Spider Crabs

[gullyworm]

Ever wondered why at this time of year your bait and hook length sometimes lasts only minutes before its either stripped of snipped off.
Well after spending the last week diving in the portland area i know understand why.
Everywhere i dived was littered with spider crabs.
They where everywhere,in the muddy areas around portland harbour you couldnt move on the bottom without putting your hands on them or sitting on them.
Even the sandy areas of chesil had them,no wonder bait lasts such a short time.
They cant be doing much good to the envoiroment when they are in such huge numbers

[twilks]

you get alot at clovelly on the plus side they are really good eating

[meolsman]

Very good eating bag them up and sell or give to local restaurants they will love you for it,very easy to prepare more meat a real treat.

[John Marshall]

Think its mating season John, if you can get hold of any peeling they a fantastic
smoothie bait.

John

[monkey nuts]

thay recon the spider eat hermit crabs and any other crab for that,
that coupled with whelk pots seems to be wipping out the hermit crabs around hear.
on the plus side thay do give some massive baits when peeling and worth freezing for the winter cod if you dont use dthem all up on the smuts and bass, thay are also tasty to eat . just snap off the legs and claws, boil or steam and enjoy with a sweet chilli dip..................................mmmmmm....... ..........that why im fat lol

[the boss]

IT LOOKS LIKE YOU NOW HAVE A CUSTOMER WAITING LIST,ha ha.
if you could bag a few, i would be only to happy take some off your hands! yummy.
i caught two once while boat fishing at weymouth, couldent catch anything else that day........... not even a mackrel!

[gullyworm]

Just got back from weymouth today and i have got a sack of the things,bloody monsters about2ft accross the legs.
The massive pot is on

[Fisherdan]

caught one on my drop net down hamble, mainly wanted some peelers...



wasnt a bad day though as i had a great fight with this ballan wrasse.

[gullyworm]

Well i made spider crab cakes out of them the other night and bloomin nice they were to for starters,i then had Bass and a few bottles of wine
Arggggh the fruits of my labour

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by monkey nuts

just snap off the legs and claws, boil or steam and enjoy with a sweet chilli dip..................................mmmmmm

The body contents are edible too, just discard the gills and the stomach sac area behind the mouthparts. Even if you are wary of eating the brown meat, there's a lot of white meat in the area around the leg sockets.

There's also a legal size limit, for the southern fisheries area it is 5.1" (male) or 4.7" (female), measured from front of shell (base of the 'horns') to the back.

Steve

just my opinion, but I'd rate spiders way above edibles for flavour.