Crab Pot Crooks

Pilar · 10-10-2001, 12:22 PM

Hottamale, this is why I crab at night.

You are the only boat on the bay and anyone else can be easily spotted. Or just crab and monitor your crab gear closely. With so many people that just drop and forget, the thieves can just have thier way with it. Sorry this happened to you man.

From experience I now know that most of the crab get caught at the slack tide. We always start right before low slack. When I crab and fish I stick around for a while after the initial drop and check them one time. Then they go back in with the little bait left. We then fish for a few hours. An hour before the high slack tide, rebait and hang around again. Pull every 1/2 hour while the tide is turning to ebb. You will get almost all of your crab at those two times, guaranteed.

This leaves the thieves with little or nothing to steal except the trap itself. Just a thought.

finclipped · 10-10-2001, 12:54 PM

Be thankful you got the traps back. A friend of mine had one of those really nice $100 traps stole on Saturday. He looked around for an hour before he gave up. There are real ***holes out there.

Threemuch · 10-10-2001, 01:07 PM

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't believe anyone has EVER stolen my crab. And I crab almost every time I go out, and I never watch em, and I just pull em in when it's time to go. I have lost gear, but I think it's because it was run over or I just plain couldn't find it!

Pilar is right, crabs in bays move mostly at slack. They dig in when the current rips, to avoid being swept away. This is true in the ocean as well, but to a lesser extent.

I always use some bait they can get to, hung on a pin, and some they can't in a cup. If anyone goes through my gear, the gear will fish on, because of the bait in the cup.

Sorry someone ripped you off. People should stay out of anyone elses gear, commercial or recreational, whether it is marked or not. But try not to get too upset, it's just some crab.

And please don't tie wrap your gear. If it's lost, it will fish forever, killing countless crab. And it doesn't stop any thief.

Pitch Pocket · 10-10-2001, 01:47 PM

When I fish, I fish. When I crab, I crab.

I know lots of people do both, heck I've done it. But I don't anymore. I've had my traps stolen, my crabs stolen and more dis-heartening, my crawdads stolen [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] when leaving pots or traps unattended.

It is rare when you can fish effectively and keep an eye on your traps. It is also the best time to fish when it happens to be the best time to crab (slack tides). You just cannot do both things well at the same time unless you put your traps at risk for whatever loss producing reason.

For a guide, I suppose offering crab plus maybe fish is an added bonus to the paid fishing trip, but then I suppose you have chalk up pot and crab losses as a business expense. At least they left your pots. Salt of the earth aren't they?

10-10-2001, 02:40 PM

Scott,

May the Lord give those thieves a big case of crabs - the really small annoying kind!

RT

FM2 · 10-10-2001, 04:03 PM

Sorry to hear about this HT1. I have had the same thing happen and I have learned to not stray to far from the traps. Also the weekends are a zoo so there may be some confusion but that is not an excuse. I pity the guys that ever get caught doing this.

RT, are you becomming spiritual [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[ 10-10-2001: Message edited by: FM2 ]

Drachir · 10-10-2001, 04:27 PM

Sorry to hear of your dilema. It is unfortunately a common problem and has happened to me and friends as well. I would be thankful that you at least had pots to come back to. Last year at Bouy 10, a good friend of mine had 5 new Protoco Pots stolen while out fishing. He was only out of sight of them for 2-3 hrs. More than enough time for these type of LowLifes to steal them. He had over $600 invested in those pots, really makes you sick!! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

bigshark · 10-10-2001, 06:36 PM

Hottamale
The "tie" thing rings a memory up from some years back. A sport diving party of three got
into the six pots we had out in C-Harbor. We
were crabbing on an evening tide. Waited for them at their boat on the beach and finally got to talk to them. They were young kids...
we scared them good but I had to wonder how the heck could kids afford that much gear. The scare we used was to assure them that the
boat, the motor and the extra tanks and regulators would no longer be usable if we ever saw them again. We told them to look at our boat...and not to forget what it looked like. There wasn,t room on the bay for that
boat and theirs at the same time.....ever.

You have to wonder what goes through peoples minds....I was at Garibaldie two years ago when the SP caught a boat coming in with crabs of every size. They had not yet even tried to count them as one cop told me it was in the hundreds. He said they came in only because they had so many that they couldn't stay in the boat with them all. These folks were from another part of the world according to the cop I talked to. Does anyone on this board know what the penalty
was?

StorminN · 10-10-2001, 11:36 PM

Be glad you got your pots back.

Long story:
Three years ago on Barkley Sound, up in BC, we were on a two week trip, we had been crabbing all week, doing pretty well every day, then the weekend came along, and lots of people showed up. Lots of people started crabbing in the same area we were, which was a ways out from this river mouth, in the salt. Well, we motored up to check our pots one day, and here are these two guys in this boat, fishing in the middle of all these crab pots... except it was closed to fishing then. We pulled our pots, collected our crab, and reset the pots. One of the guys fishing asked me what the regs were there, and I told him that the area was closed to fishing, he said "Oh" and then we went on our way.

Next day, we came to check the pots, and I couldn't find one of my floats. I had marked the location with my GPS. It was a clear but windy day, and I have poles and flags on my floats, so I should have been able to see it. About a half hour later, we found my float way off course, we start pulling the rope, and it goes down about 40' and the rope is cut... now I use weights about 20' down, so I think someone cut my rope. I lost a $110 four door pot... I'll never buy an expensive one again.

I talked to a local up there, he said it happens all the time, it's the natives up there, he said those two guys were probably stealing crab and stopped as they saw us approach, then they watched us to see what kind of pots we had and if we did any good. He said they just pull people's pots, if they like the pots, they'll cut the rope and tie their own rope onto it, and put it back down.

What was I going to do? By that time, it was the weekend, there must have been 200 pots in that area, we were all fishing 80-130ft deep, I don't have a puller, so I wasn't going to pull them all in the hopes of finding mine.

The kicker is we went back to the campsite to get our extra pot and that one had been stolen out of the campsite, too...
Bad trip.

Oh well.

-N.

Hottamale1 · 10-10-2001, 11:39 PM

This is absolutely unacceptable...

I fished T-Bay yesterday with Chris Vertopoulos. We dropped 3 Pots, in addition to Bob Rees' 5 pots that had been in the water from the previous day.

After fishing, we began picking up all 8 pots only to find 2 keeper crabs...AND....every pot with a "Tie" had been Cut and the pots dropped back in the water with no bait...(as if they were going to Re-Bait it).

What in the **** is this all about??? Should I be glad they didn't just Rip-off the whole 8 pots?

If Crab pots are Marked, as these were, or obvioulsy NOT YOURS....DONT PULL'EM. That is absolute B.S. Whoever did this will be caught one day, by the Wrong Person.

Scott

will_e_fish · 10-11-2001, 02:58 AM

Crab pot/ring pirates have taken mine for the last time in Garibaldi. I have learned the hard lesson not to go to far away from them. I haven't done the night thing for them yet but it sounds like great fun. Do you splash the bouy with glow in the dark markings?
Never had a problem in Nehalem or Newport.

Pilar · 10-11-2001, 05:44 AM

Will e fish, night crabbing is pretty awesome. Use a gps to mark each location and the plotter to get back to them. I usually line them up in a row, it makes them easier to find. We paint our buoys flour. orange and the gps gets you back right on em. If you need to, use a spotlight but it will destroy your night vision fo 10 minutes or more.

Most important of all make sure you have gps routes to approach and leave the crabbing area. If not you will for sure find one of the many sand bars in the bay.

The crab go much shallower at night. It is pretty common to load up on big crab in 6 ft of water.