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Now certainly if you're British you likely just had a wave of nostalgia over the idea of Crabbing! I did when I thought this through certainly.

Crabbing is not only a great way to spend the afternoon at a rockey sea side or pier with your kids but I was thinking is actually a useful skill for survival. Nowadays you can catch a crab with a line with a bait filled bag on the end, super easy... And edible crabs line many shores across the world.

However you won't always have a bait shop nearby... So what are good baits to use when Crabbing?

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18 Answers 18

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Rotten fish. That's all I need to say. Crabs go mad for rotten fish in a net bag.

If you can't get your hands on rotten fish, raw chicken is probably the next best thing and is certainly easier to buy. Place it in a bag or secure it to a line and have a net ready.

With the both of these remember to thoroughly wash your hands before eating anything after handling them.

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    In supermarkets you can get tubs of chicken liver, which are already cut up into nice little squares. As an aside, these are great catfish bait as well.
    – Unknown Zombie
    Commented Jun 11, 2015 at 16:55
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Anything smelly! Though crabs can't smell (as we think about it) they are scavengers by nature and detect their food by "smelling" microscopic particles in the water. So something really stinky and rotten will generate more "smell" thus attracting more crabs!

Keeping them on the line is more tricky...

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I asked my wife about this - she's from the Chesapeake Bay area, and is the daughter of a Navy man who loves fishing, so she knows a few things about what bait to use for crabs.

Her recommendation is raw Turkey Neck - it's soft and has the right smell to attract crabs, and isn't quite as pungent to our own nose as rotten fish. Raw chicken will do too, or really any raw poultry, but ideally you want something tough enough that the crab won't tear it off, but not so firm that they won't be able to latch onto it.

They also leave the skin on - which seems to help keep the crab's claw stuck on the bait.

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One thing I saw a lot of last time I went crabbing and apparently rage threw my net off the pier (I hold to the fact it slipped out my hand!) was people using left over cooked sausages cut into small chunks, or raw bacon again in small bits. They seemed to be fairly successful.

What a waste of bacon...

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  • Crab sticks work well....
    – user2766
    Commented Jun 11, 2015 at 9:51
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    @Liam I wouldn't want to cause mad crab disease... ;)
    – Aravona
    Commented Jun 11, 2015 at 9:54
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I am really surprised I haven't seen this answer yet, so I'll go ahead and toss this one in the mix. Cow lips are a very common and durable crab bait...especially if you do a lot of crabbing. If you keep them in brine, you can use them for a whole season and will continuously attract the crabs.

This is especially attractive to crabbers who use trot lines.

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  • Where do you buy cow lips? Do you need to special order this from a butcher? I've seen cow tongue in grocery stores but never lips...
    – Erik
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 21:56
  • Search on Google, "crabbing cow lips" or "crabbing bull lips" there lots of great imformation about using them, and I am sure if you google enough you can find sources. Though I bet you can ask your butcher to hold on to them for you.I am not google though :-)
    – Escoce
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 23:19
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Meat, of any type except dead crabs, on a string or in a net bag. but be quick, a tug on the string and they book! Crab pots typically have a way of holding the bait so it can't be raided from the outside. either a shield or on the bottom.

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Prawn heads. When I was a kid my parents used to buy a bag of prawns when we were at the seaside. I got the heads to use as bait. The crabs almost went into a frenzy to get at the head and didn't let go even when they got above water. A delicacy for the grownups and the crabs.

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I have seen someone use a raw chicken leg. Very meaty and once the crab latches on it doesn't let go.

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In the Lowcountry of South Carolina, we used turkey necks as bait. We'd tie the end of some narrow cord around a turkey neck, attach a few small fishing weights and toss if over the side of the boat or dock. Every few minutes, slowly pull up the line with a net at the ready. Toss the crabs into a cooler full of ice.

That's how we did it.

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A good bait solution for crabbing is some scraps from the butcher, such as a liver or a heart of a cow. The crabs go crazy for them!

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  • That's really interesting. Though where I'm from neither are scraps hah! Thanks for the input.
    – Aravona
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 10:00
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Dog food soaked in fish oil is a very economical yet effective way to bait crab traps.

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    Why was this flagged, it's a helpful answer. It's short, so what? There are great solutions to complex answers in just one sentence.
    – Wills
    Commented Jul 30, 2016 at 9:13
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Crab Bait: Usually on the ocean, you will find a bait shop that has the remains of fish that have been fillet. They will be frozen with a wire through them to hang from the cage. Turkey legs are great also. Finally, who ever said to put bacon in a crab cage should be very careful! Bacon goes on everything and is very popular to the human race. By putting bacon in to a crab cage, you will most likely find local fisherman trapped in your cage.

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If you do not like handling meat, bread works for me. It works successfully and is not disgusting to handle. I have used bread for bait many times and caught many crabs.

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Chicken legs!! They were always the best bait we tried. Easiest to secure to the trap, and the crabs find them irresistible.

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I take a raw chicken and leave it in a lidded bucket in the garage for 2 to 3 days, along with a a good dose of fish sauce. Sometimes it gets so putrid, I can't use it without retching and gagging. I stuff the wretched concoction in a cage that's strapped to a 2 ring net.

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I've seen tuna cat food used successfully as bait. Placed in the toe end of a womens white nylon stocking and tied to the crab net.

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For me. Chicken necks tied on a string. Crabs will hold onto them till pulled very close to shore were you dip net them with a flat or strait nose dipnet. Also in box traps the pull up kind if in a boat. Were the sides lay out flat. Or form a pyramid. S Pacific.

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There are lots of options - the most popular seem to be rotting fish and chicken parts. In a pinch, dog or cat food seems to also work though it's not quite as effective as the alternatives. The general rule is the smellier the better. You can also try a variety of crab attractants which are made from concentrated fish parts and are extremely smelly. They can drastically increase the amount of crabs your trap/pot/snare can attract by spreading a pungent scent far and wide. Source: Crabsman

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