We have got to face the reality that fisheries can not enforce the laws due to lack of funding.
No amount of yelling or protests will change that, the only saviour in the end will be rec licences to fund the policing.
Ok I will give an honest opinion here, in my opinion in enclosed waters like the passage there should be a limit of 2per person or 4 pots per boat no matter how many people in the boat, our waterways are a minefield of floats, drifting a bank and fishing can be a joke because of endless lines of floats,its time to slash the number of pots out there.
We have got to face the reality that fisheries can not enforce the laws due to lack of funding.
No amount of yelling or protests will change that, the only saviour in the end will be rec licences to fund the policing.
Jack.
Gotta Love Maroochydore.
hi Alley Cat...I don't believe reducing the number of pots per person or max number in boats will achieve much. There is a bag limit on muddies already, perhaps a bag limit on sandies should happen as well. I realise your talking about the problem of getting around the millions of pots and floats, so in that respect it's a worthy suggestion and certainly help this problem.
A lot of people crab from the banks of rivets/ creeks so limiting number per boat is not really fair, just because you are in boat shouldn't mean you have to have less pots than a bloke crabbing off the bank...in my opinion.
The problem with no limit on Sandies is that 1 bloke can go out and catch enough to feed the entire street so in this regard reducing pot number to 2 per person would help as well.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of 2 max per person but not a max limit for a boat, People with bigger boats ( who aren't share farmers according to some on here) who can take out several mates for a crab shouldn't be disadvantaged to the blokes with a small tinny.
Gotta Love Maroochydore.
instead of going around in circles in this thread maybe we should all go set our pots,coming up to flood tides so the muddies and sandies will be on the move again.
Codswallop, Big boat, small boat, bathtub, pro or recreational, young or old, a thief is a thief. If you believe crab thieves only use small boats, pull your head out and get back to reality. No different to those mongrel car thieves, they are opportunists. Cars also come in different sizes too.
Im going crabbing today without pots and I will not be share farming.
Jack.
It does surprise me how many crab pots I find scattered along the river banks. Used, knackered, floats attached, old and fairly new they seem to be all over the place. I've hooked a few in the rivers whilst fishing. Old, no floats and rusted to buggery.
From as far up as Colleges Crossing to out in the bay they lay discarded and ruined, The Pine seems to be littered with the bloody things!
The same in the dams trolling for bass I've hooked up on many an opera pot, again no floats. Just old knackered pots that have been "lost" to the elements one way or the other.
and yes I set my own and have had them raided in the Somerset on a couple of occasions.
I have a crab pot, never used it. The wife is constantly banging on at me to do so but I witness others on the raid in pots that clearly aren't their own and decide to give it a miss. She bought it for me, I'd hate to use it the once and have some bugger pinch it!
Yeah mate, I hear you and agree. Strong tides and light pots and not enough rope or what one thinks is enough rope and drops in a deep hole at low tide is disappeared at high tide. I've also seen quite a few in the condition as you stated. Stealing does go on but probably nowhere as much as stated, user error would be a contributing factor in some situations. Then there are the bigger than normal high tides that do come now and again.....Almanac is good to use for this...problem is most people don't use or refer to the Almanac and rely purely on Willie Weather, BOM or some other tide reporting bureau....Almanac is more accurate and provides more in depth info. Bondy
I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. I'll troll for a catfish and chuck the bugger in the crab pot for a couple of hours and see what happens. Whoa betide any bugger who touches it too as I won't be too gentle I can promise that.....
I'll head down river and troll for a whiting and flathead for a feed and return to the pot before heading home, fingers crossed I get something!!
i do have a question tho.....there must be bloody hundreds of mud crabs for the taking going by how many pots I see set, and if you all expect to get one, two or more in each pot then........by god they must be in plague proportions?????
see what happins tomorrow,set 6 pots for muddies and 6 for sandies,hopefully get a good feed of both...best thing bout muddies is I keep them alive till I want a muddie for a feed
nah bill will be ok..i am going to rebait then pull them after and 1.5hrs anyway....