Ocean crabing

I dug my crab pots out of my conex and am going to set them up. Some have 50' ropes on them. What length should I make them for crabing in the ocean?

[Miss B Haven]

Longer than the water is deep :grin: . Sorry - couldn't resist. Most of the commercials up here go in at the 100-125' line. Most of sport ocean crabbers are well inside that 60-80' max. :grin:
I'd allow at least 25' over what your going to drop at. Heavy weighted pots, double floats, with a donut above on a tag line (for picking). Don't forget to weight the line down at 8 or 10 feet or you'll end up on the swim step like I did last trip! :shocked:

[fish assassin]

I suggest that you think twice about setting any pots
in the ocean at this time of year ... crabbing on the
ocean is CLOSED until December 15th(?) ...

When you do LEGALLY set your pots next year, you
want to put about 1/3 more rope on your floats than
the depth that you are dropping the pots. With 50'
of rope you are good for about 35 feet of water (or
less).

Make sure you add weights to your ropes. Ropes left
floating on the top of the water are begging to get
caught in somebody elses prop(s) and/or cut off by
same!!

-assAssin-

[fish assassin]

Originally posted by Miss B Haven:
Hey Assassin - I was about to put out an all points for ya. Where you been hidin'? How was the nook fishin last weekend ? :grin:

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">I been hiding, man ... they actually expect me
to work around here once in a while!!

:shocked: WORK :shocked:
That is a four letter word! The state is paying me to not work. Unfortunatly I need to find something to support my bad habits, like eating and sleeping in a warm place. It also will be a bit easier on my a$$ when I bring the new boat home if I have a job. [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

[ 10-02-2002, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Miss B Haven]

Hey Assassin - I was about to put out an all points for ya. Where you been hidin'? How was the nook fishin last weekend ? :grin:

fish assassin,
I am not going out yet, just setting up my pots. I also use sinking line on them and have a tagline with a gill net float on the end.

I was going to try to use the same ropes for bay and ocean but the exrtra rope will just cause problems in the bay. I have about 1500' of ground line left so I think it won't be a problem. ( :shocked: I had 1500' of ground line until someone else came up with a need for 800' of it :shocked: )

I think that I will set up the floats on a seperate line and tie or snap them on the pot ropes. Does anyone see any problems doing this, it worked on my shrimp pots.

[ 10-02-2002, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Threemuch]

All my crab lines are in 5 or 10 fathom shots, with a loop spliced on each end. California truck rope. To lengthen or shorten is pretty easy, I just run the line through itself.

5 fathoms for most bay crabbing, 15 for outside. I use a longline snap with a 4 oz weight to sink the line.

[tailchaser]

I almost exclusively crab at 55' of water plus or minus a couple of feet with 70' of rope. Two monsterous floats and some heavy pots. Mine are barley under commercial weight so they don't move. I've lost too many pots out there so mine have a lot of weight to them. I hardly ever crab in the bay anymore, I just love those monsterous ocean crab!! I'm starting to slobber at the mouth already.

tc