Crab trap theft? plus no fish @ T'bay

[Floater]

Took some friends from work out yesterday to try to get some crab and salmon. Tossed three crab traps in about 24' of water. You know, the canal SW of Garibaldi called "crab something". This was right at high slack.

Since high tide was about 11:30, we went back to trolling. Came back around 1pm to get the traps, NO TRAPS, they're gone. We searched the area to see if the floats were just under the water or had moved. NOPE. With 50' of line and two floats I do not think they could have been swept out. They've been in faster ebb tides before and not moved!!!!!
IM ******!!! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
If ODFW checks the size and limit of fish, Coast guard and Sheriff check safety equipment, registration, and drinking, who looks to see if two people in a boat come back with nine traps?
Missing: three Danielson 2'x 2' traps,
two with red/white poly rope and
red/white floats with "Blake Allen"
written on them.
one with blue/white poly rope and
red/white floats with "Dana Allen"
written on them.
If anyone sees them, please let me know.
They're "tuned" all along the sides and top but not the bottom with white tie-straps so only one side opens.

Then, we get skunked everywhere from the ghost hole to the inside of the north jetty. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
With five poles in the water, we threw everything at them. I had one of the guys get some herring and Marie's jelly from T'bay bait. Tried two other kinds of herring scent and one kind of sardine. Herring rigs, '101' Herring rigs, Salmon Killers, Hoochie devel, home made spinners, different sizes and colors of Crippled Herring, K14 with herring tied to the bottom, FST flashers, spreaders with weight, bannana wieghts, Dipsy Divers, Jet divers, flashers, no flashers, dodgers, no dodgers, etc, etc. We trolled with and against the tide. We trolled the high slack and the out going [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Heck, one of my friends lost his cookies near the jetty and chumed the water for us.
Still no good.
At the end, we anchored near the Ghost hole and back bounced and jigged. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Saw almost no fish on the fish finder when near the jetty and watched three different boats pull in one each.
Saw alot of fish near the ghost hole and over by the crab channel. Not even a hit. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Will someone look into their crystal ball or better yet, call Ms. Cleo for me?

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Floater ]

[hookem]

I fished t-bay with the kids for a couple of hours on saturday. No fish for us ether.
I think we had our traps(nets)in about the same area as you said. I think someone stole the bait out out one of the nets, it was in a closed cage in the net. When we pulled it up all the bait was gone! At least the bones
shoud have been there. I can't figure that out. We didn't see anything
about your traps that I can remember.

[Jennie@ifish]

Maybe put something on your floats that will scare them away...
Like, Plutonium Resource Company...
Or, Oregon State Police...
Or???
"This float belongs to Jason, 7 years old"
Any ideas?
Jen

[fishbait]

If somebody really wants to steel your traps, I guess you can't stop them. I guess I have been lucky all these years, I have never had any traps stolen. A couple of things that I do might have helped. First, all my floats are painted exactly the same. White floats with a red target on the flat /top end. This also makes picking them out very easy. Second I have my name painted on each one. Address also, but wears out and I always repaint the name. (I use red fingernail polish) You might try something like this, it can't hurt.....

[Hamachi]

At least you were smart enough to be fishing the cheap pots! Hope you got enough crabs in the past to pay for them. I'm up in the P-Sound and have only been here for 14 months, but have already learned the hard way. I see people up here fishing the commercial style or the other big $money traps and think they're nuts. My $14.97 Danielson's, (purchased at GI JOE'S on sale), fish great. Six limits on 6 trips this year, now that I know where to fish them. They're almost disposible. I don't worry about dropping them and running 10 miles and trolling all day. So far this year I've been lucky... but they're MORE than paid for.

[Krome Brite]

Hmm, that is a good idea, Jennie. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Hamachi]

probably sould have included this in my last post in this thread... got a big octopus recently in my cheap pot... click here to view giant octopus
BIG pain in the @ss to let go. Was cool, but don't want to deal with another one! Luckily didn't get inked!

