This year, I have lost 8 traps around Howe Sound so I am as mad as anyone here posting about prawn thieves. I was seething and was really pissed thinking what I was going to do if I catches anyone lifting my traps. Since then a couple of things have happened. Some members here pointed out there are chances the traps could have fallen off an edge, drifted off, pulled away by log barges and of course stolen. I calmed down and thinking back there were times when I probably lost traps because my set ups were not as good as they should have been: Setting traps in 250 yard depth with only 325 of line, small yellow styrofoam floats, no putting weights/anchors etc… There was a case where I soak 2 sets of traps, one with a big scotsman and one without in a similar area and when I returned only the ones with the big scotsman was still around and the ones with the smaller float had disappeared. Stolen? Perhaps, Fallen of the edge? Most likely. Lesson learned. Since then, I have bought more traps and set up my traps differently. I put 15 pounds of weight/anchor, 600 yard of rope in 250-350 depth and always attached them to a big scotsman. Even then, there have been cases where I found my traps drifting 300-600 meters away from where I set them bopping in 700-feet of water. How do I know they were not messed with and then dragged to a different area? Because there were still prawns inside the traps.
On a different thread here, a member posted a couple of pictures showing some guys holding up some prawn lines and screamed thieves caught red handed stealing traps. When others, myself included ask how the whole storied went down/resolved there were no responses. I looked closely at the pictures and recognized the boat, which was moored at the same marina as myself so I asked the owner what happened. He told me his trim taps somehow got tangled up in the prawn lines and he tried to pull it up to try to free it. He couldn’t and had to cut it and paid the owner 400 dollars as compensation. I posted this story on that thread and was called b.s by another member but the truth is up until now the member that posted original pictures has not come out and refuted what the owner said to me. In the meantime, everyone based on 2 pictures posted without details are thinking he is a thief. Okay, I have rambled long enough but I guess my point is unless you are absolutely sure someone has stolen your traps, it is not wise to threaten vigilante justices on the water. Hate to see someone getting hurt, killed, reputations ruined or a bullet hole on the side of the boat due to someone losing their cool on the water because an honest mistake. That’s all.