Philosophical Crabbing Question

Assuming you have a limited, set amount of bait available, 4 pots, and a limited amount of time:

Would you drop two pots that are loaded with bait, or drop all four with smaller amounts?

4 with smaller amounts.  If the bait has a good scent to it you don't need much to entice crabs into the trap.

Depends on what the bait is and your definition of "loaded" and "smaller amount",

-Allen

I would drop three traps where the most crab are and one trap would sit in the kayak.

now....solve the problem of figuring out where the most crab are 

4 with smaller amounts.  If the bait has a good scent to it you don't need much to entice crabs into the trap.

+1.  My take on it, not being a crab biologist: The crabbies have evolved to pick up trace scents so they can scramble over to them before their crabby brothers reach them first.  The chances of dropping pots on ideal "feeding lanes" (which I would equate as current lanes that would carry the scent) would be greater with the use of four pots, versus only two.

From Coastside: http://coastsidefishingclub.com/grey-beard-articles/crabbing-guide/

The reason behind baiting a crab trap is to lure crabs into the pot. You want the scent to milk out of the trap and provide a trail for the hungry crabs to follow. The longer your bait milks and sends out scent, the longer your traps will continue to lure crabs. It’s pure logic.

Have you every taken a fish carcass and lowered it into the water in a harbor and timed how fast it disappears? It’s amazing how fast one gets completely eaten. There are tons of really tiny creatures that seem to come from no where and just devour it.

Now, think of a plastic bait jar that has small slits that make it really hard for these tiny creatures to get through. Your bait is much less likely to be eaten and will remain in a state that can milk for a longer time.This is a good thing.

In the beginning I use to crab with a bait jar and a hanging bait. What I found was that I caught a pretty good number of rock crabs in with dungies. Then I found when I didn’t have hanging bait available to me and fished just the bait jar, I caught fewer rock crabs and more dungies.

Now I fish two bait jars in each pot and hang them with plastic tie wraps so they will swing in the tidal surge and help the milking process.

That tutorial , from Coastside, is the best source of proven crabbing info that I have ever read. I first read it about 10 years ago. The author is John Lyons, he is the guy that I hitch a ride with sometimes.   

From Coastside: http://coastsidefishingclub.com/grey-beard-articles/crabbing-guide/

The reason behind baiting a crab trap is to lure crabs into the pot. You want the scent to milk out of the trap and provide a trail for the hungry crabs to follow. The longer your bait milks and sends out scent, the longer your traps will continue to lure crabs. It’s pure logic.

Have you every taken a fish carcass and lowered it into the water in a harbor and timed how fast it disappears? It’s amazing how fast one gets completely eaten. There are tons of really tiny creatures that seem to come from no where and just devour it.

Now, think of a plastic bait jar that has small slits that make it really hard for these tiny creatures to get through. Your bait is much less likely to be eaten and will remain in a state that can milk for a longer time.This is a good thing.

In the beginning I use to crab with a bait jar and a hanging bait. What I found was that I caught a pretty good number of rock crabs in with dungies. Then I found when I didn’t have hanging bait available to me and fished just the bait jar, I caught fewer rock crabs and more dungies.

Now I fish two bait jars in each pot and hang them with plastic tie wraps so they will swing in the tidal surge and help the milking process.

Thanks, guys.  I hadn't read that one before.

Bait management seems to be the messiest part for me, so the jars make sense all around.  I have been baiting two with jars and two with cages but will probably switch to all jars.

You didn't answer my question about what the bait is and what "loaded" means to you.  Without that info, my general response would be to go with 2 pots and bait heavy, and swing for a limit on the first pull.  Later in the season when the crab are spread, my answer may be to bait 4 pots and cover ground.

That being said, I find that helps to be flexible and adapt.  Keep in mind that Coastside article is generally for overnight or multiday soaks.  You did say you had limited time, so I'm going to assume 4 hours of soaking.  On short soaks I like to bait heavy and gets the crabs running to the pots.  If I'm running 4 pots for 4 hours, I might bring 3 pounds of squid and 8 pounds of salmon head/collars (that's 4 small/med heads).  Quarter a head into 2 collars and 2 half heads and poke them up with a nice to make them juice more.  I initially bait with the squid in the jars and 2 quarters in a cage.  After a 1 hour soak, I'll add another quarter to the cage.  After another 1 hour soak, I'll add the remaining quarters.  If I need to go another hour, I'll poke the bait with my knife to juice out more scent.  If I don't have 4 salmon heads, I can make 2 last, bait it all in the first soak and poke with a knife whenever you check them.  If I have less salmon heads, I'll run less pots.   You can replace salmon with mackerel pound for pound, roughly 1/2 a mackerel is equivalent to a quarter of a salmom head/collar.  Cut a large mackerel in half and pace both halves in the cage for the first soak.  Add a half a mackerel every time you check.  Poke/slice with a knife to juice it more.  If I'm using less oily bait, add more bait.

For overnight or multu-day soaks, I like to put squid in the jars and about 3 salmon head/collar quarters in a the cage.  This year is starting out different though.  There seams to be a lot of sand fleas and other critters just ravaging the bait more than normal.  It's pretty much all gone on an overnight soak.  So I'm considering the 2 jars approach now with squid in one and oily fish chunks in the other.  I going to experiment with that in some of the pots and see how they perform vs. cage bait.  Pots do leak, so you want them working as long as possible.

I have a lot of tuna carcasses right now.  There is less meat on the carcs. On the day trips I've done this year, I'm finding the tuna carcs work well for about one soak stuffing the cages.  They still work on the second soak, but I'm not seeing as many crab come in, and there is not really any opportunity to poke them and milk them more.

-Allen

Thanks, Allen.  Just trying to dial things in.  Loaded to me means 2-3 fishheads, a cage with chicken remains, and a jar with ground up squid or herring or rockfish guts each pot, as opposed to the cages on two, and the other two with hanging heads and the jars.  The rockfish don't seem to work as well so I'll probably save those for the garden and buy more jars and focus on more effective bait choices.  Also got some of that crab fuel to throw into the mix, which I assume would work best soaked in the jar contents.