drop them in ,pull in 5 days and if your in the right area then you will start catching , yes pots need to soak minimum  for 3 days but that depends on depth of water

 Always been told you need to soak pots but we dropped 2 new wood/steel base pots at the start of this season and pulled the next day with 7 reds in each. If you're on the right ground they will go in them.

 As a pro for 26 years, and a decky for a few years before that, it varies greatly between timber types. The best for catching straight from the factory, with green timber, was Karri. But jeez, didn't the worms love it. Pines' got nothing on green Karri for worms. I started with a complete fresh set one whites, had a really good whites, but lost a few along the way. One turned up a month later, looked brand new, was absolutley riddled. Another went missing out the deep ,end of the whites, found it two months later when I was back out there--it fell apart coming over the tipper. They actually seem to catch better green.  The worst for catching green is undoubtedly pine--if you can smell that fresh pine resin smell as they come over the tipper, they won't be catching. It usually takes a good five day soak with green pine for them to start catching reliably. This only appllies to green timber, once they have been in for a while, dried out, and put back out again, they'll catch straight away. Jarrah sits in the middle--doesn't need much soak, can catch straight away if they are thick. 

We had always soaked pots as a matter of tradition--in on the 10th November, pulled and baited on the 14th (old season rules) Then I started doing half and half, and the unsoaked ones were doing OK, so, once I had a boat that would easily stack the lot, I'd just load them up baited on the jetty for the start. Introducing brand new pine pots was always done in small doses, unless you intended to soak them untouched for a while.  Pineys need regular drying out or worms destroy them----if we weren't pulling the gear out altogether after the whites, we'd leave them stacked on the boat in the pen for at least five days to dry them out. And then do it again over the later moons when the crays were crap, or you'd end up with something that looked like a violet crumble bar.  It's interesting to note that termites and Toredo worms are very alike in their tastes. Termites love seasoned pine, as either green or seasoned karri, and don't like jarrah all that much.

Can't speak for stick pots, hardly ever used them, and only have hearsay to go off.

while i agree with ranmar in most of the above .....

theres always exceptions lol for example l i fished a karri & pine frame pot last year off margs for 6 months , it never left the ocean for more than 20mins each trip over that 6 months .....when the pots all came home i tested it for worms with the hammer ......all fine , i was pretty surprised as one other jarrah fram pot was riddled with them , same time frame same area fished ....

had a customer pick up some new pots off me on monday arvo , wed , he went to cervantes with them on holidays , dropped his ''new dry pots in wed afternoon at 5 pm ish , checked em this morning at 6 am and he had crays in them ,,,,,just a 13 hour soak ....

so for recs , best option is put them in asap and see how you go as your livelehood is not dependant on the results ,,, just your belly !!

hezzy