Cray Pots
Evening Gents,
Just a quick one in regard to craypots out from Mindarie Marina... Pulled up both of mine on the same day in the last couple of weeks and upon bringing the first one up discovered that the clip-under-frame-of-pot-bait-basket-lid was missing after ensuring that it was firmly secure when dropping. Benefit of the doubt given, thought 'ok I must have effed up somehow'.
Upon pulling up the second pot (well over 300m away) found that this pot was also missing said clip style bait box lid. Now without delving into the weather conditions too much (pots were in pretty much the same GPS points as dropped in = +/- 15m), you would have to imagine that this is more than a coincidence.
Has anyone else had this same issue occur Mindarie side of 3 mile reef?
McNults.
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hezzy
Posts: 1519
Date Joined: 27/11/09
stick some shock cord on em ,
stick some shock cord on em ,
drill two holes throught the lid, tie it onto them and loop it back into the bait basket , and tie it off , make sure its fairly tight to keep tension on your lids when in place
that will help to keep em in place and at least if a ray or something is lifting/sucking them off you may not lose the lids with some shock cord on them even if there opened up
did you set them on sand ??or a lot of sand /soft bottom around you?
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Madmerv
Posts: 672
Date Joined: 24/01/15
Suspicous
Did you have any size crays in them?
A mate and i were potting just north of Mindarie and we had some suspicous pulls. Empty bait box, empty pots and even 1 with a cray feeler jammed under the weight and snapped off.
When the pots were brought back to shore a nice older gentleman with mobile in hand and fisheries on speed dial accosted us and demanded to know who's pots we were trying to take home.
We explained they were ours. He then said "i bet you didnt catch any today" and explained that someone had just pulled our pots 30min ago. Pricks!!
Off Mindarie getting a bad rep for that.
Merv
Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !
McNults
Posts: 7
Date Joined: 01/01/14
Merv - I had my pots out at
Merv - I had my pots out at the first reef at the start of the season and got out later than usual to find a boat anchored up within 10m of my pots with a dive flag on it.
We circled a couple of times and got their attention before we could approach with their permission (dive flag up with guys on deck) and pulled pots up while giving the benefit of the doubt. Of course their were no crays in the pots after they had told us there were two good ones in there.
They had obviously been getting close to my pots if they knew how many 'were in there'.
What can you do though? It's not like you can start ranting and raving that they have done the dodge on your pots without any evidence.
It's a courtesy thing though - stay away from someone else's pots - I doubt that there are many in here that would not have thought the same thing as me when you see a bloody boat with dive flag anchored up next to your pots.
Its just a shame that there are numpties out there doing this type of thing.
Madmerv
Posts: 672
Date Joined: 24/01/15
Divers
I can understand your concern with the divers.
I have been diving Perth waters for more than 30 years and have had plenty of irate fisherman, bot Rec and Commercial, giving me abuse when diving near their pots.
Usually the pots are there because it is a good spot for crays and if it was a spot i had already marked on a previous dive, well it's a free ocean.
Most divers, not all, will just get their own crays and leave the pots alone. I know i did.
I think on about 5 occasions i even unwrapped ropes from reef or moved a pot from impossible holes so the boatie could get their pots to surface.
So i say there is a chance that the diver raided your pots but i'm glad you give them the benefit of the doubt. Some people are actually good.
Karma gets everybody both good and bad.
The pricks that raided our pots were seen doing it but they were to far out for the guy to get a name of boat or any type. Just a white boat and they headed further offshore when done.
Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !
clay
Posts: 11
Date Joined: 14/12/10
Seals
I used to have troubles with seals opening the lids. Set a line of 10 and come back the next day and they've all been opened so they can get the fresh bait. To fix it, we made up a heap of wooden wedges and jammed them between the lid and batten. That seemed to stump the smartarse seals!
Bloody big lump here 25.20.703S 131.2.000E
kirky79
Posts: 1351
Date Joined: 13/01/12
Had same prob out from
Had same prob out from Mandurah late last year. Got told it was occys or rays getting at the bait. Cable ties fixed the problem.