This is one topic which i can say, will make a difference when you go fishing for blackfish. It is choosing the right or should we say the most preferred color GREEN Crab for bait.
First lets get to the colors of the green crab. When we go through a bushel bag, we will see different coloring on the underneath portion of the green crab.
We will see in order of hardness, with the hardest colored crab at the top:
1)Red
2)Dark green
3)Light Green
Again remeber this is the coloring on the bottom portion of the crab, in that the lightest colored green crabs are very soft, so soft, that you can actually crush them in your hand. Then their is a brillant dark green color, and finally a orange reddish color green.
Wken fish are chewing, especially in the late fall, the red colored green crabs will be the best to use. Why? They stay on the hook longer and will take more time for the blackfish to remove, which allows you more chances to stick the fish, especially if you swing and miss the fish. The bait is still on the hook, allowing you more chances for the fish to come back to that bait. The dark green color crabs are also pretty hard, but you will notice, that these can be removed quicker by the blackfish.
The lightly colored green crabs which almost look whiteish on the bottom, do serve a important purpose. When the fish are very picky such as when we are fishing when their is a 'swell on', tough bites, or in the early spring, when the fish are starting to switch from the soft baits to the hard crab baits, these light colored crabs work well. We will usually 'TRIM' the bait, removing all legs, and leaving the orange/brown portion of the inner meat, exposed on the hook. Again be reminded that this is when the fishing is picky, or what we call a tough bite. These colored crabs are tough to fish with in deeper water or where you have a hard running current such as in the Eastern portion of the sound. The bites remind of the way you would fish with fiddlers...bite then stick, because these crabs come off the hook very easily due to them being soft.
The darker green crabs are usually the majority of what you find in a bushel bag. They come from the smallest sizes, to the largest size of crabs in the bag. I personally do not look using the bigger 'dark green belly' green crabs. But, the smaller of, or i should say, the smallest ones, are INCREDIBLE baits when fished whole. I just love finding a dark green belly green crab about one inch long from tip to tip on his shell, and place my one hook through the side of the crab. Do not try and kill the crab. You want him to be alive, so that when they are sent down to the bottom, they are actually moving around. If you cannot get the calicos or whiteleggers (thanks WreckingBall), this is what i choose when looking for big fish. The big blackfish literally grab these crabs and runoff with them in their mouth. Now if the bite is a little tougher, we crack the back shell of these colored crabs and fish them whole. We constantly change these crabs when doing this if we are not getting good bites, trying to get the most amount of the 'body juices' to leach out into the current. These crabs can be fished at any depths, cut into halves and quarters, with or without legs.
The dark red bottom crabs are what you usually see everyone on a party boat picking through/for in the bushel bag. In most bushel bags, they will usually be the least amount of the 3 colored crabs i mention. I prefer to fish these by cracking the back shell with my sinker, or by just totally removing the whole back shell entirely leaving all the back meat exposed. These go on the hook the same way we do the darker green belly crabs, and are usually the ones we rig on the snafu rigs. When the fish are chewing, these are the crabs that you should use.
As i have said in the past, their are no set rules when you are fishing your blackfish baits. Sometimes the bigger fish want the legs on their crabs. Just remove the two front big claws, which we do anyway, and send the crab down...sometimes we just shorten the legs (cut the tips off on the legs), and sometimes we leave one or two legs on, on each side of the crab. When fishing hard currents, we remove the legs, to lessen/ prevent the crab from spinning.
Another thing, is the cracking and remove of the top shell of the crab. You have to see how the bite is that day. When fish are chewing, or when you are targeting bigger fish, we usually leave the shell on, and just crack it. When you have those lousy bites, you try to make it as easy as possible for the blackfish to think he has found a easy meal. Remove the top shell, and even the legs.
We have seen how cut quarters and halved green have caught many fish over the years. No doubt they work. And we use the crab that way if we have to. But we try to use the smallest of the green crabs we can find, place the whole crab with one hook through them, and send them down.
Like i said previously almost every party boat, or charter boat, will just have green crabs for bait, and not the other 'exotic' crabs, like hermits, calicos and white crabs. You have to know which colored green crab to choose, but also, if they should be trimmed, top shell cracked or removed, legs on or off or fished whole. Do not be afraid to grab a bigger crab and fish it whole. Big baits, big fish do apply with blackfish. This is what they eat in nature, so you are not fishing something they have never seen or ate before. Many times especially in the winter, the green crabs you get, are sometimes pretty lousy. You have to make do with what you have to fish with, and make adjustments on the way you fish the crab. If you get many soft light colored green crabs and the fish are biting, fish them whole then. Just be aware, that instead of waiting for a number of hits from the fish like we would do with the harder green colored crabs, it may be 'a hit', then you stick.
Sometimes you get a hit, then see a tightness on your line, with the tip going down.....stick! Thats a fish, thats sitting there with the crab in his mouth. Usually spots like wrecks that have many fish on it, where their is a lot of competition for food, the bigger blackfish will try to either take/pickup the crab and run with it, or 'blast it' trying to get his meal quickly before other fish can get that same crab.
This is what makes blackfishing so intriguing. So now you have a idea on which colored green crabs you should use, and the many ways you can fish them.
