# Crab for Texas Tarpon?



## CiguateraSoup (Oct 2, 2015)

Anyone down here ever use crab for tarpon? Seems like it is a go-to bait in Florida but fishing there seems to occur more at passes than here in TX. I've seen a number of references to using a blue or peeler crab under a float but was wondering if anyone had any success in TX with that setup?

Thanks.


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## Bill C (May 23, 2004)

I wondered the same thing back when I was doing a lot of tarpon fishing but never tried it. I did well enough with lures that I decided not to go to the trouble of fishing with live bait. I watched lots of tarpon caught off the jetties on smallish mullet, 3-5 inches though.

Good luck. 

If you give it a try, let us know how you do.


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## Permit Rat (May 13, 2014)

I think a lot of it will depend on how many crabs normally float out of the passes here. Everyone in Florida uses blue crabs, but there is a crab, called (of all things) a "pass crab." They are almost white with brown spots and have longer legs and claws than the blues. These crabs are prone to use the current to get from A to B. Most of the blue crabs you see on the surface at night, are soft shells and they are there to avoid predators on the bottom.

I've never seen a pass crab in Texas. A blue crab should work, but I don't know about the success rate, if pass crabs aren't here, because the tarpon won't be keying in on crabs, like they do in Florida. From underneath, pass crabs and blue crabs are the same color, so I think that's why they work so well in Florida.....but I don't know for sure, since I rarely used crabs for bait, even in Florida.


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## rvd2 (Dec 3, 2016)

Permit Rat said:


> I think a lot of it will depend on how many crabs normally float out of the passes here. Everyone in Florida uses blue crabs, but there is a crab, called (of all things) a "pass crab." They are almost white with brown spots and have longer legs and claws than the blues. These crabs are prone to use the current to get from A to B. Most of the blue crabs you see on the surface at night, are soft shells and they are there to avoid predators on the bottom.
> 
> I've never seen a pass crab in Texas. A blue crab should work, but I don't know about the success rate, if pass crabs aren't here, because the tarpon won't be keying in on crabs, like they do in Florida. From underneath, pass crabs and blue crabs are the same color, so I think that's why they work so well in Florida.....but I don't know for sure, since I rarely used crabs for bait, even in Florida.


I've never fished for tarpon with crab here but there are a lot of blue crab working in and out of our jetties/passes during late summer and fall with the tides. My boys net them regularly.


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## redfish203 (Aug 10, 2010)

I would think a tarpon is a tarpon....I have caught several in the lower keys on dollar sized blue crab incidental to permit fishing. Those fish would jump all over a crab.


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## Hunter (Sep 3, 2004)

I have offered keeper sized blue crabs to Texas tarpon a few times. Never got any interest. This was in the middle of happy rolling fish. Very surprising and disappointing result.

The crabs used in Florida are much smaller.


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## Oyster Dog (May 21, 2005)

We have pass crabs, we just call them a different name: http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/invertdetails.cfm?scinameID=Portunus%20gibbesii


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## CiguateraSoup (Oct 2, 2015)

Thanks for the responses.

I'll post up if I give it a try. What got me thinking about it was a guy on YouTube that fishes down in Key West and uses blue crab for bait at times. Floats a live one on a cork and says it is his 2nd go-to bait.


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