2 Cool Fishing Forum banner

What is the best Crab trap bait, and trap

9K views 11 replies 12 participants last post by  Aggieangler 
#1 ·
I was thinking about going and getting some crab traps and putting them out around the area I live in, Clear Lake and Kemah. I figured this would a fun summer project and since my family and I all love crabs we could maybe put them out and then go pick them up the next day.

What do people use for bait in the crab traps.

Does anyone know a good place that sells crab traps for a good price or recommend a certain type.

Thanks
Archie
 
#9 ·
Drive around the docks, around town, pull up to a crabbers house & ask him to sell you one, 9 times out of 10 they have some olds one laying around, if the trap is dirty(moss etc.) you need to power wash it, blue crabs are creatures of clean habitat contrary to popular belief, they will not enter a "dirty" trap, stone crabs like em dirty, next make sur the wire mesh is slightly bent in on the "eyes" of the trap, this allows the crab not to feel any resistance as they enter the trap, this is called tuning the trap, the crabber will explain if he's not being crabby, fresh fish makes the best bait, preferably menhaden"pogies" , chiken spoils t quick and blue crabs shy away from rotten bait, make sure you set sure trap right side up, in the early spring crabs are migrating from the deeper waters (ICW, ship channels etc.) into the warm waters of the bay, egg laden females happening right now, crabs that are pretty and blue have less meat in their body cavity than the ones that are grungy and barnacled, reason- the pretty blue one just shed their shell and have exhausted their natural fats as a mean to produce a new shell, concentrate right now on putting your traps in the sloughs until the water gets to hot, them move them deeper as summer progresses, if you put them in the ICW barges will roll em', hope this helps!
 
#10 ·
i used to always just get the traps at academy for about $25.00, but i was putting them into neighbor's private ponds over on the peninsula. to me, a crab trap is a crab trap, and there's no need to spend more than 25 bucks for one.

i've always thought that the best bait is a combination of fish cut into 2-3 pieces and raw chicken with the skin. crab's love both, and the chicken skin has a high fat content that gives off an aroma that travels, and the crabs can smell it from a great distance.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top