How to Use Sand Crabs as Bait

When fishing for corbina off the coast of Southern California, the bait of choice is sand crab. If you choose and prepare them correctly, they can be an irresistible treat for the corbina.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Look along the beach in the area around the highest reach of the waves to locate the bait. The crabs will leave a V-shaped mark in the sand as they burrow into it. Another way to locate a bed is to watch for corbina actively feeding with their noses down and tails up.

2. Collect the bait. If you're collecting on the beach, dig with your hands or a small trowel and pick the crabs out with your hands. If you're collecting in the surf, you can use a crab trap or a net placed slightly farther into the water than the crabs you want to catch. Disturb the sand as the wave heads back out to sea and the crabs should be washed into your net or trap.

3. Choose the best bait. A soft-shelled crab is preferable to a hard-shelled one, and a crab with a lot of orange eggs is a bonus. Ideally, you're looking for soft-shelled crabs full of eggs. A soft-shelled crab with no eggs is preferable to a hard-shelled one with eggs. The least appealing to the corbina is a hard-shelled crab with no eggs. In general, look for grape-sized crabs, but if you see the corbina actively feeding on crabs bigger or smaller, use that size.

4. Place two crabs back to back on the hook, spearing the first one from the abdomen to the back and the second from the back to the abdomen. This presents the fish with legs (and ideally eggs) no matter what the orientation of the hook.

5. Practice. The corbina are line shy and soft biters. It may take some practice to learn how to place your bait and set your hook.