Rockpooling
Here are some of the best UK rock pooling locations to tickle your periwinkles.
Grab your Mighty Eagle foraging kit, and head to these locations. There is a hoard of treasure to be found in the clear rock pools around our coastline.
Some good tips before you head off.
Check the tide tables and make sure you don’t get cut off. Keep your children supervised at all times. Our coastlines are beautiful but can be very dangerous.
Use care and consideration
Don’t take what cannot be replaced. What we borrow from nature has to be allowed to recover. So don’t be wasteful, be frugal and make sure you don’t do any long term damage. If you flip a rock to chase a crab, make sure you put it back the way you found it. In some places there will be local legislation to prevent the taking of flora and fauna, so be sure to check with local information first.
What is the best bait for crabbing?
Bacon! Really rancid old bacon. Put it in the small bait bag supplied with your kit, drop it off a ledge or a pier and see what attacks it. Some deep sea professional crabbers swear by cod, skate and stingray. We have even heard tales that a cow’s pancreas is also excellent as long as it is really bloody, soft and disgusting.
Where is the best place to find shore life?
Mainly in the intertidal zone. This is the damp area where the sea come in and goes out. Flip over rocks to unearth crabs, but be quick because they will be off faster than you know it.
If you find a streams and rivulets flowing into the sea, poke around large rocks or flip them over to release eels and crabs.
Harbour walls, small rocky outcrops or any feature which sticks into the sea are excellent places to search too.
Finally when you are paddling, use your net to kick up flat fish, but you will have to be really quick to catch any!
Here are our top pick of crabbing locations in the UK:
Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey, Wales
Park up in the Ship Inn car park and get a good pub lunch. To let it settle, walk along the spit opposite and there is a rivulet on the other side which has eels and flat fish. The seaweed covered rocks on the shore just in front of the pub are home to a great deal of crabs.
 Red Wharf Bay Anglesy |
