Family
Crabbing off the Jetty
A line, a bucket and a bit of bacon — the great leveller of the Welsh seaside, and a whole afternoon gone happily.
If you ask us for the single most reliable way to lose a happy afternoon in Aberdyfi, it is not the beach or the hills. It is a line, a bucket and a bit of bacon, dropped off the jetty. Crabbing is the great leveller of the Welsh seaside — it ropes in toddlers and grandfathers with equal ease, and the competitive streak it brings out in otherwise sensible adults is one of the quiet joys of running a guest house here.
What you need
Almost nothing, and you can buy all of it in the village. A crabbing line wound on a frame, a bucket, and some bait — bacon, a bit of fish or the classic stinky fish-flavoured bait the shops sell. A small net helps for lifting your catch the last few inches, and that is genuinely the whole kit. Do not bother with a hook; crabs grab the bait and hang on out of sheer obstinacy.
How to do it
- Half-fill your bucket with seawater and a little seaweed, so your catch has somewhere decent to wait.
- Tie the bait on, lower the line to the bottom off the jetty, and let it settle.
- When you feel a tug — or just on a hunch — lift slowly and steadily. Lift too fast and the crab lets go; lift too slow and it strolls off with your bacon.
- Net it near the surface, admire it, and pop it in the bucket.
Timing and the kind sense of it
High water around the jetty tends to be the better state of tide, when there is depth beneath you. Mornings and evenings often out-fish the bright middle of the day. None of it is a science, which is part of the charm.
Two rules of the road, both about kindness. Keep only a few crabs in a bucket at a time, in the shade, with fresh seawater — a crowded, sun-warmed bucket is no good for them. And always tip your whole catch gently back where you found it before you leave. The crabs go home, the children sleep well, and everyone wins.
Keep an eye on the little ones. The jetty edge and the water are exactly as close as they look. Crabbing is wonderfully safe fun with an adult paying attention, which on a good day is the only hard part.
When the bucket has done its work
Crabbing pairs perfectly with the rest of a beach day — see our beach guide for tides and the dog rules — and it builds exactly the appetite that a crab sandwich or an ice cream was invented for. For everything else the village has up its sleeve, the things-to-do guide is the place to start.
Make a weekend of it
Llety Bodfor is a small seafront bed & breakfast right on Bodfor Terrace, a minute from everything in this guide. Sea-view rooms, a proper Welsh breakfast, and the people who wrote this at the door.