Chasin' Dreams
Well-Known Member
Just a heads up to guys setting traps around the west side of Valdez and the north west side of Galiano... wife and i were boating through the area yesterday and watched as the tugs/log booms were being pulled and pushed over several prawn buoy's in the area. It's a locally known area for barges/booms to be hauled around, staged in that area, etc and we keep seeing people setting their traps there. Then we see posts on the forum about guys "losing" their traps or their traps got "stolen" in those areas. Every buoy we saw in that area yesterday was way too small to float a set up of traps/lines if the traps get pulled off the bottom. So if a boom or barge etc snags it and pulls it off the bottom as soon as it goes into deeper water that whole set up sinks below the surface causing navigational hazards as well. If you use buoy's large enough to float your whole set up then if it get's pulled into deeper water there's still a chance you may be able to get it back if you see it floating in the area. Crossing over the straight yesterday we also saw a set up with large buoy floating off in nowhere's land in 600' of water. No name, #'s on the buoy. Was probably dragged out through Porlier by boom/barge then came free. Not putting your name, numbers etc on your buoy's is a great way to ensure you won't get your set up back if a good samaritan wants to return it to the owner. Crazy the amount of buoy's we see out there every day with zero markings on them.
