Sometimes you just get lucky...

L

localboy

New member
So Meredith and I dropped some crab pots up near Sucia a couple of weeks ago. We retrieved two out of three, but could not locate the third. :x I suspect the current was running so strong that the buoy got sucked under water. We had >100' of line in ~58' of water but the tide was running at nearly 3 knots.

We returned at low tide, but still no luck and couldn't wait for slack since Meredith had to work. Today the phone rang and we didn't recognize the "360" number. A nice guy who lives on the north shore of Orcas Island leaves a message saying he found our pot! All complete with no damage...and no crab. :lol: But at least our rather expensive McKay pot will soon be home. 8)
 
Occasionally, humanity surprises me. Glad to hear of your positive experience with humans.

T
 
Hey Mark, we were out fishing Williams Pt at Samish Island last Sunday. We saw probably half a dozen "lost pots". We were leery of picking them up though, thinking that DFW fish cops might think we'd been fishing them illegally that day.

Problem is, those pots keep on fishing and crab mortality can be significant from those derelict pots.

Glad you got yours back.

jd
 
Tell me about it John. We spent hours looking for the pot. I'm glad Mr. Crow had the commom sense to realize one pot out where he found is was out of the ordinary. It wasn't just about the $$$. Those lost pots do damage the population. We do have the rot cord installed, per rules, but I have no idea how long that stuff takes to give out.
 
I'm still waiting for the owner of the float and line I ran across 2 years ago to call me back. It was a BC number, Strait of Georgia, on return from Princes Louisa. Ran across the poly line before I could stop, but got to Neutral so saved getting it fouled in the props. No trap, just 65 feet of line and a float with his phone number. Thought I was crossing a bubble track. The "bitter end" had abraided through, no trap in sight.

Mark, Glad you got yhour trap back. There are still decent people around.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
I have found a lot of lost pots and call the owners to have them come get them. several I have just called the numbers on the float and given them the gps numbers so they can go get it them selves. Thats during the season, off season i just pull them and call the owners.

I have been trying to get the state interested in having a pot clean up day after the season ends. get a bunch of boats out on a minus tide and sweep the heavily fished areas. you could pull 100 pots no problem.
 
Virginia has a great program where the crabbers pull all the abandoned/ lost pots in Chesapeake bay during the off season for DNR. I believe they turn all the pots over to DNR, but the crabbers do get paid for pulling them. Provides a little income in the off season, gets the killer pots out of the water, and saves DNR time and effort in tracking them down, kind of like kids cleaning their own rooms. Win/Win situation and it appears to have helped the population of blue crabs.
 
Correct Tivo. But here in VA and in the Bay in General, all you need on the float is distinctive colors and the last 4 of your SSAN. Hard to call an owner from that but DNR has them registered and can do it. A good service!

Charlie
 
localboy":m154p0e0 said:
So Meredith and I dropped some crab pots up near Sucia a couple of weeks ago. We retrieved two out of three, but could not locate the third. :x I suspect the current was running so strong that the buoy got sucked under water. We had >100' of line in ~58' of water but the tide was running at nearly 3 knots.

We returned at low tide, but still no luck and couldn't wait for slack since Meredith had to work. Today the phone rang and we didn't recognize the "360" number. A nice guy who lives on the north shore of Orcas Island leaves a message saying he found our pot! All complete with no damage...and no crab. :lol: But at least our rather expensive McKay pot will soon be home. 8)
Click to expand...

I read this a couple of days ago and my first thought was perhaps a pot thief pulled your pot and just dumped it over with no regard to depth or current.
Do you use sinking line or floating line, and do you weight your pots? If you're using all floating line a clip on weight is warranted to sink the additional line. Using all sinking line is fine but you run the risk of snagging a rock; I like to have floating line at the pot attached to a portion of sinking line from the buoy; this will keep your line off the surface while the floating line from the pot prevents hang-ups. I also add 10 to 15lbs of additional weight to help keep the pots in place and allow for faster sink rate, at 600+ feet it’s always a crap shoot. Stuff I've learned the hard way.

I wish we had a sport summer crab fishery in Prince William Sound but it doesn’t open up tell mid October; not a nice place to be that time of year; will have to subsist of shrimp for now..

Glad you retrieved your pots; I lost 3 shrimp pots early in the year-my bad.
 
A couple of years ago, a friend and I were anchored outside Deer Harbour in the San Juans. He set out a couple of crab pots one eve for the next morn. As I was sitting in the back of Journey On, enjoying my morn coffee, I noticed one of those go fast fishing boats stop in that general direction, spend a couple of minutes there and then leave in a hurry for Friday Harbour. Didn't have a clue as to what that was, until Larry went out to pull the crab pots. One was missing, and then I thought of the boat stopping and then leaving fast. First introduction to crab pot thieves.

Larry never got his pot back and since he is careful with his money, boy, was he pissed.

Boris
 
I'm sure it was not stolen. How do I know? Well, when we dumped the pot we never left the area. We proceeded perhaps 1/2 to 1 mile to retrieve the other two that we could see from the spot we dumped #3. Both the other two were together and this one was by itself. I had tried to find a "better", more productive area and this was a prospect pot. :roll:

Once we pulled the others & turned around, we proceeded to the GPS coordinates where the 3rd one was dropped and voila; gone. Not another boat in sight.

When we dropped it, I noted how much current was running; you could see it moving around the buoy, it was on a flood and the line played out, not down. A quick check of the Garmin showed 2.9 knots. I had only a small red/white buoy mounted on a PVC staff/flag w/ a donut weight as ballast and leaded line attached. When it went over and we quickly drifted away as the line played out I had a "bad feeling". Listen to your gut. I know I should've.

But thanks to Herb Crow, I'll not pay the price for new gear. Yes, good people do exist...
 
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