peeler crabs and rigs

[hunter25]

Hi there,
I am a seasoned course fisherman and recently i decided to try some sea fishing for wrasse and pollack. Could anyone answer some of the questions
below as i need all the help i can get.

1) how do i distinguish between peeler crabs and other crabs?
2) What is the best rig to use when fishing for pollack/wrasse of the rocks?

cheers all

[wroteforluck]

1. Peelers will look duller than a hardback, tend to be less agressive, if you find two crabs one on top of the other then the botton crab will be a female peeler. To test carefully twist off the bottom section of the crabs back leg - if it's a peeler then there will be a new soft leg, if not there will be some white cartelege.

2. For pollack I'd spin with sandeel imitations (Storm natural 6" are good) on a 3' hooklength tied to a swivel with a bead (to protect the knot) and a 1.5 oz bullet lead running free on your mainline (for casting weight). Weighted shads are good (again Storm) as are any silver spinners/lures such as dexter wedges or long sandeel type metal spinners.

For wrasse the try a really simple rig - to your mainline attach a 3 way swivel - attach your lead to the bottom eye of the swivel with a 12" length of weaker line (weaker than mainline) and attach a short (18") hooklength of 30lb line with a 2/0 hook to the side eye of the swivel. You can't cast this far, only a lob as the weak line would break which would be dangerous (flying lead) but you shouldn't need to as the wrasse will often be under your feet. Bait with crabs - hard or peeler, or ragworm - all baits will catch wrasse but crabs will select the bigger fish and rag will attract all sizes.

Hope this helps

[i hate whiting]

what wroteforluck said, but i prefur fishing with the float for wrasse, more fun i think. go here (www.freewebs.com/specimen-hunters/rigs.htm) to see how to rig up a float, its at the bottom of the page

[Largerider]

Some info under this link on peeler.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/diary/pages/baitarena/peelercrab.html

[hunter25]

thank you all for your response. your help is greatly appreciated. hopefully this will help me get some good fish the next time im at sea.
cheers:boat: