No good deed goes unpunished

[bhemi]

On Friday I rescued an pretty ungrateful idiot who ran out of gas. On Saturday I go back and someone stole my brand new prawn traps. Thank God I only bought two.
There is a special place in hell reserved for guys who rip off traps and if I ever find this jerk I will be tempted to send him there early.

 

[haggardscove]

Your sure right about trap thieves deserving to go to hell. Just don't think its worth our trouble helping them get there. Looks like they are doing just fine on there own. Yes, I've had pots stolen also. With each pot weighing 30#, they didn't walk off by themselfs.

 

[Maxpower]

besides sitting there watching is there any measure of security for this, one could make a pretty penny to be paid to sit there sign people in and out or record boat names and bow numbers. hmmm

 

[fishwish]

When I was growing up, my dad and I used to go crabbing alot at Sidney Spit. We used to lose traps left, right and center. I can remember seeing a boat pull our traps and take off. Being in a small boat that wasn't very fast, all we could do is watch them go.

This is what we started doing. Instead of using a float, we would just use a very buoyant piece of wood small enough to deal with in the boat, with an eye bolt screwed into it for attaching the line, and just made sure that the line was well weighted.

It's hard to see in the water, and I'm sure that it's somesort of hazard to navigation, but no traps went missing using this technique. I wouldn't do this in any current or such, as there is not enough floatation.

Just my two cents,

FishWish

 

[knucklebuster]

I had a guy tell me about that method years ago. I blew it off then but might have to rethink it. considering I lost another stainless commercial crab pot a week ago. complete with 150' of leaded line and bouys. I know for sure it didn't leave on its own. It was in 90' of water.

 

[salmonlander]

I have also lost new stainless crab pots. My method of theft prevention is similar to above but. Use a stainless eye bolt into a piece of drift wood and put a plastic seagull on top of wood. For Prawn traps,use small diameter ganion cord as its real hard on the hands when pulling by hand. Works for me.

 

[salmonlander]

on the wood, on the trap and GPS your spot. Look for birds that don't fly.

 

[Eric]

I remember a tale about one guy putting treble hooks into his line about 15'-20' down from the float. This in the hope of seriously nailing a thieving SOB.
Never heard cool results so like I said, was just a tale.
I must say that I have never been raided but am considering my paintball gun for seals and raiders.......

 

[Mongoose]

i heard of that too, just put hooks in your line and leave the barbs, but i dont think you will get your trap back, the person would cut the line. other methods ive heard of is using downrigger line for the first 20-30 feet, greasing up your line, or just not using a float and just tie a cannon ball to where u would put the float on and just drop it 200' away from your trap and then just try to snag it with a small anchor, BUT USING FLOATING LINE so it would make a arc on the bottom of the ocean, a GPS would be handy for that.

 

[orion91]

[}]I know poeple i had a trap up on the sunshine coast last year and when i put the trap in at night it was fine but in the morning when i was getting gas i saw the bouy floating by.
But i was lucky because it was just really messed up but the trap was wide open and empty ... the trap was there
[V]

 

[marula]

Its a shame, people think thieft is ok when no one is around. I lost a trap or two within the same afternoon and just gave up crabbing. Some people have just no integrity

 

[Mongoose]

start setting bait traps for people who like to pull traps, get a rock and some cheap rope like poly and some sort of float maybe a old crab float, or bleach bottle (make it look like a oblivious float) and set some treble hooks with the barbs in the line and throw it out in hi trap stealing areas. then watch from shore as a person gets hooks in there hand or hands lol

 

[orion91]

Where have some of your traps been stolen or been looked at?

 

[gpreb]

Also had a prawn trap stolen....off Pirate Cove (south Dodd Narrows). You wonder about low lifes..why so many of them out there or are they commercial guys jealous of their areas.

Gary

 

[battaglino]

I didn' realize it is such a problem in BC we have crabbed and prawned for years up there and never lost a pot. We only fish the westside of VI but with such a problem you would think the fish police would put a little effort into it. I know they have better thing to do like check the barbs on our hooks.

 

[Mongoose]

naa it not the commercial boys UNLESS you trap gets caught up in there traps, one string of traps can be upto 1800' long and they dont want to untangle yours, a knife is the perfered tool to untangle our traps on their line. so just prawn around to them because there not prawning there for no reason, there prawning for prawns and prawns = $$$$$ or for us prawns = MMMMMM

 

[Drewski Canuck]

Gold River was a problem for a couple of years. Heli Logging was going on and there was a VERY HUNGRY logging crew, which stayed at a camp near a favorite crabbing area. I actually saw the crew boat come in and start heading for the pots, see that we were over by shore, spin around really fast, and depart back the way we came. One irate person who had the doors pulled off his trap was looking for some under water mines that would be activated by the pull of the float line. This idea sounded a little extreme, and besides, I don't know who sells them, but it sure speaks of deterence. A few good blasts would put an end to the thieving.

In the mean time, what would it take for the RCMP to set up a sting operation, make a public example in Court with a huge fine, and perhaps get the message out that way?

Drewski

 

[knucklebuster]

Years ago I had thought of lacing hooks in the line to my crab pots but i thought what if fisheries was doing a check of gear and they got the hook in them. That wouldn't be nice.

 

[nedarb2]

my friends dad was telling me that when he was a kid on all of their crab buoyes (he fished port renfrew) they would write your sighted in with a .22, pull this trap and die..apparently they never had any theft problems

 

[bee15]

I remember a tale about one guy putting treble hooks into his line about 15'-20' down from the float. This in the hope of seriously nailing a thieving SOB.
Never heard cool results so like I said, was just a tale.
I must say that I have never been raided but am considering my paintball gun for seals and raiders.......