We recommend a 10-12ft surf rod medium to medium heavy rating. You want a sturdy rod because you’re tossing a weighted snare with bait which can get quite heavy and has a lot of load on the rod. A frequently used rod for crabbing is the Daiwa Beef Stick, Ugly Stick, or Okuma Crab Special. These rods are about $65-$75 price range. For the reel, use a good quality reel medium to large sized reel. When I first started crabbing, I used cheap reels that ended up stripping the gears, breaking the foot of the reel, the handle or cracking the housing. When you are reeling in, you are reeling in the weight of the crab snare, the bait, possibly multiple crabs, and fighting the current. This puts a lot of strain on the gears which result in putting more torque on the handles, overworking the gears, and friction on the foot of the reel which may snap. We recommend PENN brand reels such as Battles, Pursuits or SSMs. We personally use 650-750SSMs because they are full metal housing and interior gears. We can reel up 4 crabs at a time with no problem and will never strip the gears or break the foot of the reel.
For the line, you should use a minimum of 30-40lb monofilament line or 60-80lb of braided line. You are throwing very heavy weights so be sure you have adequate line to support the tension, otherwise you will end up snapping your line upon casting or retrieval.
Check out our YouTube Channel @Durasnare in the link below to learn more about gear recommendations.
Crab Snare Gear Set Up
