Woot ! Ace Line Hauler and *.* watch out dungies !

[boscoj]

by the time we had rigged and dropped our 3rd and last pot we had 4 in the first pot, about 40 minutes . . .

only one was a keeper and he was a good half inch larger than keeper



I used a Danielson pot kit from John's Sporting Goods, $40 each.
The scrap brake rotor weights worked well after we zip tied them to the center of the trap and were free from the local gas station.
Even with the bent main pulley the Ace Line Hauler was a dream . . .




the keeper in comparison



left them to soak overnight, hopefully don't get poached . . .

thanks again everyone . . .

[boscoj]

that's wierd? double post?

sorry about the image size, I will see if I can resize them. there we go

It was too rough to pickup pots yesterday but today was much calmer.



Our first pot had about 12 crab, all keepers but we tossed about half of them back due to size. About 4 fatties in there though, all super clean.



My buddy Chris couldn't make it because he had an early meeting in the city but the guy canceled so he showed up in his dress shoes and slacks !



The Knoty Lady all kitted out for NorCal crab . . .



Thanks again for the help and suggestions.
I will be fashioning a tether for the line hauler and researching people tethers as well . . . My buddy Chris very nearly went swimming in our 55 degree Pacific ocean . . .

[rogerbum]

I like the disc rotors as weights. I might give that a try myself. Also I noticed you put a rope around the board that supports the rail mount. For mine, I bought some rubber coated U-bolts from McMaster Carr and I use stainless wing nuts to secure them.

As for people tethers there's a lot of options. I've never used them but I do highly recommend that you get some good self inflating PFD's and wear them at all times. If you want a tether, there are PFD's with an integrated harness to which the tether is attached. The other things I would recommend are:
1) that you have your dive ladder readily available at all times and that passengers are made aware of where it is at and how to deploy it. I see a lot of boaters who store this critical safety device in a difficult to access location. If someone does go overboard, they generally can't get back aboard without the ladder so everyone aboard needs to know where it is and how to deploy it and it should be readily accessible. If you're the one in the 50F water, you don't want to have to take the time explain to the passengers how to find, retrieve and deploy that ladder
2) You should also have a heaving line available. One like this is good. With the Tomcat dive ladder, you have to load a MOB between the engines. You don't want to back down onto a MOB, you want to put them on the side of the boat, cut the engines, toss them a line and work them to the stern. A heaving line is a necessary safety item in this scenario. A Life Sling is another option that serves a similar purpose but I'm not sure how well those work if one is already wearing an inflated PFD.

[boscoj]

wow thanks roger . . . I had no idea there was such thing as a heaving line. A very good idea.

And the dive ladder is also a great idea . . .

Thanks very much . . .

[Mighty Bite]

Steve, had a great bit of advice when he suggested tying the Ace pot puller off to a cleat,
to which I can personally attest. I went to pull my shrimp traps one bumpy and windy day, put
the puller in it's mounting block well in advance of reaching the traps, because of the
bumpy water. Had 5 folding shrimp traps on the line, all weighted, plus a 10# anchor, at
450' with 600' of line out. After I had mounted the puller I had about 1/2mile to run to
reach the pot buoy. As I slid the boat up alongside the buoy, I throttled back to idle and
heard a loud bang, looked back and the puller was gone. I feel sure that I had the locking
pin in properly, or no way could I have run the 1/2mile in rough water doing a balancing
act. Crap! I figured I didn't have any choice except to pull the traps by fist, with zero
assist, human or mechanical. Not exactly a labor of love under the conditions.

This wasn't "all" bad. After busting my butt for a seemingly interminable period of time
I got the first trap up to the boat.........lo and behold, sitting on top of the first trap and
tangled in the line was my Ace puller. The puller must have caught the line somehow on
the way to Davy's locker and rode the line down to the trap where it decided to take up
residence. No idea what the odds are of that happening but it gotta' be long. That was
4 years ago, when I was only 75, but it sure cured me not want to repeat that exercise.

Moral is to put a leash on that puller ..........stuff happens!

[hambone]

[Gene Morris]

The Ace line hauler company is fantastic to do business with. I have one of their original line haulers, about 11 years old. I have had the motor (smaller and weaker than current version) burn out. They replaced it and sent new stuff that they put on the newer ones free of charge. Very good company in Lady Smith B.C.

I just purchased the new motor/gears from them and it is a lot more powerful and faster. I am very happy with it.

Boscoj,

On our Tom Cat we added automotive heater hose to the railing aft of the puller. I secured it with zip ties and have a safe place to lay the pots while we sort the crab. Are the crab in SF very full? Ours in Eureka are starting to fill out but, some are still pretty light.

Gene

[Mighty Bite]

I agree, Ace Line Hauler is a terrific company and is very customer friendly and accommodating.
It's a pleasure to be able to buy a great product with the confidence that any problems which
might arise would be quickly dealt with by the manufacturer. Plus, they appear to continue to
make upgrades to an already exceptional product.

Big thumbs up to Ace Line Hauler.

[mattk]

I will add to the kudos to Ace Line Hauler. I broke a part trying to disassemble the thing for cleaning. Even though it was my fault, they're sending the replacement part. I love companies with that kind of customer service.

[doc]

Oh yea, might want to consider tying that puppy off lest it fall off the gunnel into sixty feet of frigid Valdez Harbor water. Don' ask how I know.