Where and when to catch Blue Swimmer Crab in Queensland: the QLD season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find QLD's current size and possession limits.
QLD limits for Blue Swimmer Crab are set by Fisheries Queensland and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them.
Check Fisheries Queensland's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in Queensland.
Oily fish frames and heads, pilchards and fish offcuts tied or clipped into the net. Some states allow only fish or fish-based bait in crab nets, so check before using anything else.
Lures
Not applicable: crabs are taken with nets, scoops, rakes or by hand, not on rod and line.
Rigs
Drop nets and hoop nets (a ring with a mesh bag and the bait in the centre) are the standard jetty and boat gear; a long-handled scoop net (max 2 m, mesh at least 25 mm) is used wading the flats. Which of these you may use, how many, and their maximum sizes are set state by state, so check the authority link below. A crab gauge, a tub or keeper bag of seawater, and closed shoes are the rest of the kit.
Technique
With nets, set them on sand or the sand-weed edge, soak 10–20 minutes, then lift steadily and straight up so crabs don't climb out. On the flats, wade below knee depth at the bottom of the tide, wearing polarised glasses, and look for crabs moving or for dark puffs of sand where one has just buried; then scoop it quickly before it bolts. Gauge each crab as it comes up and sex it: in Queensland every female blue swimmer goes straight back, berried or not, along with undersized males. Pick keepers up from behind, at the base of the back paddle, away from the nippers, and shuffle your feet on the flats for stingrays.
Best Time
Warm water drives everything: crabs are most active and most plentiful from late spring through summer into early autumn, with late summer often the peak once the year's young crabs have moulted up to size. On the day, the bottom of a big low tide is best for raking and scooping, and slack water or a gentle tide suits drop nets. Calm, clear weather helps you see crabs on the flats.
Identification
Also known asSand crab, blue swimmer, bluey
A broad, flattened shell with a row of spines along each front edge and a long, sharp spine at each side, and back legs flattened into swimming paddles. Males are bright blue with white mottling and long, slim nippers; females are duller olive-brown to green with shorter claws. Flip it over to sex it: males have a narrow, pointed abdominal flap, females a broad, rounded one, and a berried female carries an orange to brown egg mass under it. Sand crabs are smaller and brownish, mud crabs are heavier, dark and blunt-clawed. Crabs are measured across the shell, so carry a gauge.
Size & Growth
A typical keeper is 12–18 cm across the shell, a crab past 18 cm is a good one, and the biggest reach about 25 cm. Crabs grow by moulting, jumping a size class at a time and staying soft for a few days afterwards, so a freshly moulted crab feels light for its width and is mostly water. Blue swimmers grow fast in warm water, reach a keepable size in around a year to eighteen months and don't live many years beyond that, which is why crab numbers bounce back quickly after a good spawning and fall away just as fast after a bad one.
Diet & Habitat
Opportunistic scavengers and predators of small fish, shellfish, worms, prawns and anything dead on the bottom, which is why a fish frame in a net works so well. They live over sand, mud and seagrass in sheltered bays, estuaries and tidal flats, mostly in 1–5 m and right up into ankle-deep water on a rising tide. In cold water they bury into the sand and go quiet, and they move into deeper water in winter before returning to the shallows as the water warms.
Eating Quality
Excellent: sweet, clean white meat as good as any crab in the country. Chill live crabs in an ice slurry to sedate them, then cook in boiling salted water for six to eight minutes and cool before picking. One good crab is a generous serve; picked meat makes crab pasta, chilli crab or crab sandwiches. Skip soft, freshly moulted crabs. Keep the catch alive in seawater or on ice until cooking, because dead crabs spoil fast in the heat. Picked meat freezes for a month or so; whole cooked crabs don't freeze well.