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[BananasQ]

Took the kids and the canoe and went out for a spot of crabbing today at Belcarra. Four soaks of approx 45 mins to an hour produced 60+ crab but only one keeper and even that one was only just legal. Lots of traps and boats out - I think that the pressure is starting to tell there and I may need a new place to put in, well and maybe not leave it until June for the first outing of the year.

[calfisher]

The reef at the marker end has always been good for me if you are looking for red rock crabs.  Pier side seemed to produce better for me.  I simply used a 21" bike rim with gill net.  Once you haul up the crabs are pressed against the belly of the gill net.

While showing off BC to some friends from Colorado, we also hauled in a star fish that filled the 21" bike rim.  Special treat for them as we went home for a nice fresh caught surf and turf.

Cal

[TimL]

Been seeing the same result from shore as well..lots of undersized and female crabs, close to nil keepers, big difference compared to last year around this time...lots of keeper red rock crab though, as always.
At least the bottom fish are back, albeit late compared to previous years- landed a large rock sole a few days ago.

[BananasQ]

Interesting - even with my one keeper I was the only one that I saw catching anything, lots of people crabbing but not catching - I wonder what is up this season.  From what I did catch tho next season looks like it will be solid. 

I bought one of those Yi Action Cameras and popped it on the trap, you can see how active it was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieCCPILD1JQ&feature=youtu.be YouTube has crushed the video quality though (I think due to it being timelapse) raw recording is also here if you want to check out how the $70 camera did: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=8E96E6741FD7E7B6!318453&authkey=!AJ7BZ2BalHT9I2w&ithint=video%2cmp4 I am actually pretty impressed with this bit of kit!

[BananasQ]

Thanks @AaronWilde - as I was sat in my canoe trying to dodge between wakes of boats that were circling in front of the dock, not able to find a proper tie up on the dock and someone (happily) waiting 30 minutes for my parking space when I called it a day at 12:30 I realised that perhaps, just perhaps, its all getting a bit too crowded round here.  I've only been here since 1999 so I can hardly claim to be an old timer, but the overcrowding is only going to get worse, not better. I cant even imagine what 50 years ago was like! But how sad would it be if our grandkids said that about what we have now?

Time to throw the clipper on the car and find some new spots I think...

[hrenya]

Was crabbing couple weeks ago and yesterday , 4 red rocks pretty big , one was over 6 inches , timl saw it yesterday 2 Dungeness and 1 red rock , got few red rock keepers but put em back cuz tim told me they not worth it before I listen to my teacher .
I guess its just luck/bait/tide/time/luck ?!

[Steelhawk]

Were you crabbing in a boat or from shore/pier? The pier is forever so crowded at Belcara. I used my rubber boat a few years ago and got 2 dungenese & 1 rock after sorting through 50+ crabs, lol. The dungenese also have soft shelves. Hopefully there are more hard shelf ones now. But isn't the commercial starting soon? Anybody knows when they start? It may be a waste of time after they lay their wall of traps, lol.

[hrenya]

William I crab from shore , not from dock
Dungeness I caught had hard shells

[bigblockfox]

not sure about the docks but dropped traps in west van for a 6 to 7 hour soak a few weeks ago while fishing bowen. lifted them and we had 20 plus in the first trap with 6 keepers. by the time we had 4 traps up we were limited with 16 crab. 4 of them were massive. all dungies. i dont have much to compare it to because this is my first year crabbing. i wish i had the same luck for prawns lol.

[BananasQ]

Good for you hrenya and bigblockfox - I am sure that they are out there, I am just going to find some new places myself. I normally paddle about 800m from the pier and get in to keepers no problem. Just looks like I may need to seek out some new waters - Belcarra is getting pretty tapped out. I'm concerned that there may also be a lot of ghost traps now from sunken milk bottle floats, etc.  Be interested to know from anyone who dives there if they ever see them. I know I have seen submerged floats that I couldn't get to.

[TimL]

Managed to get an oversized dungie at Ambleside pier a few days ago. First time crabbing there and probably my last..it was a gong show there-too many people competing for a limited number of legal crab. The crab tasted good though- meat has filled out. I think with a boat, the result would have been better.
Fishing result was also disappointing- managed another sole..was hoping for the schools of pile perch to come in but no luck.