Anyone know the regs for spider/sheep crabs?

[almazing]

Me and a buddy of mine took his barely seaworthy 12 foot tandem kayak out to the Zuniga Jetty yesterday. It was pretty heavy traffic in the harbor and we launched around Shelter Island. So it was quite a paddle. 400+ pounds of people+gear on a tiny kayak doesn't go too well on actual beach launches hahaha. But anyway, we didn't see too much. I saw one decent sized sand bass hiding in the grass, a single spiny lobster, a couple rock crabs, and a massively huge spider crab. We decided to leave it because neither of us knew the regs for these guys.

Does anyone know the regs for these? I looked in the Ocean Sport Fishing Handbook, and did a search on the PDF file online and I can't seem to find anything regarding them.

[fishcrazy]

I heard they taste like crap and theres not any meat on them. are you talking about the crab that looks like a gray rock with legs?

[baja haha]

Originally Posted by fishcrazy

I heard they taste like crap and theres not any meat on them. are you talking about the crab that looks like a gray rock with legs?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Agree!

Very thick shell

Very little meat

Not worth the effort

Suggest leave them be..

Was it a male or female?

sdm

[Chris Oak]

I didn't see it either, the regs are getting more and more difficult to read each year. I think they have to be 4" across and the limit is 35 because it is not specified, but better not take a chance, call up the dfg office and ask them, make sure you write down the persons name who you talked to!

[CitoRat4Ever]

Since they aren't "cancer" crabs I don't think they have a minimum size limit and the bag limit is 35. But check the rule book on that. For the amount of work involved in getting to the meat, only the larger ones are worth taking. Look for the big, aggressive males, they will have the largest claws and the most meat. Also There is supposed to be a good amount of knuckle meat once your get past the carapace. Channel lock pliers, a hammer and a screwdriver will be your best friends if you take some.

[ca.harvester]

U guys serious? i guess you dont know how to cook them u dont eat the legs and you carefully pick out the body meat its the best part ...idk about one from the jetty but...

['o Cino]

There's a bunch of huge Sheep Crabs at Zuniga. They really aren't worth the effort to eat, sort of the ocean equivalent of celery, negative calories and a huge mess.

They are fun to play with. You can tell the sex by flipping them over and checking out the posterior abdominal segment, females are domed, males are narrow.

[dahunter]

Some people says the meat is good, its just a pain in the ass to get to. Others say it taste gross. I saw some at the jetty also.But ,from what i read, its to much of a pain to cook them. plus i also didn't know the regs and didn't want to find out i was going to receive a fine.

[Namor]

If its too much trouble for you to use the search function, then its definitely too much trouble to clean and process them....

They have plenty of meat in them, and are pretty much the tastiest thing out there in my book.

Jeremy

[almazing]

I suppose I'll go and take one and see how they taste. I asked around and they're free to take all year round, so next time I'm out there, I'll go and bag one.

[spearthebigones]

Sheepcrabs take some serious effort to pull out the meat. It took me a solid 2 hours to prepare just one sheepcrab for cooking, the vast majority of that time is spent standing over the shell cracking each claw and trying to scrape out tiny bits of meat that is exposed. For the size and thickness of their claws they really have surprisingly little meat in them.

But in the end you get a little crab meat, however the amount of effort it takes to retrieve the meat just makes the whole process so annoying you barely see anyone take those crabs.

My advice is to only take one the first time, unless you have a bunch of friends that will not help out on the cracking process.

[CIslandHunter]

I was waiting for Namor to comment on this thread, he has had several threads about these guys and I remember seeing a pretty impressive spread of photos recently that he posted, actually looked like quite a bit of meat as well as lots of roe. Search his posts

['o Cino]

Originally Posted by almazing

I suppose I'll go and take one and see how they taste. I asked around and they're free to take all year round, so next time I'm out there, I'll go and bag one.

I hate to sound like an agro-new-age surfer, but please don't take one from Zuniga to test your tastebuds. If you're curious try this: Grab a claw, and put moderate pressure 45 degrees towards it's back. The crab will release the claw when it thinks it's lost the battle.

Test the taste with the claw before committing to killing the animal.

just my .02

[Bottom Snatcher]

I think there is a 4" minimum, but best to find out for sure. You definitely wouldn't want to take one smaller than that anyway...not enough meat on it.

I caught a big one last winter with a friend of mine. We decided to keep it. We read that they taste like crap, and the best recipe is to cook it on a pine board and then eat the board, etc.

My friend is a chef, and after boiling the crab to cook it, he chilled it for several hours on ice. He then cut the body with a band saw to expose the meat in the body. He got about a pound of meat from the body, and a pound from the legs and claws. He said the meat tasted more "crabby" than say a dungeness crab. He made a crab dip out of it that tasted incredible. The recipe included a spicy hot sauce that he makes and ages.

My recommendation is to make a crab dip with the crab, and not serve it on it's own. The stronger crab flavor adds to the crab dip.

[wcskindiver]

Originally Posted by 'o Cino

I hate to sound like an agro-new-age surfer, but please don't take one from Zuniga to test your tastebuds. If you're curious try this: Grab a claw, and put moderate pressure 45 degrees towards it's back. The crab will release the claw when it thinks it's lost the battle.

Test the taste with the claw before committing to killing the animal.

just my .02

Not that I agree with the reg, but I think this will get you sited if the DFG checks you.

“it is unlawful to possess on any boat or to bring ashore any fish upon
which a size or weight limit is prescribed in such condition that it’s size or
weight cannot be determined.…”