teach me how to fish with cracked crab

[Ed32]

This may be a dumb question but are the crabs live? This is pretty much all we fish with for redfish in dularge for redfish. We fish them Carolina rigged on bottom with kahle hooks and do quite well. Maybe if they've been dead for a while the meat falls off?

[keakar]

Originally Posted by Ed32

This may be a dumb question but are the crabs live? This is pretty much all we fish with for redfish in dularge for redfish. We fish them Carolina rigged on bottom with kahle hooks and do quite well. Maybe if they've been dead for a while the meat falls off?

no, the crabs are dead but kept on ice and fresh.

I remove the top shell and break them in half, then use one half as one bait and save the other half to rebait with. this is how I saw it done on TV so that's the way I have been trying it but as mentioned the meat is gone before a fish can come along to eat it.

Originally Posted by MathGeek

It helps to leave the top shell on or even fish 'em whole when they are getting picked clean quickly.

I never tried using an intact crab if I need to use the whole crab then what size crab is best? 1", 2", 3" ? I assume there is a size that is considered too big or not optimal.

also do you leave the claws and legs on or trim them off? I have been leaving the legs on but I remove the claws and as mentioned remove the shell and break into two halfs or even quartered if its a bigger crab