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Post by meoc4life on Jan 26, 2008 23:36:57 GMT
whats the best way of getting live hermit crab cheers
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Post by RichardB on Jan 28, 2008 15:01:28 GMT
Try lowering a baited dropnet down a pier and leaving for a while.
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Post by snakefish on Feb 7, 2008 11:45:09 GMT
Stopping the whelkers, so that hermits have some 'omes to go to!  |
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Post by squideyebarnes on Feb 8, 2008 14:18:53 GMT
Aint that the truth will be none left soon  |
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Post by meoc4life on Feb 8, 2008 22:09:15 GMT
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Post by snakefish on Feb 8, 2008 22:38:49 GMT
I'm sorry meo, I should have attempted to answer the question. It used to be possible for charter skips to leave two crab pots each day not far off Langstone fairway and get a couple of dozen hermits to supply anglers with bait. About five years ago numbers in the pots dwindled to almost nothing and it was noticeable that there would be ten whelks to each hermit. Over the next couple of years, the pots did not warrant putting down since a whelk or two was all they produced. The charter boats now leave a small trap at their moorings and take a couple of dozen hardbacks for the smoothie fishermen. In the meantime the whelkers have been putting more and more pots down (even between the Blocks and St George's Rd which prevents anglers using long casts there). P2 is a regular and can be very abusive towards anglers. Now even they have had to 'broaden their horizons' as a result of their own efficiency at taking the whelks. Fewer whelks means far fewer hermits. So what can I say? I used to put a dropnet down off South Parade Pier and get a few and I knew a few charter skips who would give me a dozen for smut catching. Nowadays they are in very short supply. The frozen ones, in my opinion, are useless for shore casting.  |
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Post by solehunter on Feb 8, 2008 22:52:05 GMT
Good post snake.
On a lighter note, i once used to collect hermits when i worked on a potting boat. We never really got many as pots full of hermits used to spell bad crab ground, so it was only by mistake we ever caught many. Anyway, i used to store them in the crab pens and once i thought i had enough for a good session i went to gather them all out of the pens. What was i faced with?...EMPTY SHELLS! The buggers had just left their shells and walked out through the pen netting. My skipper laughed himself silly!.....the B******
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blank
Second mate
Posts: 148
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Post by blank on Feb 9, 2008 8:38:10 GMT
Good post snake. On a lighter note, i once used to collect hermits when i worked on a potting boat. We never really got many as pots full of hermits used to spell bad crab ground, so it was only by mistake we ever caught many. Anyway, i used to store them in the crab pens and once i thought i had enough for a good session i went to gather them all out of the pens. What was i faced with?...EMPTY SHELLS! The buggers had just left their shells and walked out through the pen netting. My skipper laughed himself silly!.....the B****** LOL remind me never to go fishing with you as you really are a UNLUCKY guy ;D |
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Post by The Codfather of Sole on Feb 9, 2008 10:37:31 GMT
A lot of this problem with hermit supply is due to the whelk shells not being dumped back at sea now, they used to do this  |
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Post by greysfanboy on Feb 9, 2008 11:03:05 GMT
A lot of this problem with hermit supply is due to the whelk shells not being dumped back at sea now, they used to do this Yeah, it can't be that hard can it? |
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Post by striker on Feb 9, 2008 15:20:07 GMT
whats the best way of getting live hermit crab cheers what are you going to use them for? |
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Post by snakefish on Feb 9, 2008 16:43:35 GMT
The soft tails make an excellent bait for bream and other species from reef fish to flatties. The whole hermit crabs are one of the best smoothhound baits from beach and boat. Bass are partial too! On the E Coast I'd slide a couple of lug up the snood and whip a whole hermit (minus pincers) on the hook. Had nice beach and pier cod to 13-9 on that bait. The booming population of spider crabs (when they peel) will now pre-occupy the 'smuts' from the Sussex and Hants beaches.  |
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