Catching Mud Crabs – Essentials For Your Next Delicious Seafood Dinner

Heading out to catch a tasty feed of crabs is one of the most popular forms of fishing in Queensland. Be it sinking crab pots from your boat. Or placing crab pots by adventurous land based anglers. Crabbing is easy to do & easily accessible. Mud crabs are a popular delicacy & expensive to buy. For these reasons they are highly sought after. Plus they taste great with sweet & succulent meat. Mud crabs are found in estuaries, especially around mangroves & other shallow waters along the Queensland coast.

Catching mud crabs can be a fun & rewarding experience,. But, it requires some patience & the right equipment to be successful. In this blog post, we’ll go over the basics of mud crabbing & provide some tips & tricks to help you catch some tasty muddies.

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Equipment

The first step in mud crabbing is to choose the right equipment. A crab pot or dilly is a must-have item & can be purchased from your local fishing tackle store. Most crab pots come as a complete ready to go kit. But just incase, make sure your equipment meets the rules set out by Qld fisheries – here. This will include having a strong & suitable length of rope to secure to your crab pot. You will also need a suitable float. On which you will need to ensure your personal details are displayed.

When choosing a crab pot, there are many brands & options to choose from. You get what you pay for. It’s important to choose a high-quality pot, that is sturdy & made from durable materials. This is to prevent it from being damaged by the crabs or other creatures, such as sharks, in the water. Cheaper crab pots also have a tendency to get washed away in strong currents. I also recommend looking closely at the bait box or bait bag inside the crab pot. Again, this needs to be robust enough to hold your bait in place.

I also recommend that you purchase a crab measuring tool. There are strong penalties for catching and keeping undersized crab. You can purchase these online – here, or at your local tackle store.

Locations

Once you have your equipment, the next step is to find a good location to set your crab pot. Mud crabs prefer to live in areas with plenty of vegetation & shallow water, such as mangroves. Look for areas with plenty of food sources. Bait fish, yabby beds or other small creatures & set your pot in water that is less than 2 meters deep.

You also need to consider the tides when setting your trap as mud crabs are more active during high tide. There is nothing worse than coming to check your pot & finding it sitting exposed in the raging hot sun on a mud bank which you can not reach. Especially when there are a couple of nice crabs caught in the pot.

Bait

Baiting your crab pot is an important step in catching mud crabs. The type of bait you use can greatly impact the success of your fishing trip. Fresh fish, chicken or raw meat are all good options for bait. It’s best to use something that will not easily float away or fall apart in the water. You should also make sure that the bait is placed securely in the pot so that it does not wash away or fall out.

When you’ve found the perfect location & secured your bait in your pot, it’s time to set it in the water. Make sure that the pot is sitting upright & as best as possible, properly anchored in place. By law, you must attach a buoy or float with your details clearly displayed. This helps you locate your pot once it’s in the water. Leave the trap in the water for a few hours or even better overnight. If you can time a high tide change during late evening or during a overnight adventure you should see good results.

Check Your Catch

Checking the pot is the final step in the mud crabbing process. When you’ve let the pot soak for long enough, it’s time to check it & see if you’ve caught any crabs. Be careful when retrieving your pot. It is not just crabs which will come & try to eat your bait! Mud crabs can also be large & quite aggressive. Use gloves to handle crabs if you are a beginner & make sure to release any undersized crabs back into the water.

Make sure you check your crab pot & not someone else’s pot. This is a common problem, known as ‘raiding’, & is illegal. Many crabbers now place trail cameras & other monitoring devices to ensure no one else raids their pots. Put simply, DON’T DO IT.

In Qld, mud crabs must be 15cm min – (as at 14 Feb 2023) Limit of 7 per person / 14 per boat (with 2 or more people on board) – No take: Female mud crabs – Some areas have ‘closed waters to crabbing’ so check your local rules. You can’t possess mud crabs with the shell missing, or claws without the rest of the crab.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mud crabbing can be a fun & rewarding activity for those who are willing to put in the time & effort. Just remember to always be respectful of the environment & follow the regulations set by QLD Fisheries.