Vancouver Trap Theft/Raid Insantity 2017 Thread.

[fishin_magician]

Well this is insane. For as long as I have been crab and prawn fishing Vancouver...Trap theft/raiding by poachers has been an issue. from speaking with friends, guides and people I know the last 4 months have been ridiculous. It has never been THIS bad. I talked to someone who was raided yesterday and another who was raided today.

So...I'm going to start a thread about it.

Please post the DATE and details as follows: I will start. We will forward this thread to DFO and the authorities to see if there is a pattern and see if we can establish some patterns.

Please refrain from conjecture and speculation and keep the thread clean and respectful and Absolutely keep opinions to yourself. just the facts please.

When: Sunday May 14
What: 2 x Crab Traps, buoys, leaded line and floats.
General Location: Point Grey well out of traffic lanes.
How long: Dropped in the morning...gone 7 hours later.
Status: Confirmed as stolen. GPS Waypoints and location away from
Traffic.
Suspects: None seen.

 

[fishin_magician]

6 votes so far....all with "yes". No details. POST Details please. Location and date is important

 

[drivel]

Wednesday May 17.
Location Point grey.
How long. 8 hours: 8 am to 4 pm
Status. 2 traps - found them MUCH closer together than when I dropped them. And near but not on my GPS waypoint. Trap with bait partially eaten (ravenously), still enough bait in trap to deter leakage.
NO CRAB INSIDE. ZERO.
Suspects - nothing concrete...

 

[1marko]

my question is ...why hasnt anyone
been caught in the act....other
then gypseadrifter. maybe flags
to better identify traps from a distance?

 

[fishin_magician]

my question is ...why hasnt anyone
been caught in the act....other
then gypseadrifter. maybe flags
to better identify traps from a distance?

They are looking around to see if anyone is headed their direction. pulling a crab trap takes minutes. Putting it back takes less than a minute. Stealing a trap is easy....

They're not dumb.

They pick their times to check/steal....

 

[mayday]

Yes BUT it also seems that for every report- of "theft" . there is another report of someone finding a "floater" - so using your first report as an example, just coming back 7hrs later to find the traps gone, doesn't necessarily equal "confirmed" theft.
Same sceptism for reports of traps being "burgled" - isn't that a bit like saying you are guaranteed a haul, and if its empty must have been checked?

 

[Tinny]

When: Easter Sunday
Where: off Spanish banks
Thief: Gypsea Drifter

Came to my first trap which had been raided. Chicken necks visibly picked at but not a crab in sight. Look over where my other trap is and A big boat is circling around my other trap. See the guy leaning over to grab it. Bomb over there. They see me coming and quickly leave and I see them in the distance searching for other traps to raid. Was out two weeks later and saw them again in same area looking for traps. Called DFO. They took info but said they couldn't get someone out at that time. Suspect they are taking undersized and female. Sunday early afternoon is their modus operandi.

 

[fishin_magician]

Yes BUT it also seems that for every report- of "theft" . there is another report of someone finding a "floater" - so using your first report as an example, just coming back 7hrs later to find the traps gone, doesn't necessarily equal "confirmed" theft.
Same sceptism for reports of traps being "burgled" - isn't tha

Crabbing in 50' of water with 100' of lead line with traps 75' apart with double floats in an area where sailboats, log booms, cruisers, tug boats and power boaters do not commonly go and finding both "gone" is theft alright. Going back to check them at slack tide confirms theft.

Similarly guides dropping prawn traps in a little bay at 300' with 500' of line on each 2 trap string with a 2 foot Scotsman and a 4lb Clip on lead "missing" where no problems have ever been encountered in years adds up to theft.

Don't worry....if experienced guides lose traps and they're not there when they get back.....it's theft.... guaranteed.

 

[Gear'n'beer!]

