Help please... Crab pots are "hot"

[Grover]

I was told I have "Hot Pots" by a guide this last week. He looked at my pots and said he threw his away. We dropped our pots an hour before high tide and let them soak for 3 hours. We had excellent bait and in a prime location near Hammond. They are Protoco brand, fairly new, with a small amount of lead on the doors to close them if they were to get stuck open. I've had this problem before where everybody but me puts mass quantities of crab in the boat. What should I do?

[Chass]

Sounds to me like he was yankin your chain.

I picked up one of those just outside the jetty at Newport . . . with my outdrive because it had 40 feet of floating line on the surface. I drug it all the way inside because I didn't want to stop in the bar. It was full of female crab with a few small males. That thing was heavy too! I just read what Cabelas has to say about them and I'd use them if I found more attached to my outdrive

The one review I saw said:

"This is my fourth crab trap that I have bought and they are the best there is. they are dipped in rubber instead of wraped so they are corosion proof. they out perform any other trap around for dungenos crab"

I'd keep trying. Maybe it was on its side or something . . .

Chass
ct

[cougman]

I throw in crab traps almost every trip, whether it be for salmon, tuna or whatever and have always done very well. A buddy gave me one of these blue rubber coated traps. I threw it out with 2 other pots went halibut fishing came in and pulled my pots. The 2 other pots had fair numbers but the Protoco pot had none. I tried the pot on 2 other trips with no success. Needless to say I gave the pot back. I was not ever sure what was wrong with the pot. I have heard from others that these pots fish very well but I was not going to wait around for it to actually catch a crab. I was going to buy zincs for it but decided not to even bother.

[Orca]

My 2 Protoco's are the best producers I have. If I need to leave any pots out working toward the end of the day while picking up the string, those are the ones that stay out.

[Mypursuit]

This happens to be a thread I've been thinking about starting.

IMHO my protoco pots are markedly less productive than the old standard rubber wrapped rebar. I've been paying close attention to that fact for the last 5 years and I am ready to give the protoco's away and buy all replacement rubber wrapped.

My rubber wraps catch 3/1 over the protoco's whether in Netarts Bay or in the ocean.

AUP compliance: Jim Mcintyre

[fish'n time]

We have several protocos and i thought that they did not do very well ether compared to two others that were going in the garbage and my bud got them. They do not even have any rubber left! Just rusty re-bar and stainless chicken wire and they always do the best! One of our tuna trips this year the protos did just as good as the old reliable rusty ones! Every one was stuffed!

"I am ready to give the protoco's away "

Mypursuit I will take those off your hands for you

[Capt.John]

Don't get rid of them.Protoco's are good pot's cut the plastic away from where the wire go's or touches the fram this will help ground the pot.I'am telling you try it.It work's.what do you have to lose?

[Richter]

Originally Posted by Capt.John

Don't get rid of them.Protoco's are good pot's cut the plastic away from where the wire go's or touches the fram this will help ground the pot.I'am telling you try it.It work's.what do you have to lose?

My protoco's would not catch anything. I tried adding zinc's, but that didn't help. Cutting off some of the blue coating will help, but a cheap Danielson will outfish the protoco's any day.

Rich

[Capt.John]

Originally Posted by Richter

My protoco's would not catch anything. I tried adding zinc's, but that didn't help. Cutting off some of the blue coating will help, but a cheap Danielson will outfish the protoco's any day.

Rich

Got zip tie's? and a weight?

[Soulakala]

I agree my Protoco blue pots were constaintly out fished by cheezie chineeeeeeeze rubber wrapped pots - until. Its been about two years into their use when I noticed these two pots had as many crabs as the rubber wrapped pots. I can't see any change in the pots, but perhaps the wire may have cut through the coating. Another possiblity is the coating they use gives off a scent that turns away crabs, I don't know. What I do know is the two blue pots now fish as well as the other pots. I just bought two more pots and decided to go rubber wrapped - two reasons previous experience and price.

[Grover]

I was thinking about wire wrapping some steel rebar to the bottom of the pots to help with the grounding. Any thoughts on this please????