[Krome Brite]

Gnarly! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] How could that thing even fit in a crab pot?

[Sliderite]

I agree with SjP that when you crab you crab and when you fish you fish! I have only used rings so far but am thinking seriously about the Danielson trap. How much weight do you need to add on to it so it doesn't rip out with the tide and remain stationary? Why is this trap so recommended versus a ring enclosed pot? How long do you let them sit versus an open ring? Izz gotta to know!

[Floater]

My 11yr old son is mad. We bought two of the crap traps for his birthday this year. He let me "borrow" them. Him and my 9yr old daughter want to know "who" would do something like that.
I like the square traps because they fold down if needed but most of all, they fit better in the boat. I can stack other stuff like coolers next to them like cardboard boxes being stacked up. Also, they pull up easier!!!! Unless their full but then you won't mind.
I've never used any weight on the trap to hold it down. Haven't needed to. Just put them in the water straight. I let them sit for anything from 1/2 hour up to 2 hours. Usually 1/2 hour. Of course you have to pull them to make room for more to enter. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Mr. Fisherman]

Slideright,

The traps do just that. Crab hotel, they check in but they don't check out to use my buddy Pilar's coined phrase. The rings with the slide up netting still allow the bugs to do the dine and dash. For the money and the storage space a Danielson is hard to beat. You can weight them down or allow enough rope to insure they don't float away. Check it with a second line tied about 5 to 10 feet under the buoy and short line the trap so that it will pull the buoy under. If the buoy floats the trap add more wright or more rope. A floating trap will not catch crab. They aren't educated enough to troll [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. If you add more weight you could still loose the trap by having someone catch the rope in their prop or by grass and seaweed collecting around the buoy and putting enough drag on the tide for it to travel no matter what you do [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img].

Good luck out there, I hope this helps...

Floater,

Don't be surprised if your traps turn up or actually floated away. I just barely caught one of my rings heading out one day. By the way, there is a very deep hole by the hazard marker on the jetty side of crab Hourbor. Bet there are plenty of traps down there.... Hmm... Anyway... I hope they are returned or you come accross them. A buddy of mine lost a trap and we found all of the traps around it and was sure that it was stolen but low and behold he found it the next week [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img].

Good luck,

Mr. Fisherman

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: The Coalation for Mud Bug Protection ]

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Mr. Fisherman ]

[Pitch Pocket]

Used to be that you could set a few traps and fish without having to worry too much about theivery. I also lost traps (4 of em) at Tillamook while mooching the jetty about 5 years ago.

Nowadays when I crab, I crab. I stay within sight of my traps and run over if someone starts sniffing around. I work them and move them as necessary and more often than not I get the crabs I want. When I fish, I leave the traps at home and fish.

[Threemuch]

One thing I noticed, is very few people weight their traps adequately or weight their line.

At slack water, unweighted line presents a big hazard for boaters, and probably the result of 50% of "stolen" pots and rings. The other thing that people discount is that those cheap danielson pots NEED weight. They fish OK, but they need at least 5 pounds, I use 10. I use 5 pound cast iron discs I get at play it again sports for like 65 cents a pound. If you got no weight in a pot, no weight on the line, and your pot is single buoyed, and when you come back six hours later, it's not where you left it, you are reaping what your sew.

I believe people are mostly honest. If you come back and have no crab, odds are, you caught no crab, and if they are missing, you probably didn't weight them or weight the line or fish two buoys per trap. If there was as much pot theft as most people think there is, there would be a good market for cheap used pots.

Our pots saturday had loads of grass and weeds, like 100 pounds per pot. Plenty on the line to move a light pot, or pull one buoy down in current. Could this be what happened? Crabbing was lousy anyway.

[AuntyM]

How easy is it to locate and identify your buoy?

When we shrimp or crab in the Hood Canal and Puget Sound, we have learned only to use buoys with sticks.

