Help from a more experienced hunter.....

[thewisestfish]

I am ashamed to admit that this weekend in Cumbrae I ran away from a crab.

I am ashamed to admit that this weekend in Cumbrae, I also screamed at 20 meters through my reg because said crab bounced across the ocean floor at me FORWARDS, snapping its claws and made like it was going to attack me. Yes, I know, I am a human, I have two arms, two hands suitably protected with gloves, am significantly larger than a crab, and also had a very big crab hook and goodie bag. I could have stabbed the bloody thing.

But no, I screamed, and ran away.

I was supposed to be catching said crab, but I swear it was the size of a mini metro, and when I spotted it with my torch, it looked up, cool as owt, and did a ninja move.

I am supposed to be an underwater villain - but I screamed and ran away.....from a crab.

Please can someone help me? I think I need some lessons - and before you start - no jokes about help catching crabs please - I've heard them all this weekend.....divers have such dirty minds.

[Helen F H]

I now have these images of the ninja crab in finding nemo........

haaaaaiiiiiiii

[ray]

Are you a Girl?

[resting rifleman]

wait till you cross paths with the killer prawns

[Digger]

I would like to call Mark Chase to the stand, for his clear ability to deal with crustaceans moving about at speed is unrivalled. OK, he caught one mid water once, which shouldn't have got out of the bag in the first place, but it made me laugh.

Seriously, I find an easy way to get hold of the beggar is to either pin it down or pick it up. You need to stop it walking about because it can and will bite, and it hurts.

If you go for the pin it technique (my personal favourite) you just get a load of weight and push down on it, while another hand grabs behind with the bag pulled over it. Then grab crab and pull bag over the crab (if you see what I mean). Simple. Crab is in bag, and you didn't need to hold it very long.

For the more advanced, you can try and grab behind it and lift if off its feet. Once it's off the bottom it has no brip, and the only way it can get you is to get its claws behind itself, which an edible crab isn't too good at. You can also lift by the edges of the carapace if you can get your hand accross it. I find if it's that small I usually don't bother, unless it's a hunting competition, in which case anything legal goes, and we decide if it gets cooked back on the boat!

Hope this helps. And it sounds like you are a girl, by the way. But I have been known to pansy about like a jessie woman when a lobbie's gone for me in the past, so I'm going to play the pot if you're the kettle right now. That said, the lobster has never won.

[thewisestfish]

Originally Posted by ray

Are you a Girl?

Why?

[Digger]

By the way, the grab technique can be modified for your standard crab in a hole, or failing that I like the use of a crowbar. Good for wreck, and also good for crab. You can just hook it and pin it in one smooth action. Those things they market as crab hooks aren't strong enough for a decent sized crab in a good hole. You'll just bend it.

Oh, the only other technique is the twat it technique, where you use a large object, such as said crowbar, or a car, or your buddy, and just hit it really really hard. It will stun the pants off it, then out comes the bag and you're a winner and get to look like the big man on the boat. Until you find out it's a nature reserve.

[Digger]

I think what Ray's getting at is either a new technique only the ladies can use (now this I want to see) or possibly suggesting you're being a big girl about the whole thing, and you should fight it like a rufty tufty type. With weapons.

Once you've caught a couple you'll see why you look like you're being a girl about it.

[thewisestfish]

Originally Posted by resting rifleman

wait till you cross paths with the killer prawns

Very funny. I can do prawns. It's the claws and the bad attitude of big crustatians that scares me I think. I'm scared of them 'getting' me - I can do squatties until the cows come home, I think that it's the big claw thing that I have a problem with.

And that I am a bit crap.

I can't believe I ran away from a crab. I am ashamed.

[Paul Oliver]

Approach from behind and get a firm grip. I don't bother with crabs much but do with Lobsters if they are big enough. Once you have it measure it to make sure its big enough and not in berry.

Best way to get it into your goody bag is to have the bag inside out if you like with your hand at the bottom, so you then hold the crab/lobby with that hand and roll the bag over it.

Subsequent ones are a lot more difficult, but i usually find one good size one will do very nicely.