Crabbing in the gulf islands
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Are you staying on the west side? Montague I presume. If so you are a short run over to Tent Island lots of good spots for crab and prawns here just look for the other traps. If you really want to go for it another 15 min run over to Bear Point (by Chemainus) this area holds the best crabbing around bar none. Again just look for the traps and fish them in 60-100ft of water. Just a note of caution crab traps tend to be safe but an untended prawn trap will likely disapear overnight.
cheers
cheers
i know all about disappearing prawn traps, lost 1 last year to some skid at pender harbour. I'll definitely check out those spots incl bear point. Pippen any good prawn waters you can recommend in the montague area you mentioned? will probably try prawning too...
tx :cheers:
ps where is tent island in relation to thetis, couldn't find on google
tx :cheers:
ps where is tent island in relation to thetis, couldn't find on google
Tent Island is a small island just off the southern tip of Kuper Island and Thetis Island lies off the northern tip of Kuper Island. If you study the waters between The chain (Tent, Kuper, thetis)and Vancouver Island you will notice many prawn traps in the area (and usually many boats too as all but the bravest of souls now sit on their traps out here). Crab traps seem to be fine to leave overnight. If you are into a fun trip a good suggestion for you would be to work your way over and drop your prawn traps between Tent Island and Bare Pt. Carry on to Bare point and drop your Crab traps, cruise up to Thetis island and have lunch at the marine pub and then work your way back to collect your traps. All in all it is a fun circuit.
Hope this info helps,
Brian
Hope this info helps,
Brian
Teppit1
I hope I'm not wrecking a little piece of heaven by posting this but I thought I would post one more option for you during your trip to Galiano. If you run up to the north end of Galiano and go through Polier Pass on your left will be Valdez Island the Lingcod fishing is excellent (actually it isn't bad off the east side of Galiano either). If you have a chart you will easily pick up on the obvious spots. Jigging works well although I tend to troll them because I have found that I catch far less rockfish this way. Lings are open June 15th. Check the regs of course.
cheers,
Brian
I hope I'm not wrecking a little piece of heaven by posting this but I thought I would post one more option for you during your trip to Galiano. If you run up to the north end of Galiano and go through Polier Pass on your left will be Valdez Island the Lingcod fishing is excellent (actually it isn't bad off the east side of Galiano either). If you have a chart you will easily pick up on the obvious spots. Jigging works well although I tend to troll them because I have found that I catch far less rockfish this way. Lings are open June 15th. Check the regs of course.
cheers,
Brian
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I just got back from Salt Spring and lost an unnattended trap on the Easside of SS and the west side of Galiano. They left my Blue Box trap but took the crab and completely pilferred my net trap (the good one).
damn poachers......learned a valuable lesson though....fish em like you would a rod......keep watching it.
damn poachers......learned a valuable lesson though....fish em like you would a rod......keep watching it.
Sorry to hear about your traps. I personally have never cared too much about my crab traps because it takes so little effort to get crab and I don't use expensive traps so I guess no has ever wanted them. Some guys will leave a beer or two or at least top up the bait. I have had the doors bent once probably because someone was panicing as they emptied out my dinner. That bugged me a bit because if they had taken their time there probably would have been crab there for me too. Either way I have never really cared. What really burns me is when they mess with your prawn traps. It is a lot harder to find a good prawn hole, the traps cost more, and nobody likes to yard up 300' of line and find an empty trap.
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Agreed.Teppit1 said:
I'll throw my $.02 in about bait.
Prawns.....I like to use pellets with a fish oil that we get picked up directly from a fish plant that I believe is out in Surrey. (a buddy who works out that way always picks it up). The oil does stink and it is inexpensive. I buy the pellets in bulk and just mix some up with the oil in an ice cream bucket.
Crabs.....I generally use chicken or turkey backs, however if I can get some fish heads or the left overs from fileting a salmon it also works like a charm. Unfortunately due to my prowess with the salmon I don't have the leftovers readily available!!
I have heard of using prawn heads in the crab traps and just put them in one of the bait cups but the cup may get pretty beaten up by time you pull it. I will be trying that sometime this summer to see how it works.On a side note with crabs.......if you get into an area where there ARE crabs, you can throw down just about anything. We had dropped the traps and cruised into the Sandbar in False Creek to watch one of the Van/Dallas hockey games. We decided when we went out that we would drop the traps for another hour or so and just sit on them with a beer and some tunes. Well we realized we had no more chicken left on board so we kept our leftovers from the bar which included 2 slices of pizza, calmari in slightly spicy sauce and a couple of rib appetizers in a hoisin honey glaze. :beerchug: We just rammed it all into a bait cage and waited. Apparently the crabs liked the menu as we had 4 or 5 nice keepers after an hour.
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Planning a week in Salt Spring from Aug 5-12. Wont be boating but would really like to catch a few crabs for a beach boil one or two days. Best places to chuck a trap in off a dock? Any hope for Prawns that way or do you need to be deeper?Agreed.
I'll throw my $.02 in about bait.
Prawns.....I like to use pellets with a fish oil that we get picked up directly from a fish plant that I believe is out in Surrey. (a buddy who works out that way always picks it up). The oil does stink and it is inexpensive. I buy the pellets in bulk and just mix some up with the oil in an ice cream bucket.
Crabs.....I generally use chicken or turkey backs, however if I can get some fish heads or the left overs from fileting a salmon it also works like a charm. Unfortunately due to my prowess with the salmon I don't have the leftovers readily available!!
On a side note with crabs.......if you get into an area where there ARE crabs, you can throw down just about anything. We had dropped the traps and cruised into the Sandbar in False Creek to watch one of the Van/Dallas hockey games. We decided when we went out that we would drop the traps for another hour or so and just sit on them with a beer and some tunes. Well we realized we had no more chicken left on board so we kept our leftovers from the bar which included 2 slices of pizza, calmari in slightly spicy sauce and a couple of rib appetizers in a hoisin honey glaze. :beerchug: We just rammed it all into a bait cage and waited. Apparently the crabs liked the menu as we had 4 or 5 nice keepers after an hour.
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Saltspring is SO populated I wouldn't even bother off docks. There are TONS of crabs around but given the fact I don't ever recall people crabbing off docks it is likely futile. Better to spend your money in Ganges at the fish stores that sell crab right above the harbour and just buy a few.
Not trying to sound like an arse....you may find them in very random cases but one only has to look out in any bay around SaltSpring and look at the floats....there ARE crabs but it is crabbed HEAVILY.eace:
Not trying to sound like an arse....you may find them in very random cases but one only has to look out in any bay around SaltSpring and look at the floats....there ARE crabs but it is crabbed HEAVILY.
eace:
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