Instead of the ordinary flag at the top that most people use, we use a large, brightly colored balloon, blown up and taped to the top with duct tape. This can be seen from quite a distance.

We haven't lost a pot in years. To instill a bit of fear, use a felt tip pen and draw a rectangle with a circle inside, resembling a camera, or any creative message you would like! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pitch Pocket]

I always weight my floating line. The line clips (same as downrigger stackers except larger) work great with 8oz of lead set about 8' under the buoy. A cheap alternative is a simple large duo-snap with the weight hooked on the line. Commercial crabbers have a sinking crab line with a lead core, but unless you buy 1000', it's kind of spendy. Maybe a ifish co-op purchase??

I don't weight my Danielsons (except the doors), but then I'm there to watch them. I'm kind of worried about the electrolysis using rebar or cast iron, but I think good bait will overpower the negative ions where those greedy spiders are concerned.

I have a couple of large commercial traps, and they fish well right next to the Danielsons, but my back hates to pull up that much weight. They also cost waaaay more. I can buy 5 Danielsons for one good commercial trap. For a limit of crabs, more traps are better than less.

I'm sure that the 2 door and 3 door traps are ok, but I want the crab to be able to make it in the pot without having to look too hard for the entrance. My money is on the large 4 door Danielsons. If you want to spend the money on the round traps, bigger is better, but have your son pull em or get a davit and pulley.

[Pilar]

Stolen? By tide or people, the result is the same. It wasn't where you left it. Or where you thought you left it.

I've gotten in the habit of hovering around my traps for a while before bugging out for the fishing trip. For one thing, a stray trap usually strays right away. You can move it to a better place. The other thing is that I drop the traps in on the slack tide. Most of the crabs are caught right away while the bait is still good. I can get 1/2 my limit on the first pull if I drop and then pull 45 minutes later.

Just a thought. Weight your traps and hang around to see what happens.

[Phish_on]

I like that balloon idea ...

My floats say "Crab pot thieves boil in hell forever" I doubt if it would really deter anyone scummy enough to rip off crab pots, but so far the curse has worked.

I thought I had been ripped off last time at Chinook, but found out I was looking behind the wrong row of pilings. DOH! Wasted a lot of fishing time and blood pressure, and just happened to look in the right place on the way in. dumb dumb dumb learned my lesson.

[Hummingbird]

I also lost 2 Danielsons near Twin Rocks North of Garibaldi earlier this year. It was their "Maiden Voyage" . I had alsmost $100 into both of them and they were Double Buoy'd . I DID NOT add weight ,but had 60' of nylon rope on each. We left to go Salmon fishing .After 4 or so hrs., we went back and wasted 1/4 tank of gas tryin' to find them.
I was later told that it happens quite often and it is almost a must to weight them down when out in the ocean. To save space get a couple of horseshoes or the old window weights at junk stores.These come really cheeep, the horseshoes are flat and can be wrapped in with your traps when storing them.
My friend in Garibaldi says the Danielsons wash up on the beach pretty regular in the winter. A walk on the beach after a storm may turn up a trap or two.
Does anyone know where to get the 4 point entry rebar style traps? I am interested in trying them type out.I also argre with if you are crabbing ,crab. If Fishing, Fish
I learned the hard way. Tight lines [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Hamachi]

I zip-tie a 4lb. lead rockcod weight in every corner. And I'm only fishing in Puget sound! I also ran S.S. tie wire around all the edges to help keep the STARFISH out. Of course this also keeps them from being collapsable.

[Master Baiter]

I am not too experienced at crabbing, I have only used the ring traps. For the ring traps, a buddy taught me to put the bait in old socks and tie them in to prevent dine and dash. It seemed to work pretty well. But I am sure alot the veterans are way ahead on this one.

[Pitch Pocket]

Hamachi, we caught a few starfish while crabbing in the San Juans. Not sure how the wire would keep them out. Can you explain?