Thanks for the reply Corkscrew. Yesterday was very successful. I had two rods in the water, one with chokka/sardine combo and the other with a rock crab. I caught a 4.5 kg poensie and a 3.3 kg stumpie on the chokka/sardine before the crab was even touched.
I'm sure crabs can be succesful when you keep getting stripped by smaller fish, but a fleshy bait is obviously more attractive. But I would still like to try the crab again
Nice catches there. When you use crab as bait offshore, make sure that you keep it on the bottom letting your sinker hit the bottom now and then. Sometimes you do get stuck, but most of the time a poensie or roman pics you up.
About a year back we went offshore fishing In Mosselbay for cob. I took 1 crab with me that day.
Early afternoon I decided it's time to drop the crab.
I also wanted to set a rod with crab and keep one in my hand with pilchard. The crab didn't even sit for 2min on the bottom and I was on. Took lots of line managed to get it's head turned. Fight lasted about 30 - 40min and landed a 25kg Poensie.
Was an amazing fight with lots of headshakes and screaming reel.
I've lost a few poensies as well. They try there best to reef you, much like a cracker. They will look for a specific reef and then they just go straight for it. If you can't get it's head turned your in trouble. LOL
Another fish that's sometimes hard to catch is a Yellow Belly Rockcod. you get them between the poensies and romans.
When your bait's on the bottom and a yellow belly picks you up, you will strike and it feels as though your stuck on the reef. When hooked they open the plates on the outside of their gills between the rocks. You will not pull him out of the reef, trust me. The best way is to give some slack on the line and then he comes out of the reef willingly. Caught a lot of them.
A reef that I regurlarly fish has produced Red stump,Roman, Poenskop and Yellowbelly all in one day. The problem I had with conventional bait is that the peckers tear soft flesh away before any larger fish could pick it up. This is also why I always use alot of Chokka paired with softer baits.
We also have that same problem sometimes. The little Santers get to your bait first before the bigger fish do.
I've been lucky with the crab in that the small peckers normally leave my crab alone. It's only on the Chokka and pilchard where they tend to clean your hook in minutes.