This is nothing new......at least not over on the island and according to your original post. Good luck with your efforts but do you actually think DFO cares? CheckIng traps in saanich inlet is at stupid levels..... I chatted with guys this year who have lost like 15 sets this year, like whole rigs man! Good luck but I think you are barking up a tree that was logged and turned into plywood a decade ago

 

[Tinny]

Yes BUT it also seems that for every report- of "theft" . there is another report of someone finding a "floater" - so using your first report as an example, just coming back 7hrs later to find the traps gone, doesn't necessarily equal "confirmed" theft.
Same sceptism for reports of traps being "burgled" - isn't that a bit like saying you are guaranteed a haul, and if its empty must have been checked?

Fully agree. I put a zap strap on all my traps now so can tell if they have been raided. And a missing trap does not equal a theft. I've hit quite a few current submerged crab traps while trolling at Bell Buoy and Sandheads. Frustrating. Don't drop 100' line in 90' of water! I've also lost a trap at the north arm to a log boom. I was fishing close and saw the the boom go over the area. Later no surprise there was no trap. Had I not seen that I would have thought for sure it was stolen.

 

[fishin_magician]

This is nothing new......at least not over on the island and according to your original post. Good luck with your efforts but do you actually think DFO cares? CheckIng traps in saanich inlet is at stupid levels..... I chatted with guys this year who have lost like 15 sets this year, like whole rigs man! Good luck but I think you are barking up a tree that was logged and turned into plywood a decade ago

It's not new...it's a whole lot worse than ever before. I have some detailed information on solid leads of what's going on.... but clearly....if DFO and the RCMP are going to set up an operation then they need information which is something this thread can provide.

FYI, when these idiots steal traps from someone who is RCMP that is enjoying personal fishing...which has happened to 2 which I know...they just f'd with the wrong people...."Judgement cometh and they right soon" as the saying goes...

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

A couple weeks ago I was out fishing with a buddy. We were up Howe Sound a ways. We see a float barely under the surface bobbing away. It was in 700 feet of water. We knew it wasn't on the bottom but rather floating. We pulled up to it and saw it had a name and number on it. I didn't pay much attention to the last name just that it did have a name and number on it. So we pulled it on board. When I got home I looked at the float to get the name and number from it to call the owner. I laughed out loud as it was my buddy's name and number and his set up from Gibsons. We have fished together in the past and I took him prawning, salmon fishing and crabbing in the past. We've known each other for 6 years of so.

Before I called him I sent him a text with a picture of his float and wrote "recognize this lol" in the text. He called me and was like wtf where did you find it??
He also thought it was stolen. I said buddy you gotta put some weights on your prawning rig man it was floating out in 700' of water way over by the south east tip of Gambier. WAY far away from where he set it. He laughed and was grateful he was getting his stuff back.

I do things with my traps so that I will know for sure if they were messed with by thieving scum. Saying that though, I have also recovered my prawn traps before after finding them floating away on a strong ebb when they slid off a ridge and went a couple miles in very short period of time.

I know there are a lot of active thieves out there BUT I also know there are a lot of traps out there floating off out of site due to either bad sets, not enough weight, falling off ridges/banks etc..

 

[fogged in]

For sure some traps are not properly weighted and slide into deeper water BUT what often happens is someone lifts your trap to steal your catch, drifts into deeper water and dumps the trap back in, only to have it float to shallow water again, sometimes miles away, or til someone like you finds them still floating in deep water.

 

[Thunder21]

They make devices that you can put on vehicles etc that will show you it's location if it is stolen. Like a gps tracker thing. I think you pay a small monthly fee for it. It would be cool to try to somehow seal one of those inside your float. If you are sure they are being stolen give it a go.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

For sure some traps are not properly weighted and slide into deeper water BUT what often happens is someone lifts your trap to steal your catch, drifts into deeper water and dumps the trap back in, only to have it float to shallow water again, sometimes miles away, or til someone like you finds them still floating in deep water.

