Crabs gutted my bait!

[Fla Shark Hunter]

I was out monday night sharking on the beach,olny one hit and nothing else that day.It was the worst day i have ever had in terms of hits and hook ups.That isnt what got to me though,when i reeled in all four rods the bait was torn up.The crabs had left olny the skin and head,man wtf is up with that.I have had crab bittes on my bait before but never that bad.What do you guys think i can do to stop that.I was thinking if making my rig as normal the brick tied to the first eye of the first hook then tie a milk jug with a light line to the bait to keep it off the bottom a bit.Has anyone ever tried that or something else to stop the crabs???

[fishnfool73]

Not much you can do about them eating your bait. You can try the jug idea as it should keep you bait off the bottom a little and this may help.

[Fla Shark Hunter]

I am going to give that a try this week and see how it goes.

[BeachGnome]

I have seen some people put bait inside of pantyhose to help keep the crabs from gutting it. I am not even sure of the outcome. I would think the bait may last a little longer, but in the end the crabs would probably win the battle. I have taken a lot of weird stuff to the beach in order to make my shark fishing trip more successful, but never pantyhose......... Who knows it may work.

[fishnfool73]

I used to use panty hose on a string filled with chicken necks to catch crabs. Their claws get stuck in the hose ...not sure how that would work. When I used to surf fish a lot we would use small styrofoam bobbers ahead of the hook on the leader ie like a bead, if the crabs were bad. Sometimes it worked others it didn't.

[sharkboy50]

to fla shark hunter it does work [aka GRUNT KING PROVED IT TO MY OWN EYES to used black stocking he did get a blacktip and a lemon the secret it is to used manhaiden oil i will bring the oil you gots to bring the stocking on friday tomorrow and the pastelito and cocacola :roll : please dont forget to pick meup manana ok ok