EC NEWELL MAN*
First lets get to the colors of the green crab. When we go through a bushel bag, we will see different coloring on the underneath portion of the green crab.
We will see in order of hardness, with the hardest colored crab at the top:
1)Red
2)Dark green
3)Light Green
Again remeber this is the coloring on the bottom portion of the crab, in that the lightest colored green crabs are very soft, so soft, that you can actually crush them in your hand. Then their is a brillant dark green color, and finally a orange reddish color green.
Wken fish are chewing, especially in the late fall, the red colored green crabs will be the best to use. Why? They stay on the hook longer and will take more time for the blackfish to remove, which allows you more chances to stick the fish, especially if you swing and miss the fish. The bait is still on the hook, allowing you more chances for the fish to come back to that bait. The dark green color crabs are also pretty hard, but you will notice, that these can be removed quicker by the blackfish.
The lightly colored green crabs which almost look whiteish on the bottom, do serve a important purpose. When the fish are very picky such as when we are fishing when their is a 'swell on', tough bites, or in the early spring, when the fish are starting to switch from the soft baits to the hard crab baits, these light colored crabs work well. We will usually 'TRIM' the bait, removing all legs, and leaving the orange/brown portion of the inner meat, exposed on the hook. Again be reminded that this is when the fishing is picky, or what we call a tough bite. These colored crabs are tough to fish with in deeper water or where you have a hard running current such as in the Eastern portion of the sound. The bites remind of the way you would fish with fiddlers...bite then stick, because these crabs come off the hook very easily due to them being soft.
The darker green crabs are usually the majority of what you find in a bushel bag. They come from the smallest sizes, to the largest size of crabs in the bag. I personally do not look using the bigger 'dark green belly' green crabs. But, the smaller of, or i should say, the smallest ones, are INCREDIBLE baits when fished whole. I just love finding a dark green belly green crab about one inch long from tip to tip on his shell, and place my one hook through the side of the crab. Do not try and kill the crab. You want him to be alive, so that when they are sent down to the bottom, they are actually moving around. If you cannot get the calicos or whiteleggers (thanks WreckingBall), this is what i choose when looking for big fish. The big blackfish literally grab these crabs and runoff with them in their mouth. Now if the bite is a little tougher, we crack the back shell of these colored crabs and fish them whole. We constantly change these crabs when doing this if we are not getting good bites, trying to get the most amount of the 'body juices' to leach out into the current. These crabs can be fished at any depths, cut into halves and quarters, with or without legs.
The dark red bottom crabs are what you usually see everyone on a party boat picking through/for in the bushel bag. In most bushel bags, they will usually be the least amount of the 3 colored crabs i mention. I prefer to fish these by cracking the back shell with my sinker, or by just totally removing the whole back shell entirely leaving all the back meat exposed. These go on the hook the same way we do the darker green belly crabs, and are usually the ones we rig on the snafu rigs. When the fish are chewing, these are the crabs that you should use.
As i have said in the past, their are no set rules when you are fishing your blackfish baits. Sometimes the bigger fish want the legs on their crabs. Just remove the two front big claws, which we do anyway, and send the crab down...sometimes we just shorten the legs (cut the tips off on the legs), and sometimes we leave one or two legs on, on each side of the crab. When fishing hard currents, we remove the legs, to lessen/ prevent the crab from spinning.
Another thing, is the cracking and remove of the top shell of the crab. You have to see how the bite is that day. When fish are chewing, or when you are targeting bigger fish, we usually leave the shell on, and just crack it. When you have those lousy bites, you try to make it as easy as possible for the blackfish to think he has found a easy meal. Remove the top shell, and even the legs.
We have seen how cut quarters and halved green have caught many fish over the years. No doubt they work. And we use the crab that way if we have to. But we try to use the smallest of the green crabs we can find, place the whole crab with one hook through them, and send them down.
Like i said previously almost every party boat, or charter boat, will just have green crabs for bait, and not the other 'exotic' crabs, like hermits, calicos and white crabs. You have to know which colored green crab to choose, but also, if they should be trimmed, top shell cracked or removed, legs on or off or fished whole. Do not be afraid to grab a bigger crab and fish it whole. Big baits, big fish do apply with blackfish. This is what they eat in nature, so you are not fishing something they have never seen or ate before. Many times especially in the winter, the green crabs you get, are sometimes pretty lousy. You have to make do with what you have to fish with, and make adjustments on the way you fish the crab. If you get many soft light colored green crabs and the fish are biting, fish them whole then. Just be aware, that instead of waiting for a number of hits from the fish like we would do with the harder green colored crabs, it may be 'a hit', then you stick.
Sometimes you get a hit, then see a tightness on your line, with the tip going down.....stick! Thats a fish, thats sitting there with the crab in his mouth. Usually spots like wrecks that have many fish on it, where their is a lot of competition for food, the bigger blackfish will try to either take/pickup the crab and run with it, or 'blast it' trying to get his meal quickly before other fish can get that same crab.
This is what makes blackfishing so intriguing. So now you have a idea on which colored green crabs you should use, and the many ways you can fish them.
EC NEWELL MAN*
But I have to agree with you.
