This morning I dropped off my crab traps in front of spanish banks in approx 60-70 feet of water at about 8am before cruising across the straight. When I came back to grab my traps at 1pm the same day, only 3 out of the 4 were there... I've been crabbing for quite some time so it wasn't a careless mistake.. I have weights in my traps, I clearly mark every trap on my fish finder and the traps are evenly spread apart and today all traps were set between 60-70 feet of water... I have read about a huge upswing in recent theft of prawn and crab traps. I am quite confident someone stole my crab trap but in the event I am wrong, if anyone is going to be dropping off crab traps or passing by spanish banks on their way to the fishing grounds can you please let me know if you see my buoy? It's a extra large ORANGE Bullet buoy which is not common so it should stick out like a sore thumb. I've attached a picture of the buoy and the location of where the trap was dropped. The buoy has my number with the last 4 digits being 9770.
The reason I've posted it in the fishing report is because many of you, including myself, drop of crab or prawn traps prior to going fishing or for a cruise... there have been a number of reports as of late about stolen prawn and crab traps...seems like this problem is getting out of control... If my traps were indeed stolen which I am fairly certain they were, perhaps the ones who picked it up dropped it off in deeper water or perhaps they dropped it off somewhere far from the original location. If you happen to be cruising past a LARGE orange buoy near spanish banks or spot it elsewhere, please message me. thank you.
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