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fishinglady · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 12:00 pm Post subject: crab kill ?

Just finished driving beach from Bob Hall to North sticks.....water is pretty & clear, no weed washing in, but also no bird action or schools of mullet visible in surf.

Strange thing was that there were thousands of dead crabs, mostly small ones, littering the shore the whole way. Looked like a fish kill, but all crabs. Anyone have any idea what would cause this?

Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12864

Nick says Tony Amos says it is not due to fresh water. We saw something exactly like this last year or the year before.
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ROBDOG · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 12:24 pm Post subject:

I saw that yesterday evening as well. It's not affecting the fish though. The surf trout are thick right now in the evenings. Nice sized ones as well. It's been a while since I have been able to get out due to school, work and weather but yesterday was awesome. They wouldn't fully commit to a topwater, but a light jighead with a chartreuse plastic was definitely on the menu.

Central Scrutinizer · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 12:57 pm Post subject:

No worries fishinglady, it's the result of an exceptional crab spawning season. Nearly every crab you see washed up is a molt, so the previous occupant of that shell is still out there. And a good many of them are the speckled surf crab, so washing up as a molt on the beach is quite normal (and yes, it has happened many times before). The places where you see loads, and loads are just places along the beach that naturally congregate "stuff" in the surf.

ironmanstan · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 1:17 pm Post subject:

Makes perfect sense we just had a full moon.
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Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12864

Oil Field Trash II · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 1560

amazing what a little rain can do. it's been quite a while since I've seen as many crabs as we've had the last couple years .

Old salt · Horse Mullet Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 147

Sadly, there are many millions of dead whole spotted and blue crabs on PINS and Mustang Island. Really heavy from the 10 north. The Calico crab molting story on channel 6 news was completely wrong. Go down there if you don't believe me.
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fishinglady · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 7:00 pm Post subject:

Well, molting might account for some of the empty shells, but there were also a whole lot of legs and claws mixed in with the shells, and also a number of complete dead crabs. The smell was pretty bad too in some spots.

SilverTundra4X4 · Horse Mullet Joined: 13 Nov 2012 Posts: 134

sooooooooo did they molt or is there something else going on... I was thinking about heading up on Thursday but if we are in a DEAD ZONE and no one is catching at BHP to PINS then i might just stay in .....

topdog15 · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 1:13 pm Post subject:

speckled.trout · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 30 Aug 2012 Posts: 1190

it's all a whole bunch of crab bones.

ST
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slimfishin · Pony Mullet Joined: 10 Sep 2007 Posts: 64 Location: corpus

Was down the beach on Monday and a handful of the spots I stopped I couldn't even get in the water. There were hundreds of half dollar size crabs in the water and they were definitely alive. Tides were crazy high and the fishing was pretty decent as well.