A Good day spoiled

[Black Duck]

Hi everyone this is my first post and I appologise for it being a bit of a winge! :(

Started out from the White Island ramp on Sunday morning first trip for this year ;D with my regular crew (My father, and Brother and nephew) we drop a line of pots opposite the ramp and then headed out to the measured mile to see if there were any mac's about.

We hooked up on a couple of small schoolies :) with only one keeper that my Brother caught (lots of fun had by all). We then decided to move back in towards Mud, we pulled up on the northern side where there seemded to be a bit of crowd and started getting into lot of small snapper all throw backs. Then I was lucky to boat a nice 40cm fish fist keeper and an estuary cod around 60cm (WOW)! All told we must have hooked up on about 40 to 50 throw backs (snappery/scquire) with about a half a dozen unstoppables :o We had lots of fun as we were only fishing light and it was good to see that there are plenty of fish around for the future.

After depleting the bait supplies it was time to call it a day and head back in to pick up the pots and go home.

Well you can start to guess what might have happened as we start picking up the pots we noticed that in the first one there were no crabs and no bait with the bait clip unhooked!! The next 2 were in the same condition with 3 pots left to pull I noted that one of my pots the last one in the line was missing >:( and it dawned on us that some idiot decided it would be a good idea to do some raiding and stealing B#stard.

All told for the day we boated and kept:
1 Schoolie - 60cm;
1 Flounder - 38cm;
1 Snappery/Scquire - 40cm;
1 Estuary Cod - 60cm

Sorry no picks this time, I was too upset and forgot to take some photo's

Regards

Black Duck

[Aquarius]

A good catch there and its a shame you can't leave the pots without some idiots stealing the contents.
Best to set the pots next time close to where you are fishing to keep a watch over them.
Cheers Brent

[vb4me]

What an absolute shame that there are disrespectful idiots out there stealing from your pots and even a pot. I crab out the back of my place and have had the bait clip open and even go missing a few times so left wondering myself if it is others in the area checking my pot or the eels and/or crabs unclipping the things.

[Beggsy]

Hey Duck,

Nice report - shame about the pots :-(

Mongrels - perhaps we should go down there with some pick handles, set a few pots and wait around to see if we can't catch a few of them instead of the crabs.

Catch ya
Beggsy

[Black Duck]

Thanks guys and Beggsy while thats a thought, its not really good for anyone. I would rather catch them at it and ring the police etc!!

I guess staying with the pots is the best plan, however, its sometimes not feasible to lugg your pots all over the bay with you when your trying to locate the fish. I'll have think about the next time I go out and whether I'll drop pots or not???

In terms of the clipps I use they are 3ml stanless steel round and would take a bit to unhook them when closed. The reason I had these made is that yes I have had crads/eels in pots that have unhooked the old style clipps in the past.

Cheers Guys!!!

Black Duck

[Marlin_Mike]

Youre experience Black Duck, is exactly why I gave my pots away.

I got sick of them being raided/stolen.

If you cant leave them and get them on the way back, why take them? you cant lug them around as you said.

Mike

[Tinn]

Best thing is to either stick to catching fish or catching crabs. So if you are going for fish you aren't worried about your crab pots and if you go crabbing you can sit around and watch your pots so no one steals them have a drink and take it easy. Maybe even wet a line for fun.

[jackson4300]

It is quite sad, we shouldn't have to worry about our pots being raided, we shouldn't have to worry about when we take them out. About a month ago, went down to the pine fo a crabbings session, no crabs, but some idiot had run our pot over. Fair enough, sh*t happnes, but then to chuck the pot into a tree ????
The pots were all in less then 2m of water by lowtide when we picked them up, now, why would some one be that close and going that fast to the shore is beyond me.

I wonder who these people are, are there any of them on this site? i would hope not.

[Camo]

Youre experience Black Duck, is exactly why I gave my pots away.

I got sick of them being raided/stolen.

Mike


Same with me too. The last time I put pots in we only put four in between the two of us. What really pissed me off was when we went and checked them some smartarse had taken the crabs and left an empty stubby in each pot. Can't understand the mentallity of some people. Wouldn't have been so bad if they were full stubbies.

Camo

[lumox]

karma boys karma

[vb4me]

Truth is there aren't enough fisheries personell to police the area around se Qld and the penalties should be a hell of a lot harsher.>:( The idiots ( and there are plenty of them) need a right good kicking. Otherwise more and more people will start sinking their pots which can be a dangerous practice for some boaties who might happen to run over a fresh marine hazard.

[kingtin]

Pot thieves aside.............bait clips are notoriously unreliable.

Once the crabs have shifted the bait from the clip, they start to look for a way out. I'll post some pics in the near future of my latest bait keepers. Poly pipe with holes drilled in 'em. Believe me, the crabs still come in even though they can't see the bait, and your bait remains intact. Even a sponge soaked in tuna oil placed in the pipe does the trick.

That said, my sympathies with you mate, and my abhorrence of the scum who raided your pots. To minimise this, sink your pots without a float but not where they can cause havoc to passing boats.

Welcome to the site.

kev

[Robsie]

Well here is one to grab you. We put our pots in up the gregory river last month with raw chicken frames in. Pulled them up to find no crabs, and no raw chicken frame, but there was a nice fresh mullet head in our baitnet!! Now thats BALLS for you!!

[Black Duck]

Once again guys thanks for the imput/advice, I guess its come down to either putting the boat in the water for a crab or leaving the pots at home and just going for a fish!!!

Its really disappointing when you think back when this sort of thing use to be an oddity rather than a norm!!

All that aside its time to think about the next trip out!!!

Regards
Black Duck