Oh ya for sure that happens too. There are lot's of reasons..Another one is guys using very small floats to mark their prawn rigs. If they do get knocked off a ledge and go deeper, or get pulled then dropped back by thieves there is no way some of the small floats some guys use will hold their rigs up to keep them floating in sight so that they may find them later.
I shake my head when I see guys using crab floats, milk jugs, small boat fenders etc to mark their prawn rigs. Ya they may hold one unweighted prawn trap up if it floats off but not a couple traps and especially not if they are weighted. I run dual traps on my lines with a bunch of weight and lead line. My floats are big enough to hold 5 times that weight and are big enough to spot from far away. Try to see a small float floating away..very tough and even tougher if there's a chop.
Same with crab traps. I think some guys think they are safe from tides if they drop them in the harbor or in bays etc. without any weight on them. Well they aren't. We returned two traps last year to guys that dropped them where they thought they were safe from tides and had no weight in them at all. Say bye bye to your crab traps if your dropping them anywhere around there or the sand heads etc without some kind of weight in them if there is a strong tide coming.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Here's another error that some guys may be making too..I went fishing/prawning with my buddy in his boat a couple of seasons ago. We dropped his traps by a gulf island then went fishing for awhile and came back after a couple tide changes to check his traps. But he didn't see them where he said he dropped them. We were looking at his GPS marks on his screen. I didn't think it looked exactly like the spot he dropped them at. So we started moving down the cliff and scanning the water for his floats. We saw them a fair distance away. Right away we both thought thieves messed with them cause he used weighted traps and put them shallow enough for a tide not to have messed with them and it wasn't a very steep drop off etc..After thinking about it for awhile I asked him how he marked the gps on his plotter. He showed me that he just hit the "mark" button. So I asked him if his plotter was set up to mark his boat as the spot or the cursor. He was like "huh?" I said I bet you set your cursor point as the waypoint and it was off aways on the screen from where his boat was actually floating. So we tested his plotter and sure enough that's what it was. He was marking his traps incorrectly with his gps waypoint cursor.

I've had my traps messed with by thieves and we even pulled up to some scum bags before who were reaching for my float to pull up and we confronted them. They are a problem absolutely. BUT there are a lot of other reasons why guys are thinking their stuff is being messed with when in fact it may very well be human error that making it look that way. Lots of different variables out there for sure.

 

[aheny]

Around may 7th. Raided my traps just north of T10 in 50'.
Full salmon carcass in a commercial trap for 8 hours, 2 keepers in it, no under size.
I've never caught less than a dozen on that spot with that bait.
I saw a newer black North River around 17' loitering in the area processing traps. Not sure if he's the culprit.

 

[ryanb]

If I were still in the Vancouver area I'd be inclined to set up a sting. This is something that really bothers me, despite the fact that, honestly, over the years I've really not had too much trouble. One trap stolen and only a few raided out of hundreds (thousands?) of drops.

What really bothers me is not that it happens, but that they get away with it.

 

[Goathorns]

it was a few weeks ago now, but I think it was April 15th. My crab trap disappeared out of Howe sound in the Eagle harbor bay. Nice new $135 stainless round trap with a fluorescent orange and yellow styro float, some lead weights along the length, and various ropes including a black fall-arrest/rescue rope that was at least 70' long. my other less desirable trap had moved somehow from 180' to 150', and not in any direction the tide runs through the area. I always put large ty-raps on the lids so the thief has to have a great knife of side cutting pliers.

 

[mayday]

Similarly guides dropping prawn traps in a little bay at 300' with 500' of line on each 2 trap string with a 2 foot Scotsman and a 4lb Clip on lead "missing" where no problems have ever been encountered in years adds up to theft.

Don't worry....if experienced guides lose traps and they're not there when they get back.....it's theft.... guaranteed.

You can't be seriously saying that being a "guide" makes you instantly infallible?
And I know "Howe Sound" prawning quite well - and I also know that the tides there can be quite strong - and what do you think happens when a 2' Scotsman (as per above) with only 4lb of weight clipped on gets tugged on by a strong current? Bye Bye and it floats away is what.