# Nippers / Yabbies



## Junglefisher

OK, so I bought myself a yabby pump, I think I know where there's a yabby bed and I'm going to go and try pump some yabbies at low tide.
Does anyone have any advice for collecting them?
What's the best way to keep them alive and can you keep them alive for a week?
Any advice on how to rig them? I know grinner put a post up a while back, I'll have a look for it but all opinions welcome.
Thanks in advance.


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## beefs

To collect them - especially in shallow water where there's no sand flat to pump onto - buy the sieve tray that they will probably be selling at the shop near the pump. It's circular, maybe a couple of inches deep and has holes in the bottom. Put a bike tube around it and inflate slightly. This will make the sieve float. Now instead of pumping the sandy yabby muck into the water where it clouds up allowing the yabbies to escape before you catch them you pump it into the floating sieve and wullah, clean yabbies caught in your sieve.

To keep them for an extended time would require frequently changing the water - or else they die and pong up pretty quickly (a day maybe - depends how many you have in the bucket??

Thread them onto the hook the same way you would a prawn (ie hold upside down and insert hook into tail, sliding down towards the head.


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## CatfishKeith

I've never used a sieve just emptied the pumps content in the the shallows or flats and picked out the yabbies, sometimes you need to be fast. A sieve would be handy and for keeping freash like over night just put into a cooler or fridge jst make sure they stay wet/damp maybe with a bit of wet sand


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## redman

Ahhh yabbies - the best bait around for whiting, flathead and pretty much any other such fish. They are hard to keep alive for extended periods as they die in water from their own waste fairly quickly but I have found a good way to go is to use newspaper dampened with seawater and layered in an esky. Put a lkayer on the bottom and a few yabbies and a sprinkle of sand and then another layer and do the same untiul the yabbies are all in there. Often a few casualties but for the most part they will live for a day or two - any longer than that and I think the only way to keep them alive would be to change the water every few hours.


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## southcoastmatty

Incoming tide works best in NSW either work the water/sand edge or shallows. At incoming they are closer to surface and sand is easier to pump. Seem to prefer that muddy/sand mix. My local bank works best at 1.4 m tide and higher. Paddle around sand banks looking for holes. I don't use mesh but I also lose heaps to scavenging whiting and mud clouds. Sieve might damage them if you want a prolonged storage.

I keep them in a large old 20-25litre lidded bucket [good for not sloshing water around in your car if you do not have the luxury waterfront pad]. Wash them off when transferring from your smaller carry bucket, avoid transferring all their grit [ie poo] and sand/mud and get water as clean as possible and fill to brim before applying lid. Keep somewhere cool and dark and replace water within 12-24 hrs removing any dead ones. Take 2 buckets and keep one to transfer them into if not going to use them the next day.

Like any bait fresh is best so if you ain't going to use them within 24 hours probably best not to collect them.

I suspend them under a float for my kids to watch while I ping soft plastics. They get nailed.

Thread recently discussed some sort of pickling with metho [go figure] and using those nitrogenous waste absorbers they use in fish tanks. Have no experience with either.

scm


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## blaggon

i find the mesh seive makes it more difficult. just pump into the shallows and catch em before they bury themselves again. grab them by the tail and in one motion just swing them backwards towards you and into your bait bucket, that way they cant give you a nip.. which can hurt quite a bit :shock: 
best to catch them just before you go fishing. or they can keep ok in a bucket with an aerator.


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## Biggera Yakker

Instead of the bike tube on the sieve (I tried it for a couple of years and had to repair punctures) use a pool noodle.
As far as keeping them alive - change the water if it is heating up (from the sun), pick out the dead or nearly dead ones every hour or two and use as berley (leaving them in with the alive ones seems to kill the others more quickly), you can keep them over night by putting them in the fridge on baking trays with a little salt water over them (this slows their metabolism down) and change the water in the morning.


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## grinner

just a couple of tips,

the bigger ones often live higher up the bank.(furthest from the low water mark. at dead low tide they can often be sucked out by finding the first bit of wet sand as high up the bank as you can get.

big ones good for bream, often small are fine for whiting,

i often used to pump them at pel island in front of the composting toilet block as this was where the bigger ones were and have caught snapper and even a cobia on them , so there isnt much that wont take a yabbie.

agree with biggera, if you salt them and put in fridge they become tougher and less easy to pick off the hook and seem to fish just as well.


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## action1974

When fishing a mate wraps his up in wet newspaper. Definately stay alive longer then just sitting in water. I agree so keeping cool also prolongs them. So maybe try in wet newspaper in an esky with some ice in there.


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## Dodge

action1974 said:


> When fishing a mate wraps his up in wet newspaper. Definately stay alive longer then just sitting in water. I agree so keeping cool also prolongs them. So maybe try in wet newspaper in an esky with some ice in there.


 wet sawdust is also good for this method


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## medongc

When I began to use nippers, I became quickly frustrated at the loss rate: the far more able seagulls were able to dig out all the nippers my inferior eyes and reflexes could not get.

By employing the following method I was able to gather around 100 - 150 nippers in about 15 minutes.

1. As seen in the picture of the handsome young gentleman below, construct a floating sieve using zip ties, pool noodle, a sieve from BCF and a bit of rope to attach to shorts/belt/leg.

2. Buy a mid-length alvey pump. I made the error of first buying too long and it simply became a hassle.

3. Find a sand flat with lots of little holes in it. The holes should be about 3mm in diametre and be everywhere. Wade out to a depth of about 20cm.

** Here is the important bit **

4. Press the pump down into the sand, almost up to the hilt *****without***** pulling up the plunger.










5. Keeping the bore in position, pull up on the plunger and squirt the contents into the sieve. This creates a well and sucks the contents from the depth, rather than simply taking a 'core' as many people do by pulling back on the plunger as they push the bore into the sand.










6. Repeat using the same hole 3/4 times.

7. Move a few metres to another area of high hole density and repeat until done.

NB: I have found it is often worth fishing in the exact spot, using the sieve as a bait container. In Iluka, I had whiting and little bream everywhere around me as I pumped (hoping, no doubt, for an easy meal) and we absolutely cleaned up on bream and flathead within twenty minutes. Stingrays also pay attention.










Hope that helps


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