"Spider Crab Comp" 2022- U.K.S.B Competition

What will I win?

You’ll receive for the 3 heaviest crabs

1st place: Sporasub One Air 70cm. RRP £299.99
2nd place: Picasso Cobra 75cm. RRP £103.49
and 3rd place will get you a Epsealon Red Net Bag, worth £24.99

When does the comp start and end?

The comp will start on the 1st of April, 2022, and will end on the 30th June 2022.

What are the Rules?

Must be a member of U.K. Spearfishing Buddies
Upload your submission to U.K. Spearfishing Buddies, tag Spearfishing U.K. and use #kingcrab22 in your caption so we will be able to find it easier.
Sponsored divers and professionals are encouraged to enter and post, however prizes will not be forfeited to non sponsors/ non professional with the next heaviest.
Your catch must be pictured AND dated, either using your phone or that days newspaper
You’ll need to be based in the U.K, Channel Islands & Northern Ireland included.
You can enter as many times as you would like, we’ll just remove your smaller weighted crab

Advice to Finding Spider Crabs

Spider Crabs can be found almost anywhere along the south coast all the way up through Wales. They’re rarely spotted further north. Spider Crabs migrate to spawn, and can travel over 100 miles! You can spot them travelling across the sand, and if you’re lucky, you can see their malting congregation! This would not be a good time to pick them up though, they’ll have just shed their exoskeleton, the meat will be quite watery.

These crabs are fond of eating seaweed, and commonly found clinging onto Kelp feasting. You can find the females lying in the sand making nests, sometimes being protected by the males. And they’re often found clinging to walls and rock structure. My largest spider crab was found wandering through dense seagrass in May 2018, and weighed in at 2.48kg!

To make sure you’re in with a chance of this comp, you’ll need to find a large male, females are always smaller and a good way to tell the two apart. Another way to distinguish between the two would be the size of the claws. Males have much larger claws, and the size of the belly flap. The males have a smaller, triangular flap, whilst females have larger, more rounded flaps, this is for the carry of the eggs.

Spider Crabs can be intimidating, but don’t fret as theyre not dangerous, you wouldn’t want a pinch though. So make sure to approach from behind, grab their back and turn them upside down. In most cases, they’ll curl up like a ball to protect their belly flap. Try not to go in from the front as they may drop their claws.

What Kit do I need?

In most cases, the Epsealon Red Net bag is the perfect bag. It uses a plastic sheet built into the top ⅓ of the bag. The sheet makes pushing the crabs in much easier, as their nobbles are easy to catch on all the holes found in net bags. For the ginormous specimens, you may struggle to get him in the bag, and wrapping him up in your floatline may be your only solution.

Good luck and happy hunting!