fishing sand crabs/sand fleas..

[Blazin420]

So ive been curious fro the past few years on HOW to fish these little buggers...I no ya have to rake them (even tho i just dig till i find a big 1)..But i have tried a few ways and have come up empty on catching with them..I no they work i have watched a old timer pick up fish after fish in the winter a couple years ago while i struck out plugging a jetty right next to him...So for some of the seasoned veterans on i here i ask ...What is the best rig for them?hi-lo?egg sinker? do you let them float? Any insight would be great on the rigs you would use...I ask cause recently the fish i have found were on sand crabs and i did get a few plugging all in tight to the beach..Also i wanna try them for some fluke ever year i clean the fluke i catch from the beach there has been crabs in it belly! Thanks in advance

[surferman]

I used to see an older guy fishing in cape may. He would use sand fleas. It was a while ago but I remember him using a longer shank hook putting 2 sand fleas on at a time. He used an egg sinker as well about 2' behind the hook. I see you really got some nice stripers in your last report. Smart to try to use what they are eating. Good luck.

[surfrob]

#1 sharp, and the finer wire type, hooks
#2 hi/lo or long leader depends on the area and situation
#3 multiple per hook is normal
#4 must hold your rod, no dead sticking
#5 set on the bite, don't let them take it. every fish in the ocean eats these things and both tog/cunners are great at bait stealing. thus tight line to the terminal tackle a must. wave action makes it tough.

[plugginpete]

^^^^Good, organized info. that's money right there. There was a guy who did that in rockaway. He caught in the summer when it was pretty dead. It was cool to see him still catching tho.

[Blazin420]

Thanks surfrob that was kind of what i found on how to fish them...Im gonna give it a shot next time out...Hi-Lo rig with long dropper loops seems to be the most popular method..Ill post my results

[J Barbosa]

I tried fishing them a few times over the years and never had any luck.

I caught mine by using my feet or an empty clam shell after the wave recedes.

[Blazin420]

In my limited experience with them (really the past 3 weeks or so)i have managed a few decent fluke and at night it was all sand sharks...It seems easier at low tide or outgoing tide to find the crabs..And there seems to be more crabs around to grab in the areas in fishing at this time of the tide..Also im only using the bigger ones and putting 2 or 3 on the hook seems to get better results then just 1

[baitstealer]

Hey blazing thanks for the quick response. You never know if you keep doing that you might catch a surprise one of these days. Good luck and tight lines dude.

[seamonkey]

Cool info thank you for sharing.

[surferman]

surf rob thanks for pointing that error out. DOH!
I went back and changed my post. There is another good one on crabs.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...m-irresistible

[VSdreams]

An interesting video by a guy who talks about eating them. Yuck!