[freespool]

I believe you can add ziptie zinc's to your crab pots, cheap and effective way to combat electrolysis.

[steelhead88]

attach a Black Box!

[fishtales]

Your pots are probably hot. You can probably fix them by adding a little wieght. Get some rebar and stainless wire. Wire the bar in so it is level with the bottom of the pot when sitting on the bottom. Make sure you wire it in very tight. This should help you not only ground better but also will keep your pot in place better. Standard procedure for our commercial pots unless you want to cut the wrap and weld it to the frame in which case it still needsw to be in secure contact with the weave.

[Larry G]

All of my pots and rings are Protoco and I seem to have pretty good luck with them. Both in the ocean and in the bays. I have pulled up several of my pots in the bay that had 12 or more keepers in them.

[smalldog]

Another thread actually explains it...
http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=276554

[Fishplay]

Originally Posted by Grover

I was told I have "Hot Pots" by a guide this last week. He looked at my pots and said he threw his away. We dropped our pots an hour before high tide and let them soak for 3 hours. We had excellent bait and in a prime location near Hammond. They are Protoco brand, fairly new, with a small amount of lead on the doors to close them if they were to get stuck open. I've had this problem before where everybody but me puts mass quantities of crab in the boat. What should I do?

Sorry to hear your having trouble with your protocos. At the premium price they fetch, disapointment would not describe what I would feel if mine didn't fish.

I have both sliprings and pots. 10 years old and they've always been great producers.

Got me scratching my head!!

[garyk]

Originally Posted by Grover

I was told I have "Hot Pots" by a guide this last week. He looked at my pots and said he threw his away. I've had this problem before where everybody but me puts mass quantities of crab in the boat. What should I do?

I've been fishing primarily Protocos since 1995.

Two ideas --

What size are you using? I had one of the smallest size they make, 3 tunnel, and it didn't do well -- not because it was hot but because I believe the doors were held open as crab crowded into the small interior.
I like using the largest 4-tunnel Protocos.

You do have to be careful placing them, so they don't flip over and land upside down. Make sure it's going down flat as you place it -- place it - don't just toss it out there.

[Blue Seaduction]

Had this same problem once, Here is what I did
Get some cow magnets attach verticle and wamo instant success.
Crabs galore started coming into the traps.

[pharmseller]

Originally Posted by Blue Seaduction

Had this same problem once, Here is what I did
Get some cow magnets attach verticle and wamo instant success.
Crabs galore started coming into the traps.

Forgive me, since I'm not very smart.
What's a cow magnet? And do you have a pic on how you attach it?

Thanks

P

[Thunnus]

They look like a fat pencil. About 1/2" in dia. and about 3in. long. They are a magnet that they put down a cow's stomach to attract any ferrous metal that they may have eated.

Am I close here, at least that is what I have been told.

[steelbark]

I had the same problem. You can purchase a small zinc ingot with wire on both ends. You need to attach one end to the gate and the other to the frame. There is a large fishing supply store in Astoria that can give you all the details. This increased my catch rate by 5 fold.

[fish'n time]

Originally Posted by Thunnus

They look like a fat pencil. About 1/2" in dia. and about 3in. long. They are a magnet that they put down a cow's stomach to attract any ferrous metal that they may have eated.

Am I close here, at least that is what I have been told.

You are right!

[TundraIII]

Here is my .02...I crabbed with ProtoCo pots for at least 15yrs. I spent alot of money on those pots and I will say that after so many years of use they all still look fantastic. I sold every single one I had last month...why???...because the crab pots my buddy owns out crab those ProtoCo pots EVERY SINGLE TIME WE'VE USED THEM. What does my buddy use?...rubber wrapped pots that are grounded in four places. These pots also cost about 35 bucks less each fully rigged with bait box, 50ft of leaded line and a bouy. The ProtoCo pots work fine...but now I get my crabbing done in half the time and half the effort...these pots will probably look like garbage in 10yrs and probably require some maintenance but I would rather have pots that work than pots that look pretty. I might have been able to modify the ProtoCO pots but I wasnt interested in investing the time and effort.

