Customer Reviews

How to Catch Crabs: A Pacific Coast Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I make commercial crab traps for a living and this book has it all. When I mention this book to commercial crabbers most already know, they own the book! This book even talks about a ropes 'scope' when you put a trap in the water. A rookie commercial crabber I knew didn't clue into this fact and 'deadheaded' a string of thirty traps! Why a trap should be round is explained. Why a traps entrances should be lined up to the current is explained. It took my father ten years of commercial crabbing before he figured those things out! What bait gets the big males dungeness is covered, and it's absolutely correct. I can tell Charlie spent a lot of time talking to commercial crabbers to write this book. A great deal!

If you want an easy and simple guide to catching crab, this is it. After reading it, I immediately started catching good sized crab. It is easy to understand and covers all the basics.

While you may not choose to use his advice on what type of trap to use, this book has all you need to know to start catching crabs. I have a friend who uses a ring as he's more interested in the "fishing" than the "catching."

The one bit he didn't mention, is that losing that expensive SS trap is a killer for crabs. In Washington you must secure the hatch with bio-degrable string so that if you do lose the trap it will stop fishing. Otherwise the dead crabs self bait the trap and the cycle continues for 10 year or more until the trap fully rusts out. Check out the Fish & game pages for Texas and Alabama where during closed seasons they removed over 2,000 lost traps each.

Also Charlie left out my favorite crab "catching" technique which is to put a fish head on a line and toss it out. Wait for the line to "walk" and then slowly pull it in. Near the surface net the crab! Well that's the way it was supposed to work, and it sort of does, well it did for Carolina blue claw crabs. And its great fun for the kids.

Anyway another great book by Charlie.

Nearly everyone at my marina owns Charlie's book. It's both informative and fun. Crabbing is a simple sport. This is a simple, clear book.
I recommend it.
Wayne Heinz, author of, How to Catch Salmon, Sturgeon, Lingcod, Rockfish, and Halibut Along the Pacific Coast: Fish On!

This the basic "how to" book on crab catching, but it also makes a great JOKE GIFT!! I Love the book's title, and I have given it to a ton of my friends as a joke gift. It is a good book too!