Top shot of mono is much cheaper than all braid! I recently changed my setup though to 80lb of beyond braid. I’m still able to cast far with my Okuma crab special rod.
@@rickylee6129 We recommend a 10-12ft surf rod medium to medium heavy rating. You want a sturdy rod because you’re tossing a weighted snare with bait which can get quite heavy and has a lot of load on the rod. A frequently used rod for crabbing is the Daiwa Beef Stick, Ugly Stick, or Okuma Crab Special. These rods are about $65-$75 price range. I recently changed from the Daiwa Beef Stick to the Okuma Crab Snare Special. I had to cut off 9” off the handle because it was too long as very uncomfortable to reel where I was hunched over. Now that I modified the length, it’s much more manageable and I love it. For the reel, use a good quality reel medium to large sized reel. When I first started crabbing, I used cheap reels that ended up stripping the gears, breaking the foot of the reel, the handle or cracking the housing. When you are reeling in, you are reeling in the weight of the crab snare, the bait, possibly multiple crabs, and fighting the current. This puts a lot of strain on the gears which result in putting more torque on the handles, overworking the gears, and friction on the foot of the reel which may snap. We recommend PENN brand reels such as Battles, Pursuits or SSMs. We personally use 650-750SSMs because they are full metal housing and interior gears. We can reel up 4 crabs at a time with no problem and will never strip the gears or break the foot of the reel. For the line, you should use a minimum of 30-40lb monofilament line or 60-80lb of braided line. You are throwing very heavy weights so be sure you have adequate line to support the tension, otherwise you will end up snapping your line upon casting or retrieval.
Okuma Crab Snare Special. I had to cut off a portion of the handle since it was too long. Brand new, it comes extremely long so it leaves you uncomfortably hunched over while reeling. After cutting off 9” off the handle, it was much more manageable while reeling without having to hunch completely over. Previously I was using the Daiwa Beefstick. Was heavier and stiff but a cheaper alternative.
Yah! 6” along the coast and 6 1/4” in puget Sound areas in WA ☹️ Really reduces the amount of keepers for recreational shore based crabbers. Unlike California and Oregon which is 5 3/4” to keep
We did about 3 hours at Fisherman’s Board Walk. We caught a ton of undersized and female crabs that we left out of this video. We then transitioned over to Half Moon Bay Westport for beach crabbing with snares.
@@emtae3It certainly did! The day before I hit my limit of crabs. The beach had nothing but undersized females but like the boardwalk, every cast had crab on it.
We prefer to use squid, sardines, anchovies or mackerel. We slice up chicken as the base as a bait filler since its cheap and takes up space in the snare. We personally don't use attractants but we did test out Pro-Cure attractants soaked in a sponge and placed it in our snare and caught a crab.
There’s different patents such as utility patents and use patents. However, there are no patents that have snares with the same design or lead melted and integrated into the snare. Furthermore, majority of the patents expired and valid for 20 years.
I'm using the second generation Beef Sticks. The Beef Sticks are really sturdy and won't break from casting. The thing I did find though is that the plastic ring on the inner guides are poorly glued and they fall out of the frame.
You can catch Dungeness crabs in the San Francisco bay, however, you cannot retain it. You can’t pick and choose what crabs go on your snare and you can retain red rock crabs within the San Francisco Bay all year round.
We may consider making lighter weights in the near future, however, currently much of our market demand is in heavier weights. Thank you so much for the suggestion!