[flapbreaker]

Just wondering if the bait gets eaten or not in your ProtoCo's ? Some pots are small enought that the crabs just reach through to eat rather than find an entrance. Just a thought.

[Grover]

Wow, what a response from all of you. Thanks.

In reply to the last question, we used Salmon carcasses wired to the top of the pot and the salmon head in a bait box. Most all of the bait had been eaten after the 2-1/2 hour soak, and we did get about 4 crabs per pot. 3 of the 4 were the smaller 2 entrance pots and 1 was the larger 4 entrance pot. The larger pot did not produce the most crabs either. I must admit that after I read some of the repsonses I'm ready to sell them in a garage sale, then after reading some other posts I'm ready to try and ground them with some rebar and try them again. Boy am I confussed.

[Buck50]

Lordy don't you know it, dunggies will drive you nuts.
I've got three rubber wrapped commercial style pots. I don't weight them as they are plenty heavy. I also run five cheapo Danielson pots. This year I took some Salty Dog advise and threw in 10# of steel and weighted the doors to the Danielson's.
I also added zinc to four pots this year, two commercial style and two Danielson's. The traps with zinc were consistently losers. And the non zinc Danielson's out fished the non zinc "good" traps.
Baits on the traps were all the same, turkey legs.
Personally, the "hot trap" thing is sounding like a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
We crabbed every day for a week during vacation, the only constant was a soft morning OUTGOING tide. Weird but true.
I'm thinking I'm going to buy more Danielson's and modify them per some of the recommendations on this forum. They work....

[MattPark]

We have a couple Danielsons and Protocos, they all produce well. We added some steel rebar/property line post in the Danielsons and they were outproduced by the others probably 5 to 1. When we took the steel out and replaced it with a few 32oz lead sinkers, they were back to being stuffed with crab.

What made the steel affect the Danielsons negatively? Was it the fact that it wasn't directly in contact with the sea floor or the steel on the trap itself?

[Grover]

Which should I use to negate the "Hot Pot". Lead in the bottom, Zinc tied to the stainless wire or Steel Rebar tied to the bottom of the pot?

[RayandMandi]

have used protocos for several years and they do well, not always the best but sometimes better than everyone else. Had 1 that did not fish well for some time that now produces fine with no changes. I think bait and placement is crucial. I am in the market for 3-6 more with my new rack being built so pm if anyone is selling.

[Grover]

Ray andMandi. PM sent. Grover

[Zarn]

Rule # 1 don't buy your pots on Craig's list.

However..... if you do there is also another post on this site that provides suggestions on what to do with hot pots.

For me and my three y/o 30" round rubber wraps that were crabbing poorly, I placed small engine zincs on the sacrifical bars. Problem solved.

It also helps to wire wheel the bar or chip away the rust. I also now carry a welders hammer on the boat (like some commerical guys do) to pound/chip away rust from the sacrifical bar if I see the trap is not crabbing. All this works very well to get you hot pot...not hot.

[pescado mucho]

Rubber wrapped for me last weekend. Two of them outfished three protocos by 4 to 1. The protocs just don't seem to work as well.

My opinion was that the ramps are too short, and have too wide of a wire opening. The older wrapped ones have longer and tapered entry ramps...

[Blue Seaduction]

Zinks or Cow magnets both work, setting the ions in the correct direction is the answer.

[Grover]

I looked at the Danielson pots yesterday (along with the other brands) at the sporting good store in Oregon City. I noticed that the Danielson pots do not have ramps at the entrance points. They had built-in, center top feed bait boxes which was a nice feature. They are not rubber covered or wrapped. Just painted black. Very light so they will need some kind of weight to hold in river current locations like the Columbia River. My main concern is lack of ramp. Will that cause the doors to remain open a little more and allow escape. Have any of you used these and could give a report on them?

[KingSlew]

Danielson traps are all I use. Crabs get in easy! They get out too...lol! I tie my bridle so that the traps come up square and I crimp an oz. or two of lead onto each door.

[Tilla]

It isn't always the case but my two 4 door Protocos clearly outdid several Danielson's a month ago. So I just don't know.