Tillamook Area - Presidents Day weekend - Crabbing and Fishing

So with a crab hawk, are people using spinning or conventional gear typically?  And do you just let it soak then reel? or if you have a sensitive enough rod, can you feel when a crab is in the trap?

From shore I have only used mine by tying thin paracord-style line to it and tossing it by hand like a traditional slingshot. I let it soak for 10-15 minutes and retrieve. From the kayak it's similar but I put a small float on the end and drop it straight down.

In order for both methods to work better, I added about 4 ounces of lead to my traps by twisting pencil lead around the center part of the frame (the part that acts as a hinge).

EDIT: I should add that INSAYN taught me how to use the crabhawks this way, for which I'm grateful!

I've used other types of crab snares with a fishing pole before with mixed results.

This isn't really too exciting but here's a short video I did once from shore showing how we sling them out.

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I have used spinning and casting reels. I have lost a crabhawk with each. Once with the spinning reel when I was running only 35# braid, got a tip wrap and the knot failed (palomar). Once with the casting reel when I got a birds nest and the reel locked up while casting. The crab hawk kept going in both cases. I now run the casting reel and 50# braid.

Throw it and let it soak. Depending on how many crabs are in the area it may take them a few minutes to find it. Say 10 minutes.

As soon as you touch your line, they'll start scattering out of the trap. So when you grab your rod, start reeling, and reeling hard. If you pause there is an opportunity for the trap to open, so it is constant the whole time. If you are doing it right there should be some load on the rod.

I just bought the cheapest rod/reel combo I could find with a 10' heavy rod. It happened to have a spinning reel, which works fine (but it is a huge one with good cranking power). I put 80 lb. braid on it. 

Great comment about putting some weight on the crabhawks. I used to have a lot of problems with even moderate current pulling them around and lifting them off the bottom. I now clip a couple of 4 oz cannonballs on the corners and it works much better.

BTW - if you go to the Garibaldi Port Pier while the water level is still low you can actually "sight fish" for the crab, which is pretty fun.

Ended up getting out for a little bit yesterday (tuesday).  It was a gorgeous weekend and the sun was shining (cold) and the wind wasn't too terrible.   Fished the Barview jetty through high slack and had to quit when the outgoing tide was too strong to keep my jig on the bottom.   Got one keeper size black rock fish and had 2 very strong bites, one of which must have darted back into the rocks as I was quickly broken off.   Lessons learned:

- Those rocks are slick (as expected) and wading boots with traction bars or similar would be very helpful.  As it was, I had to play it safe and stay higher on the rocks than may have been convenient.

- Steel head gear was probably a bit light  and at 8'6" rod was slightly short, but was still a good time.