UTER
Photo: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Callinectes sapidus
How to catch Blue crab in Florida
Blue crab feed in 0–0°F water and bite best at 0–0°F.
Bait · in the book, no points
About
The blue crab: dinner from a trap in the bay, and cut in halves the best bottom bait there is for black drum, redfish and cobia; small and whole, the permit and tarpon bait.
How to fish it
A trap off the dock, or a chicken neck on a string and a dip net. The soft ones are gold for the flats.
What it eats
a chicken neck on a stringa crab trap
Getting it, rigging it
Getting it
Trap them in the bays and creeks, or a dip net off a dock with a chicken neck on a string.
Rigging it
Whole and small for permit and tarpon; halved or quartered on the bottom for black drum, redfish and cobia.
What it's for
RedfishTarponCobiaTripletailBlack drumBonefishPermitMutton snapperCubera snapperBonnethead sharkNurse sharkSouthern stingrayDog snapperTautog (blackfish)
What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itHook#8–#1
Braid10–15 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereRecreational crabbing has a daily limit, size limit and trap rules — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule at MyFWC →