Thread: Fiddler crabs?

Anyone ever try catching these things for bait? I've found a couple of river banks that are occasionally loaded with them, and I'm thinking about burying a cup or small bucket for a few hours to see if I can snag any. Any tips?

I think that there are some YouTube tutorials on catching your own fiddler crabs. I've never done it, myself, except at a marina where, coincidentally, there were sheepshead swimming around the docks and a grassy-marshy area that had lots of resident fiddler crabs. But then we'd just pick them up in small numbers as we needed them.

Originally Posted by Beebsl

Anyone ever try catching these things for bait? I've found a couple of river banks that are occasionally loaded with them, and I'm thinking about burying a cup or small bucket for a few hours to see if I can snag any. Any tips?

Bury a 2 gallon bucket and put a piece of fresh dead fish in the bottom. Cover the top of the bucket with a wire mesh big enough for the fiddlers to fall through and small enough to keep the foxes, coyotes and herons out.

i’ll add that this also will keep out the chupacabra.

Fiddlers or any local small crabs are in bait shops or regionally recommend lists. That may only mean they have them, not that they catch. Oddest choices I've seen were sea urchins in Atlantic Beach NC and hermit crabs near sebastian inlet. They must fish for larger sheepshead than I've seen caught.

I was in the Tampa Bay area one year in February and the people were catching sheephead on a type of bloodworm they dug up from the bay at low tide. I don't know what the true name of them is but they stayed on the hook and worked really well. Probably lots of things besides shrimp, ghost shrimp or fiddler crabs that would work.

Thanks, I'll have to try the bucket/chicken wire approach. Chupacabra proof is always a bonus...

I bought my fiddlers at Deer River the past few years, but they told me last year that they didn't plan on stocking them in the future. No one was really buying them, and they were dying.

It's a shame because fiddlers are my favorite bait. They keep forever with no need to worry about water changes, aeration, etc. I once kept a cache of fiddlers up on-top of a kitchen cabinet for nearly a month. No one noticed anything until they would spontaneously start to slither and scratch around once or twice a day. All I did was put a fresh moist paper towel in there every few days. I also added a bit of cat kibble, but I don't know if they ate it or not.