neck directly to the line every 5 feet or so. Tie your main line to the two poles and stick them in the water about waist deep.

Walk the line holding a dip net in hand, pick it up by one pole and walk along gently bringing the line to the surface. When you see a crab or 3, bring the dip net up under the crab and they will release as you break the surface of the water with the chicken neck.

Don't worry about drop lines or special bait hooks, they just get in the way. You want to make sure you line is on the bottom but not too loose. When they are running, you won't be able to keep up.

this is how we do it too. I found this video showing it
https://youtu.be/cHXzCy0ZUZU

So u want the turkey neck to be on the bottom?

no you want the weight on the bottom, turkey neck about half way up. We use pyramid weights

Ok so every drop line with a neck needs a weight on it?

Ok just saw the video. That makes since. Any part of the day better or worse, or tide in or out make a difference

You can skip the drop lines and tie the necks directly to the main line.

Get chicken necks, if you can't find any (hi neighbor, winn dixie usually have them) the grocery store on the island has them for $.89 a pound. I always buy before going, sometimes they don't have any. We went last week. Friday nothing, Saturday 2 dozen or so, Sunday filled two ice chests in less than an hour and call it quits. We could have caught more, but as I get older (damn I feel old and I am 32) and I am the one doing the boiling enough to eat for the day is good for me. Usually I count, but since we caught so many, so fast I was getting a dozen crabs or more a run. My guess after cooking them was about 10 dozen that hour. We thought it was 5-6 dozen, but we had 7 dozen crabs left over after people left our house!

Do this....




When leg quarters go on sale for 39 cents a pound i load up....... I think if I was a crab I would rather eat a piece of meat than chew on a nexk bone and leg quarters are cheaper. I seperate the thigh and leg so i have 2 pieces.

Does the tide or time of the day help or hurt the crabs

If no chicken or turkey is available use the carcasses of your cleaned fish or catch some hardheads, kill em, clip the fins and cut slices in em and use that for bait. If you resort to the nets again, tie some weights to them so they don't drift w/ the waves.

best waits for cages are the clip on lead weights you get from a marine hardware place.

If you tie the bait using some string..... the crabs will cut the line while eating the bait.

I use the metal Shower curtain hooks to hold the bait.

I have resorted to using chicken legs before. A $1 pack of necks has anywhere from 6-10 baits and they last a long time. If you want to be really cheap, go cast nest some mullet, that is what I use in crab traps. Slit a few to get them bleeding and pack the cage out. Usually you can catch enough to run a line also, but bait on the beach wasn't like it normally has been. The pass was full of bait, but I don't throw my nets in the pass, they often don't come back up...

I use tie wraps and tie wrap them straight to the bait loop on my net. When I'm done i cut the tie wrap off.

Some good info. At this point I ain't worried about being cheap just as long as they catch some crabs I'll be happy.lol any of yall ever try the crabbing at night with the latern I was talking about earlier

I've seen crabs while gigging flounder but I never targeted them at night.

Just curious when I was like 7 or 8 my dad use to bring us to gulf port and we did that on the beach in about knee deep water. So many years ago I can't remember if ever did any good. Lol guys I can't thank yall enough for the help and info.

Many years ago, I caught crabs during the day in the surf using only a dip net. Just walk along in ~ 2 to 4 feet of water and when you see a crab..... go dip it up. This was in Alabama where the water was very clear.

We have ran crab lines at night if we saw a lot when gigging flounder. If crabs are running, they will congregate at your chicken necks. Sure, if I have a net and I can scoop one up, I do. It is so much easier just to bait a line.