How To Catch Fiddler Crabs For Bait (Quick & Easy Way)
- By: Tony Acevedo
- on
Sheepshead, black drum, redfish, snook and even tarpon love fiddler crabs.
They’re like bite-sized treats that predator fish just can’t resist.
In the summertime, you see armies of these little morsels on the shore, but they’re not so prevalent in the winter.
And of course, wintertime is sheepshead time, so this is one of the best times to use them.
In this video, I’m going to show you how to find, catch and keep fiddler crabs for bait—even in the winter.
Let’s dive in!
How To Catch Fiddler Crabs [VIDEO]
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Before you start wrangling up fiddler crabs, you need to make sure you’re in the right type of spot.
When & Where To Find Fiddler Crabs
Soft sandy or muddy shorelines with structure are the best spots to find fiddler crabs.
In the video above, I was on the shore of a quiet creek off of the main river.
As far as types of structure, I like to look for:
- Mangrove trees
- Roots
- Tree limbs
- Grass
- Docks
I also try to avoid areas with lots of human activity such as foot traffic, noise, or cars because the crabs will be more skittish and try to hide in these areas.
Now in the summer you can see colonies of these guys on the shorelines so it’s a lot easier to catch them then.
But in the winter, they’re more likely to be hiding out in their holes, which are round, dime-sized holes on the shore near the water.
How To Dig Up Fiddler Crabs
Once you’ve found the fiddler crab holes, all you have to do now is dig them up and grab them.
To do this, I used an old kayak paddle, but you could also use a shovel.
Place the shovel a few inches away from the hole, dig in to get under the hole, and lift up.
If there’s a fiddler crab in the hole, usually they’ll scurry out when you dig them up and you can grab them.
They do pinch, but it doesn’t hurt too bad.
How To Keep Fiddler Crabs
To keep your fiddler crabs, put them in a bucket with sand and some water.
You don’t want there to be too much water that you’re drowning the crabs, but you do want the sand to be moist.
In this video, I was catching fiddler crabs for a sheepshead trip the next day, so I also grabbed a bottle of water from the creek so I could keep the sand moist overnight.
Conclusion
Most inshore fish can’t say no to a tasty fiddler crab.
And if you don’t feel like paying for them at the bait shop, or if they don’t have them, then all you have to do is go to a sandy or muddy shoreline, find their holes, and dig them up.
Have any questions about catching fiddler crabs for bait?
Let me know in the comments below!
And if you know someone who would love to learn how to catch them, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club.
Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish every trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).
Great video. Hope we can return to Florida this fall to enjoy the fishing. Minus 15 F today. The entire Salt Strong team is great. Have learnt so much and definitely catch a lot more fish. Keep it up.
Caught them on flats in summer by laying out a coral of plastic lawn edging and herding into that Also burying a bucket in mud and chasing into it as well as laying out a sheet especially with two people and herding onto it . Lot of great memories like the time I slid on the mud for ten feet on my back while trying to round them up This was some 50 yrs ago in Tampa Fla
Why the long handled scoop, if you catch them by hand?
I had a sand flea rake with me as a back up if I saw a cluster of them running around. In this case, they were all tucked into their holes in the ground so I had to dig them up and grab them by hand.
I have done this and kept them in the refrigerator. The only issue is that they urinate quite a bit. After a while the sand will be urine soaked so be prepared to rinse it or change it. I’ve kept them for several days this way.
Yep they can get quiet smelly. It is good to have an extra bucket of water handy to rinse them.
Very Practical, short and with live demonstration. Tony, it is one of your best videos. We have been catching near limits of Sheepshead in the 16″ to 18″ size using jigs and small pieces of shrimp … the same size as the Fiddler Crabs. Sheepshead seem to be especially fond of the shrimp’s heads. I think because it closely resembles a crab. Where are we finding fish? In the passes along rocks.
Thank you for the awesome feedback David!
Good video. Thanks. These are the kind of videos I like, i.e. live and actually doing it.
Thank you for the great feedback Delbert!
After you’ve collected them in your bucket and reach in there to grab them out, do they all pinch you? I’m used to just blindly reaching in the bait bucket and grabbing whatever…that would be a bummer if they pinched you every time you went in to grab one.
Only the males have the big claw, females just have very tiny claws that can’t really pinch you (more for feeding themselves). I usually pick the big ones out first so i always look in the bucket and find which one I want. If they are the males with the big claw, I try to grab them by the claw or pinch them from behind. They are kind of slow and don’t pinch too hard.
Tony, Great idea. I have noticed they are hard to find in the Winter. Great. Thank you, Tom Watts, Naples, Fl.
Thanks Tom!
How do you rig fiddler crabs?
I use a #1 circle hook or j-hook, or small jighead. Hook the crab from underneath its body and up through the top.
does it need to be saltwater to keep them damp?
also, if you go after them at night with a headlamp flashlight, they don’t run because they can’t see. Try under any debris, logs, heavier palm leaves that might be on the ground near the shore etc – sometimes they don’t even burrow, and they’ll sit there while you just pluck them up
I’m not 100% sure, but if you have enough sand in there from wherever you collected them from, it contains a good amount of salt to mix with freshwater. I would avoid purified water and go with spring water.