Sand Crabs

MisterT

Well-Known Member
#5
I have never caught anything on sand crabs either but I think I have only used them once at Fort Baker Beach. If I ever go beach fishing again, perhaps I will get a chance. What I hear is that some of your sand crab harvests are soft-shelled and the soft-shelled ones are what you want to use.
Maybe it's the soft shell sand crabs I need to find? I usually just use the ones I can find.

I've had more luck using Gulp Sandworms. However there have been times where I question whether fish are around or I got an old or bad batch of the Gulp Sandworms.
 

Red Fish

Senior Member
#6
Maybe it's the soft shell sand crabs I need to find? I usually just use the ones I can find.

I've had more luck using Gulp Sandworms. However there have been times where I question whether fish are around or I got an old or bad batch of the Gulp Sandworms.
Definitely, the Gulp synthetic baits work in the ocean! In the bays they work to some degree too (with less water clarity). I have actually used the Gulp earthworms under a float in the current to catch smelt very successfully (almost as good as raw market shrimp). PFIC actually had an ocean get-together at Kehoe Beach (Hwy 1 toward Pt. Reyes) and that was my first-time catching perch in the surf on a Carolina rig and motor-oil and white, small curly tail grubs and a size 6 bronze baitholder hook. Very effective!
 
#7
The only corbina I ever caught was on a high-low setup with live sand crabs. My wife and I were waiting for our table at the Hendrys Beach Boathouse and walking on the beach, and I was more or less just wasting 10 minutes, not thinking I would catch anything. I spotted a deep trough, cast to it, and a minute later I was reeling in a 24 inch corbina.