Crabbing Help for a Newbie

[Begester]

I’m a newbie to crabbing and wanted to get a little insight from the experts here.

I got a pot, harness, bait box, lead line, and buoy and dropped it in the “crab grounds” near several other pots. Three hours later I came back and I had “donated” my crab pot and gear to the Puget Sound. Tides and currents were definitely present but the other pots in the area seemed to have no problem. Did I miss something? I dropped the pot into about 40 feet of water.

Any insight for making sure this doesn’t happen again?

Any help or tidbits are greatly appreciated!

 

[Gyrene]

What were you using for a buoy?
Get something same weight as pot, use an identical buoy, try again - and watch it for an hour or so to figure out what happened.

 

[Begester]

Great idea! Thanks for the insight. I'll give that a shot.

Thanks again.

 

[foodfisher]

Near other gear? Someone may have relieved this assumed poacher of his gear.

 

[midcarolina]

Near other gear? Someone may have relieved this assumed poacher of his gear.

I agree.........

 

[darlingkd]

I have added a ID Tag on the pot and another ID Tag about 15 feet down the line from the buoy. I planted two pots one year, came back about 5 hours later and one was there. Now no other pots were in the area when I placed them, but upon return one was missing and a different buoy was in the exact (GPS marked) place as the missing one. But I had no way of identifying if somebody had replace my buoy with theirs or if it was lagit.

 

[foodfisher]

Sounds like some detective work is in order. Could get nasty. Worth it?

 

[ronaldj]

We're you inside of somebody else's string of pots? Crab beds are sacred and you just can't go up to an area and start dropping pots. Since you are new to crabbing you may just want to crab by hand to start

 

[DeepBlue2010]

How long was your line? How heavy is your pot? In what tide point did you drop it? The tide change in Puget Sound is approximately 10 feet; if you drop your pot in 40 feet and the tide was very low and start coming in, there is another 10 feet of water you need to account for at high point. Also the speed of the current can move your pot - slowly - to a deeper and deeper water.

There is always the possibility of an accident also if your line gets caught in propeller of another boat but in this case you will find your buoy if it doesn't drift with the current. Did you try to go back in low tide and search for your pot. I found one of mine next day at low tide and lost another one forever.

 

[pscrabber59]

I agree with Blue, your pot may have been sucked down by strong currents and a rising tide as I have seen this before with my own pots slowly being dragged down(buoy&line) only to save them with the help of a trailer buoy(detergent bottle). If your crabbing in areas with strongcurrents/rip tide here in the Sound make sure you weigh down your pots. After all I said my problem in the Puget Sound Crabbing is the high pct. of "CRAB POT RAIDING that is going on now. Once last yr and again just last Sat. my pots were stripped of Dungeness crab and damaged to the pot(missing gate). I think its someone who lives on the shore who thinks they "own" all the water because they pay waterfront prop. taxes, but yesterday I got my pay back by getting 3-limits on a short-soak(1hr).

 

[pscrabber59]

I agree with Blue, your pot may have been sucked down by strong currents and a rising tide as I have seen this before with my own pots slowly being dragged down(buoy&line) only to save them with the help of a trailer buoy(detergent bottle). If your crabbing in areas with strongcurrents/rip tide here in the Sound make sure you weigh down your pots. After all I said my problem in the Puget Sound Crabbing is the high pct. of "CRAB POT RAIDING that is going on now. Once last yr and again just last Sat. my pots were stripped of Dungeness crab and damaged to the pot(missing gate). I think its someone who lives on the shore who thinks they "own" all the water because they pay waterfront prop. taxes, but yesterday I got my pay back by getting 3-limits on a short-soak(1hr).

 

[pscrabber59]

No Title

Sorry here are the pics that I wanted to post

 

[PW2]

It's very likely your pots joined these:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/divers-seek-lost-crab-pots-washington-waters-25257303

 

[bruceb58]

Does your line float? If it does it can get caught in a prop. You can add a weight 30 or 40 feet from the trap that can help pull down the excess line that you need to add for the tide.

 

[ngt]

My 2 cents:

I zip tie a 5 lb weight from a bench press set to the middle of the bottom of my pots. I find it helps them stay in place, drop better, and it doesn't add too much to the pull up. I use the thin metal pots kind of like the blue ones in this thread, so they're pretty light on their own.

I also always use at least 15 to 20 ft more rope than I need for the depth.

I tend to use something light for a buoy, so that there's not that much weight pulling at the pot itself from the other end of the rope. Something that I have found that works for me is those swimming pool float pipes, the thicker ones. I feed the rope through them, bend them in a loop, and tie it off back the the rope. I usually only use half of the pipe things and get them from the dollar store. Two Buoys for $1. Plus they form kind of like a hoop that I made a tool like a gaff that will hook them through the middle with. Also, you can cut an indent down each side of the loop that it makes and tie excess rope around them, still being able to get the gaff through.

I agree with the "try not to drop your pot right next to others" stuff.

I know people love to drop pots and head off too fish, but with more and more pots being taken in the past few years, I tend and stick around my pots and fish somewhere close to that area.

Good luck out there!

 

[clb]

Did you weigh your trap?
I' ve had em walk around if the bouy is dragging in current/wind!