Crabbing & fishing in Belcarra & Barnet

After two days of randomly asking co-workers for fun things to do around B.C. on this long Canada Day weekend, Mr. Lilasaur and I finally decided to go crab fishing on Friday night, and started our research then. 

Prep Work

In Canada, a Recreational Tidal (saltwater) License is required to crab and fish in salt water.  Since it's not that expensive, we just bought a 3-Day license for $12.32 each, after tax. Further information regarding licensing can be obtained here: DFO, Recreational Licensing. Remember to have the license with you at all times, and remember to sign. There are two main types of crabs that one can catch in B.C., the Dungeness and Red Rock. The legal size for male Dungeness is 165 mm while for Red Rock it is 115 mm. It is illegal to catch females for re-population purposes. Maximum is 4 per person. For pictures of the crabs and information on how to sex the crabs, refer to this official guide: DFO Crab Pamphlet. We heard the fine for crabbing without a license is $300, the seizure of all the crabbing equipment, and the crabs. 

Mr. Lilasaur has been talking to his co-worker, Mr. Z, about fishing and got very interested in trying, despite the guilty feelings of possibly hurting the fish when they bite on the hooks and that we have no idea how to kill them. We headed to Canadian Tire and a staff pointed us to a starter kit, which includes a pole, a spindle of fishing line, some colourful baits, some balls that can float, some empty hooks, other things that I cannot name, and a divided box to put all those small things in. This is how the box with goodies looks like:

 

The back of the package included drawings on how to tie some knots. If anybody is actually reading this blog and decides not to buy a starter kit like us, here are the drawings: 

The whole thing costed $19.99 + tax. 

Mr. Z also told us that fish go crazy for peanut butter + flour dough (1:1 ratio), so we made some of that. We had our doubts about this bait, so we also went to a nearby pet store to try to get some earthworms, but apparently they only sell king worms and that the worms die very quickly after you hook them. The pet store staff said that earthworms, on the other hand, keep regenerating so they don't die, and they can wiggle to look interesting to the fish. He said that gas stations actually sell earthworms (surprise!) but we haven't confirmed that. Therefore, it is probably a good idea to find your own earthworms from your yard. We only went with our peanut butter dough.

In order to crab, we obviously need cages. We had a trip to Sechelt, B.C. the Victoria Day weekend and bought a star crabbing cage from Canadian Tire for around $12. It is easily google-able but I do not want angry emails from sellers for using their pictures. DO NOT BUY THIS, it is a piece of crap. It is basically a square base with four triangular sides, and there are strings that attach to the tips of the sides to converge in the middle to a ring so when it closes, it looks like a pyramid. It also does not come with a bait cage and you have to buy an extra cord (~$10) to tie ontp the cage. The cotton (?) string that came with it is only about half a meter long. The problem with this cage is that the sides EASILY flip over or that they get tangled in the strings so you cannot close all the sides properly when you pull on it. The strings also get caught in the converging ring very easily. One of the sides is already broken on our third day of using it. Maybe we weren't supposed to throw it but there wasn't any instruction. A GOOD OPTION is the circle one that folds into a half circle that we bought from Army & Navy for only $9.99 + tax (on sale, regular $12.99). It comes with a very long cord to tie on the docks, a bait envelope (with a wire to close it), and it is super easy to use. You will notice, once you reach the docks, that a lot of fellow crabbers use this option. The disadvantage of this trap is that you have to check the trap often (e.g. every 15 minutes) and the thin cord that comes with the trap can be hard to pull. AN OPTION FOR THE LAZY PEOPLE is the more expensive boxy cages, with one way doors so that crabs cannot get out. They are also sold at Army & Navy for about $20 (24") and more for the 28" one. If you feel really passionate about crabbing it's probably a better idea to get the 28" one because the doors are wider so the crabs can get in much easier. All the Youtube videos that I have seen use this kind of cage. I don't think this one comes with a cord so you probably have to buy that. You also need a float (empty milk jug seems to work fine) if you plan on putting it offshore and leaving it unattended for a while. 

A lot of people will tell you that chicken alone works very well as crab bait, we disagree, and we have grounds for saying that because we were the only ones successful in catching anything legal from the docks on our second day of crabbing. What we have used, learned from an ex-classmate of mine that we coincidentally met on day 1, was that a combination of stinky fish (must be on clearance), mussels, and chicken neck (or some other useless chicken part) is really what crabs like. You must understand that crabs eat DETRITUS (a.k.a. rotting food), so fresh chicken legs, no matter how fatty and delicious they look to humans, do not appeal to them. 

Other good things to bring are:

• gloves to hold the fish (prevent cuts from fins) and pull the crab cage cords (hands hurt after a while)
• a large bucket to hold your catch
• wires/zip ties to re-attach the bait envelope if the original one breaks
• cutter for the wires/zip ties mentioned above
• some garbage bags to hold the soiled equipment afterwards
• a ruler (more than 15 cm) to measure the crabs
• chairs
• snacks that you can eat without directly touching them (your hands will be VERY gross)
• something to drink
• a pair of sunglasses (a lot of glare from the water)
• sunscreen

Location & Conclusions

We went to both Belcarra National Park and Barnet Marine Park. Belcarra is nice with the crabbing area directly on a floating dock (easy to throw), and the view is absolutely stunning. The bad thing about this spot is also the floating dock, because you can feel the waves as if you are on a boat, and it is probably unsafe for little children since there aren't barriers. Also, a resident told us that there may be mercury in the marine life because there is a big ship nearby and they dump everything into the water. But if you do choose to go to Belcarra, tell your GPS to go to Belcarra Picnic Area, because you cannot enter from Midden Road and you'd have to drive all the way back (~6 km). On the other hand, the crabbing area is concrete with high barriers in Barnet Park, so you can only look at the view through bars when you sit down and it is kind of hard to throw the cages if you are short. We only stayed here for a few hours before we went back to Belcarra, because people weren't even catching undersized ones very often.

One thing to note about the circle crabbing trap is that you have to look at how it lands on water. If it opens up on the surface, then it will likely remain open underwater. We saw a man whose trap just remained closed for many times when the trap lands, and he never caught anything. The best way to handle the trap is probably just to hold onto the strings to close then throw it, otherwise the half circle gets bent and the middle structure gets caught in the net. 

As for the fishing part of this trip, the peanut butter dough did not work well... at all. Most of the times it just slipped off the hook, and even when it did not, fish didn't seem to be interested. We have to ask Mr. Z for more information about how this would work. Fishing does not seem to work in general for both parks, because we did not see anybody catching anything. One reason may have been the noises so many dogs and kids were making to scare the fish away. 

Miscellaneous Notes

• If you have a crab in your bucket for display, everybody that walks by would check it out and you would feel like a hero, hahaha.
• If you leave when others are still crabbing, it is probably good etiquette to throw the unused baits closer to shore so the crabs don't get distracted by your baits. 
• Clean up after yourself. 
• Red Rocks are really hard to eat, so if on the rare occasion you caught crabs up to the limit, you should just give these ones to the losers... like what a kid did on the first day and we were just happy we got something :)

Here's a picture of the first crabs we have ever caught, using the crappy star trap and only fish + chicken thigh (the fish has been completely eaten by this point):

Unfortunately both of these were undersized females. 

HAPPY CRABBING (and fishing)!!!!