From the Cove shop
Friendly tackle picks chosen to make the guide easier to put into practice.
When crabbing season peaks in the UK, how to time the tide, and the famous harbours and quays - from Padstow to Walberswick - where crabbing is at its best.
Fishing guide
Get started with confidence. A simple route through marks, tides, tackle and safer days by the water.
UK Crabbing Season & Best Crabbing Spots is written to make sea fishing feel approachable: clear method notes, useful kit context and no needless jargon.
Crabbing has no closed season, no licence and no gatekeeping - if you can reach calm water off a harbour wall, you can go crabbing today. But there is a rhythm to it:...
Friendly tackle picks chosen to make the guide easier to put into practice.
Use straightforward tackle that suits the method, mark and species you are likely to meet.
Keep bait and rigs simple while you learn the mark, tide and target species.
Check tide, swell, footing and local signs before fishing. If the mark does not feel safe, choose another day or another spot.
Read straight through, or use the fishing notes above to keep marks, tides and tackle easier to follow.
Crabbing has no closed season, no licence and no gatekeeping - if you can reach calm water off a harbour wall, you can go crabbing today. But there is a rhythm to it: the sea warms, the crabs move inshore, and some quaysides are simply better than others. Here is the when and the where.
We are a Cornish shop, so forgive the bias in our favourites - but the advice holds from Tenby to Whitby.
Shore crabs are catchable all year, but they follow the warmth. From late spring the water heats up and crabs move into harbours and shallows in numbers; through the summer holidays a baited line barely hits the bottom before something grabs it. September is the connoisseur's month - the crabs are still there, the crowds are not.
| Months | What to expect |
| January - March | Slow. Crabs sit in deeper water - save the trip for rockpooling. |
| April - May | Picking up as the sea warms; quiet quaysides and keen crabs. |
| June - August | Peak season. Busy harbours, hungry crabs, buckets full everywhere. |
| September - October | Still excellent and blissfully quiet; often the biggest crabs. |
| November - December | Quiet. Try deeper harbour walls on mild, calm spells. |
The best window is roughly two hours either side of high water, when crabs forage close to walls and pontoons. A rising tide on a calm day is ideal; a big swell puts crabs off their lunch and little ones too close to the edge. Tide times are free everywhere - check them before you promise anyone crabs.
Down our way, Padstow, Looe, Mevagissey, St Ives and the Falmouth quays are the Cornish classics - working harbours with deep, calm water and room for small people to sit safely back from the edge.
No famous name nearby? Any harbour, quay or pontoon with safe access and a metre or two of calm water will do. Crabs are not fussy about postcodes.
A line or drop net, a bucket, bait and patience. Bacon stays on the line best; a bait bag beats a hook for grip and for small fingers. Our best crabbing kits guide matches kits to ages, the crabbing kits collection has everything packed and ready, and our crabbing how-to covers technique.
No licence is needed for hand-line crabbing in the UK - just follow any local harbour signs. Wet your hands before holding a crab, keep bucket time short with fresh seawater, and lower every crab gently back where it came from. The crabs you catch on a line are green shore crabs - they are for catching and releasing, not the pot.
Friendly tackle picks chosen to make the guide easier to put into practice.
July and August are the easiest fishing; September is the insider's pick - warm water, big crabs, empty quaysides.
Very. Two hours either side of high water is the golden window; dead low tide at a drying harbour catches you mostly seaweed.
You can, on mild calm days at deeper walls - but manage expectations and pack a thermos. The crabs know it is winter too.
