By Jeff Weakley, Associate Editor

Many of our favorite inshore fish simply can’t resist a meal that goes crunch. You probably know already that crabs make up a big proportion of the diets of red drum, striped bass, tarpon, permit, bonefish and others. At certain times, however, that proportion can jump to something like 100 percent. That’s when you find yourself desperately wanting a crab for bait—or something that closely resembles one.

The crabs I’m referring to here are the common blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and the various Portunid swimming crabs. These guys are similar in body shape, but somewhat different in lifestyles.

Blue crabs are well-known for seasonal spawning migrations. The she-crabs leave their familiar salty habitat in the lower reaches of the estuary, and move upriver toward the males, or jimmies. After mating, the females return to the higher salinity environs, where conditions are better for larval dispersal and development. The males are left to their own devices, awaiting the next spawning cycle, while the females, likewise undisturbed, attend to their duties. (One can’t help wondering how such an arrangement might benefit the human species...) This occurs mostly spring through fall, and the timing may differ from estuary to estuary. Blue crabs may also leave areas of low dissolved oxygen, especially in warm summer waters.

Portunids have a similar breeding schedule, May through October, but in this case, females and males tend to stay together in high-salinity areas. The offspring settle inshore, and upon maturation, move offshore to join the adult stock. Whereas blue crabs tend to stick to the bottom, scuttling along muddy riverbeds and through grassflats, adult portunids are comfortable doing what their common name suggests—they swim, sideways, and they’re surprisingly quick. You see a lot of them under lighted bridges at night, or at times offshore among drifting sargassum.

For both blue and swimming crabs, midsummer tides seem to play a role in migrations—and most certainly give these creatures cause for alarm. Between May and August, if you frequent passes and inlets near the end of a full- or new-moon outgoing tide, it’s likely you’ve noticed explosive feeding activity on the surface. There’s often a noteworthy shortage of finfish in the equation, no big mullet or pogy schools. Just why is that?

Redfish, tarpon and permit commonly hold along the edges of inlets and channels, making swipes at crabs pulled helplessly along by the tide. Blue crabs and portunids often mix in the current; here the portunids receive the moniker, “pass crab.”

Sometimes it’s practical to net a few crabs passing in the current, but if it’s not convenient to do this (you don’t have a net, you’re fishing from shore, no livewell, etc.), you could surely make do by tying on one of the many artificial crabs that have been scuttling across my desk lately.

1--The Sea Bay Crippled Crab is a 3-inch, 1⁄2-ounce bait in five colors—all with blue claws, a defining feature of the blue crab. An integral double hook with lead molded around the shank makes for a compact lure. It casts far, sinks quickly and settles upright, making it equally useful for skimming the surface around inlets, or dropping in front of fish you’ve sighted on the flats.

2--One of the most realistic crab lures I’ve seen is the CW Crab, a plastic plug with a lip and a single rear treble hook. There are three models, a floater, which dives to 6 feet on the retrieve; a suspender that dives about 6 feet and mostly stays there; and a sinker, which drops a foot per second. The maker advises tuning the lure so that it tracks straight—you simply bend the front eyelet gently, as you would on a crankbait. Captain Joe Suroviec, who fishes Marathon and the Middle Florida Keys, reports good luck on the floating model. “Guys are putting it out on a flatline in the tide, and catching tarpon,” he said. “They’re fishing it straight out of the rodholder at anchor near the bridges.” The bait wobbles attractively in the current on 60-pound-test fluorocarbon leader.

3--Riptide Lures offers 2- and 4-inch Realistic Crabs, a soft bait designed for a variety of rigging systems and fishing applications.

On the hard-fished Mosquito Lagoon, in east central Florida, Capt. Tom Van Horn says soft crab baits are medicine for nervy redfish schools.

“Throw past the fish and let it drop,” he advised. “Our fish are so spooky these days, you can’t throw the bait 10 feet from them—they’ll bolt. The perfect setup is 10 or 15 feet ahead, reel the crab across the surface, then let it settle. If they see it sink, they’ll grab it.

“You’ve got to remember that when fishing a crab, you have to make it act like a crab,” Van Horn added. “You don’t want to cast these lures and jig them back to the boat. Another thing I did this year, was trout in potholes—throw the crab out there and let it lay in the pothole.”

Van Horn fishes the Realistic Crab on a so-called “Stoopid Rig”—basically a circle hook attached to the back edge of the crab by way of a Hitchhiker, a brass screw-in device made by Tru Turn. The rig is described on the company’s website, www.riptidelures.com. His favorite color pattern is salt-and-pepper.

4--Watching tarpon explode on crabs near the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, Florida, inspired lure-maker Mark Nichols to design his D.O.A. Softshell Crab. This is a soft-plastic bait about an inch-and-a-half across, weighing 5⁄8 ounce. Some 20 colors are available, including bi-color models, featuring light belly and darker carapace, much like a real crab.

“You can throw it behind the boat, and let it hover in the current,” Nichols said. “That’s great for tarpon. I also use it as a probing bait for reds and permit—you can skim it on the surface, like a swimming crab. If you’re casting at permit in the inlets, and you see grass floating on the edge, cast there and let the bait sweep with the grass.”

The Softshell Crab has separate holes for the hook and belly weight, allowing for easy rerigging—you can add a larger hook, perhaps a circle hook, or fish it without weight.

5--Within the Berkley Gulp! line of soft baits is a homely little critter that goes by the name Peeler Crab. Two sizes are available, one and two inches, in a variety of colors.

Greg Watts, who dominates redfish tournaments across the Gulf of Mexico and Florida coastline, uses the 2-inch model in special conditions.

“When we’re fishing those crabs, it’s 80 percent a sight-fishing thing,” he said. “We fish them on a 1⁄8- or 1⁄16-ounce jig hook, up through the corner of the bait. A lot of times they’ll eat a crab when they won’t eat anything else.”

Molten and New Penny are his favorite colors, but “sometimes it doesn’t matter.”

Gulp! products are notorious for a powerful, built-in scent—something that adheres to skin, clothes and tackle boxes. “That has everything to do with it,” Watts said. “You can pitch this bait in a sand hole, leave it there, and catch fish.” For this kind of still-fishing, Watts rigs the Peeler on a Carolina rig, using a 1- to 2-foot leader, a No. 2 livebait hook and a 1⁄4-ounce sliding sinker. SWA

Tide Watch Tells Gulf Time

In my Oct./Nov. 2006 column, I lamented the fact that no watchmaker had included tide tables for the central Florida Gulf Coast.

Shortly thereafter, California-based Reactor introduced the Graviton, a dressy, stainless steel digital/analog watch that has tide tables for all U.S. states and a bunch of nations. Bradenton and Venice, Florida, are among the many Florida ports—and that covers those odd mixed tides of Gulf Florida. Suggested retail price is $300. www.reactorwatch.com