A few weeks ago I took my kids for a walk around the place where I used to live as a child – Mudeford Quay, near Christchurch in Dorset.
It is a very popular location, with a beach hut currently up for sale for over £145,000 (yes really). One of the draws of the area is the opportunity to go Crabbing and whilst we were there the boys were fascinated by crabs that everyone had caught.
On Sunday, we decided to have a go ourselves and I was surprised at how easy it was.
Equipment:
- Hook-free crab lines
- Washing tablet net bag
- Bucket
- Crab bait – you can use fish, wet cat food or bacon
- Catching net
Once you have your equipment, with the exception of the crab bait it can be used over and over again so it is a good investment.
We established our spot and got to work. We put the bait into the net bags and added a couple of stones to weigh it down as it was quite a breezy day, and attached the bags to the line. Simply drop in the water, making sure it hits the bottom and wait.We waited, pulled the lines in and nothing. We did this for about 20 minutes and Isaac was getting bored so I took him off for a walk to see other peoples catches, whilst the older boys came up with their master plan. 10 minutes later, having reassured him that there were crabs to be caught, we were back and it wasn’t long before we got our first one:
Sadly, he took one look at us and thought better of it and fell back into the sea. The boys blamed me – apparently I wasn’t quick enough with the net! (It’s always mums fault).
Just a minute of two later, our patience was rewarded again, and this time Kian had control of the net.
The tides were now changing and we were in quite an exposed area, so we decided to move somewhere more sheltered to see if we could get more, but I just have to show you this gorgeous pic of my boys first.
We hit jackpot – we caught six crabs all together and had three excited boys very proud of their achievement.
We were there for 3 hours and if it had been warmer we would have stayed longer, but it is a great day out and all the boys want to do it again. Putting the crabs back was a fun affair too – we had a crab race, and watching them scurry back to their home was great fun, especially as mine won!
If you are after a cheap, fun day out that all the family will enjoy, then I wholeheartedly recommend this!
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That looks like a lot of Fun! You can crab where I live too but we have not tried it yet! I can’t believe the price of that hut – that is only £40 grand less than my house is worth!
Thanks for sharing on Family Frolics. 🙂
Yes, same here and I cannot believe someone would pay that either! The ones owned by the local council get rented every year and locals queue around Christmas for about a week to make sure they get one!!
Now that is something we have done loads. We do the same at Padstow. Please do join me on Country Kids
I will do – thank you
It is a great fun one, all of mine love it. We even have the same bucket!
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