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best crab bait

42K views 67 replies 61 participants last post by  jprfish 
#1 Ā·
Just throwing this out there....what is the best crab bait known to man.rain or shine astoria to brookings???
 
#35 Ā·
LOL, someone mentioned mink. Once I thought that I would try the litter buggers because I had heard a lot about them, so got one in Tillamook and put it in the bait box. Wify always crabs with me you must understand. She loves crabbing and fishing.

So we were in Netarts one gorgeous fall day and she opens the bait box up front and discovers the little critter and has a fit. "That is the most disgusting thing I ever saw! I am NOT eating any crab that ate THAT!" It never made it to any crab pot and thus I have no personal idea if mink attract crab. I do know that they repel most humans tho.

On a more practical note, I started keeping the juice and guts and empty shells of the crabs we cooked. I mix bread, cooked rice, and some corn oil in with it, mash it into a pulp, then freeze it in individual small baggies. It is a great attractant and bait as it slowly thaws in your trap and sends scent and bits of itself drifting away. The corn oil prevents scent disbursal too soon. Use your imagination and add food scraps and so on to this concoction. Crab bait is NOT cheap and this is one way I can stretch it.

But if money is no problem, lol, then its back to my original post - SHAD. take care, tee
 
#36 Ā·
I forgot to mention in my post on bait preference that I crab only in the ocean. I think it makes a difference when I prefer salmon carc but I also found that SPOTTED OWL gets some attention if treated properly.
 
#41 Ā·
I marinate scored chicken legs or quarters in clam juice, then freeze them in portioned ziplocs, so they're ready to go... one bag covers three bait boxes. I use traps, so in addition to the chicken, I have those cylinder hard plastic bait tubes that clip onto the trap and dangle above the bait boxes. In those, I place a sponge that's been soaked in Crab Feast or Smelly Jelly. This set-up consistently outperforms those that are around me, whether on the dock or out in the bay. Have never had a problem with seals. When I'm home, I wring out the sponges, plop them in a ziploc and stick them in the freezer until the next trip.
 
#48 Ā·
I've used mink with success, same goes for shad, turkey, and even fish carcasses from dumpster diving.
In Texas we even used chicken necks.

When brought up and sitting on the bottom of the boat, they always seem to go for 1 finger, even with the stress of being out of the water, 1 finger is hard for them to resist.
I would say 1 finger is the best bait once the crabs are out of water, a foot or toe would be a close second for the ones that fall out and crawl along the flooor.
 
#58 Ā·
For me:

1) shad (whole/cut up); don't catch 'em myself, but occasionally will score some in trade.

2) other fish carks... usually salmon/steel (heads are the best since they last so much longer than anything else) but as mentioned before, seals will gnarl up your traps and steal them if you don't do a good enough job of armoring/clamping everything up tight. However, they'll figure out pretty quick which traps are worth their trouble and which aren't so you only have to make it secure enough to convince them to move on to the next guy's and then they'll usually leave your traps alone the rest of the time (they evidently remember well enough to tell them apart).

2b) one time I had a bunch of bass parts left over from a fish fry... didn't last as long as steelhead (makes sense, since all the pieces were smaller) but they seemed to out-fish everything else while not drawing as much attention from the seals.

3) chicken - my regular standby since it's widely available and not too expensive (can usually find some that's near the pull date for extra cheap) and the seals leave it alone. Mandatory for the casting-style traps like Crabhawks that aren't big enough for a full bait box enclosure.

4) cat food... I keep a couple cans in my crab gear bucket as a last-ditch backup if I run out of everything else. Not as good for an attractant, but the advantages are being able to store without refrig/freezing, and super durable (only having to punch a bunch of holes in the can).
 
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