Live Hardback Shore Crabs Are Now Available From Tides & Tribe

We’ve got something new in at Tides & Tribe – and it’s something plenty of UK sea anglers will already know can make a cracking bait.

We are now selling live hardback shore crabs.

We wanted to offer them in sizes that actually make sense for different styles of fishing rather than treating every crab as the same, so we're stocking Small, Medium and Large live hardback crabs.

Crab is a completely natural food source around our coastline, and hardback shore crab can be a very useful bait when targeting a range of UK sea fish.

One of its biggest advantages is versatility.

You can fish smaller crabs as a relatively compact shore bait, use medium crabs for all-round shore and boat fishing, or use larger crabs whole or cut them down depending on the presentation you're after.

They're particularly worth considering when targeting species such as bass, smoothhound and bull huss, but crab can also pick up rays, cod, pollack, wrasse, flatfish and other species.

35p each | 10 for £3 | 30 for £8

We recommend our Small crabs primarily for shore fishing.

They give you a natural crab bait without creating an excessively large presentation and they're an affordable option if you're planning a full session and want plenty of bait available.

70p each | 10 for £6 | 30 for £15

These are our gold-standard all-rounders.

If somebody asked us which hardback crab to buy without giving us any other information, Medium would be our recommendation.

They're versatile enough for shore fishing while still providing a substantial bait for boat anglers.

If you want one size capable of covering plenty of different situations, 40–60mm is where we'd start.

80p each | 10 for £7 | 30 for £18

These are the big boys.

Large hardback crabs make an excellent option when you're boat fishing and want to offer a substantial whole crab.

From the shore, don't automatically dismiss them as being too big either. Depending on what you're targeting and how you want to present the bait, a large crab can be cut in half, giving you two substantial crab baits from a single crab.

We'd keep it simple:

Small = Shore fishing

Medium = Our all-round gold standard for shore & boat

Large = Boat fishing, bigger presentations or cutting down for shore fishing

We're not going to pretend there's one bait or one size that magically catches everything. That's fishing.

Conditions, venue, target species, tackle and presentation all matter.

But hardback shore crab is a proven natural bait that's well worth having available, particularly when bass, smoothhound and huss are on your mind.

And we're really pleased to finally be able to offer them through Tides & Tribe.

Live Hardback Shore Crabs are available now in Small, Medium and Large sizes while stocks last.

Tight lines,

Tides & Tribe