My family and I are vacationing at SPI for a few days next week and besides some surf fishing we were hoping to do some crabbing. I grew up in Maryland and remember hours of enjoyment (and frustration) trying to pull in crabs on a piece of string with a chicken neck tied on it.

Can anyone suggest some places we might be able to try on the island or PI?

Thanks,
John

Any of the piers are a good start..

Lots of crabs around the causeway as well..

Can you tell me where some of the public access piers are? This is our first trip down to SPI.

Looking on Google Maps I see one behind the KOA just down from the causeway and I see a large one over by Pirates Bar and Restaurant on the PI side but otherwise it's not clear which ones we might be able to get onto.

Also is OK to just pull off the road and park over by the causeway or is there some other way to get access to that area.

Thanks for your help.

John

A good place is on either side of the causeway base on the island side . You can park close to the bridge base . You need to do it at high tide to have enough water . You can buy some of the little pull up circle nets at the local Walmart . You can also fish from that spot . You can NOT do it from the wood walkway . Just south of the bridge is the boat docks for the charter boats . Some of it is open access, some is private . You could ask about crabbing from the pivate docks . The fishing pier by the Pirates bar is a pay to fish private pier. I do not know if they would let you use crab nets , but you should be able to use baited strings for crabs while you fish .

We crab next to Snoopy's restaurant on the Corpus Christi side of the Island.I believe it's called Marker 37. You walk down the pier and make a left to fish or crab it from there. About a football field long. The pier has fish head and entrails buckets that are tossed out just as the pier makes a left hand turn to walk down it from a cleaning station. We crab about 10 to 20 feet over from the left hand turn into the channel.We use hand lines and circle nets. Last year we caught many in the 7 inch range with no problem. I'm originally from Maryland too and have found crabbing here to be different in two ways. Boil them here ...steam them in Maryland..which I still do. Crabs here are clean due to the salt water and in MD the brackish to fresh water where I lived right in Harford county sometimes are not so.
Good luck hope this helps.