frozen velvet swimmers, any good?

Anyone have any success with the frozen velvet swimmers crabs that have come into the shops?

Fairly expensive at 6.50 euro for 4 crabs. Only used one pack so far and halved them. Missed bite due to poor baiting up (first time using any form of crab on a hook) and a dab when I modified an aberdeen into a crab hook.

When I put baiting elastic on a lot of the juices or water was squeeezed out whats the best way to avoid this?

Should the brown skin be left on or removed?

Donagh

Tried them once, waste of time. They are not true peelers but crispies(a peeler that has popped and started to harden again). Once they thawed out they were just all watery and mushy and no thick juices you associate with peelers. You would be better of spending your money on live peelers or else buy them frozen in there shells from a good tackle dealer.

Unfortunately the tackle shops in Limerick don't sell peelers alive or frozen and I haven't heard of anyone else doing this here. In fact there's only frozen mackerel, sand eel and squid besides to choose from. At the price these are being sold at they'd want to be a fairly deadly bait but as you say a heap of water seems to come out of them. Is there a reason that these crabs aren't frozen as peelers?

Donagh

It's less hassle to pack them this way. When they have left their shell they are soft but starting to harden again, it's at this stage that they are packed. If they where to do it properly they would have to deshell them by hand before they pop and then freeze them down stright away. The ones i used were at least two days out of there shells, at this stage they aren't half as good a bait. So to answer your question i reckon they just leave them to pop on there own and when they have enough then freeze the lot down,a much cheaper option but a less effective bait. Well thats my theory anyway.

Bonds Tackle gets frozen Peelers in from time to time but they are fairly expensive, hence why I have not tried them. Don't think he will even buy them for the shop anymore at the price he was chrged for them too

Hi Dave,

Usually buy most of my stuff at steves as they seemed to have a bit more salt water gear. How much were the frozen peelers?

If anyone has any more success or disaster stories with this bait could you let me know?

Of course there's a section in sea angler telling us these velvet swimmer are the brilliant.

Donagh

Got mixed reviews about them in the local tackle shop.
Some lads say they are great, some say okay and some that they are a waste of time.

I've still got two packs in the freezer, so i dont know if they work or not.

PS
The price over here is £4 sterling