makin cart
- Thread starter anth123
- Start date
K
Kartonkel
Guest
- you need large female crab
-best time is October to December
Open crab and once the bid with legs and tail is seperated, use fingers or a teaspoon and get all the soft bids out apart from the gills (dead man fingers)
10 large crabs cost about 20£ will generate about 2-3 kg of cart.
You could now either use the pure cart or mix it with either breadcrums, ground bait (best krill or greenlipped mussel) or whatever you like to get it a bit less liquid and easier to process.
Now you have got 2 options:
1.- produce sausages
2.- produce slabs for storage and later use
sausage: Buy sausage skin, preferably 20mm and fill a meter with cart through a big funnel. Pieces of shell are deadly and can pierce the skins.
freeze the sausages and once frozen wrap in tin foil. Keeps longer frozen when fishing and easier to re-freeze if not used
Slab: Use a baking tray which fits into your freezer (very important)
Put clingfilm into the bottom. Fill with about 2cm of cart mix, then put clingfilm on top and even it out nicely. Freeze then remove from tray (which you will use for the next production) and store in freezer until you want to fish and portion it down.
Hope it helps
Last edited:
Just chop them in half with an axe or spade and scrape all the insides out, drain off the excess fluid. Then use a flat container fill to about 1inch and freeze,when you want to make you're baits up take it out the freezer cut it into inch strips (length up to you're prefered size off bait) and wrap in clingfilm, then back in the freezer till you use it.
jamiebrennan
Well-known member
the house will be stinking by the end of the process so be prepared for WW3 with the wife or mother! Pushing frozen cart into finger bandage at 11pm on a saturday night is torture on the hands so im looking at developing the process to suit.
p.s my fingers still have not recovered 2 weeks later!
p.s my fingers still have not recovered 2 weeks later!
david.northeast
Well-known member
As Norbert says (Kartonkel) sausage skins are easy to use. Don't forget to take all the air out of the skins and tied at top (must have the air out). If you want skins I have around 2 mile of it in 6-7ft strips 22mm and around 70ft of the collagen sausage skins in 19mm send me a pm and ill sort you some out.
I could produce mountains of the stuff just haven't been to get any crab
I could produce mountains of the stuff just haven't been to get any crab
cheers for the offer m8 I would ov took some off ur hands but I cant pick them up ad cheers to the rest ov the lads for the info
david.northeast
Well-known member
I can post some for you mate. Just pm me your address
np m8 a pm is on it way ad a big thank u too
how do u use it on the hook
david.northeast
Well-known member
When you've made them freeze them solid. Once frozen wrap them in tin foil so they stay colder. When you come to use them take them out of your flask unwrap the foil and simply bind on with elastic no need for putting the hook through it. Put a couple of holes in before casting.
finding nemo
Well-known member
10 big crabs will not make 2-3kg of of cart like...
ive shelled hundreds of kilos of crab and ya lucky if ya get 4 kg of quality cart out of a full box (40-50kg)
This time of year the females have very little meat in them, they store coral were ever they can and the wings of the shell are full of it inside the skin.
Some people only use the coral and take out the skin or the solid brown mear inside the crabs without coral. But i cant see the point as when, like now the crabs are rammed with coral and there is minimal meat in anyway but not just that. At the end of the day its all crab.
most important thing to do is drain it propperly and get rid of the excess water. And do not add anything to it.
ive shelled hundreds of kilos of crab and ya lucky if ya get 4 kg of quality cart out of a full box (40-50kg)
This time of year the females have very little meat in them, they store coral were ever they can and the wings of the shell are full of it inside the skin.
Some people only use the coral and take out the skin or the solid brown mear inside the crabs without coral. But i cant see the point as when, like now the crabs are rammed with coral and there is minimal meat in anyway but not just that. At the end of the day its all crab.
most important thing to do is drain it propperly and get rid of the excess water. And do not add anything to it.
K
Kartonkel
Guest
I assume you get your crabs for free otherwise you are wasting your money or seriously do it wrong. I also think draining the fluid is unnecessary as it contains a lot of scent.
If you go to the harbour and buy 50kg of crab, it costs you 100£! If that only gets you 4 kg of cart you are down to 25£/kilo !!!
Go online and buy your cart
1Kg Slab of Cart Bait
saves you a lot of work and mess.
Last edited:
finding nemo
Well-known member
Far too many assumptions in that comment
K
Kartonkel
Guest
Yeah
did not want to sound know-it-all or offensive.
sorry if it came across as such
K
Kartonkel
Guest
Sometimes I think there is a bit of luck involved. Some large female crabs are full and packed with coral and meat and some are rather disappointing.
I have bought 20 crabs (and they are usually mixed size) and got about 5 liters out.
As the previous poster said, it might depend on how well you drain it and how much meat you take.
As a nice side effect you get some claws for tea ;-)
finding nemo
Well-known member
No worries mate...
If i buy a full box ill come out with 80-100 quid proffit
If i buy a full box ill come out with 80-100 quid proffit
