I was too, but my mate suggested that the pots ideal are too heavy to pull up by hand, lighter pots move around and youd need to be out checkin them daily, which is not guna happen and then you gotta deal with others pullin them too

Pots can be hard work for little gain mate, espicailly if your new to it. IMO most people place there pots shallow very early in the season and by the time the whites are on the move about two weeks before xmas theyve already had a gutfull of early morning starts, shitty weather, aches and pains from heavy pulling and no return for their efforts. I also believe this is why most people think someone else is pulling their pots. I wait till about 3 weeks before xmas and place my pots in the 20m mark 10m seaward side of any small ledge I can find (smaller the better). How do you find such a ledge, well Im sure there is a pro somewhere in your area that will know, look for their pots. Dont have to drop them on his, just sound round untill you find your own ledge in the same area. The whites move down my way about two weeks before xmas and thats when I get full pots. If you score well, drop in the same area because the whites will keep on filling the ledge as they move through. Good luck.

 First up- dont waste your money on the plastic amature pots there shit, get yourself a couple of wooden pots in the same configuration as the pro`s ( we use them cause they work )smaller sizes are ok and will still catch well once they have had time to soak( about 4-6 days ), just make sure you have enough ballast in them so they sink and stay put. 

- Bait - fish baits are the best- mullet,herring,slimy macks etc and are good excuse too take the boat out for a fish.

- Setting pots first week untill the pots soak close to the ramp/bait fish gound as possible( your not gonna catch anything in them anyway).

-After that "generally speaking'' the first week or so is slow depending on water temp/moon so it pays to set your pots on the heavy ground / cabbage weed country and catch a few resident reds (watchout for females as the will mostly be setose and or tar spot this time of year- these must go back).

-The whites will start there annual migration sometime in the first couple weeks (usually) when this happens you want your pots in the sand (seriously) off the back of heavy weed/reef edges depths any where from 5m to 20m for the first couple of weeks.

-After the whites have finished in the shallows usually before christmas get your pot back on the heavy ground.

 PS- if you new to handling crays do your research on the sizes bag/posession limits, females-setose / tar spot, exclusion zones etc. 

WCRL fishery is heavily policed and if your doing something wrong fisheries will jump on you.

Enjoy.

Cheers Boomer 

at my first time using wooden batten pots i came out of the cut moved down to the area i thought would be good threw the first pot over the side and watched in amazment as the bloody thing floated around for a good 20 or so minutes untill the wood absorbed enough water to make it sink, lesson number one put plenty of weight in the pot, lesson number two pre soak the pot for a few days before you plane to deploy it

thanks for the replys guys, have to admit it does seem like there is a fair bit more involved than i thought. may have to do some solid research and hopefully be able to go out with someone who knows what they are doing. can you put them along rockwalls/groins? im pretty sure iv seen itt done before, i have a spot in mind where i have seen crays while diving so that might be a good spot to practise.

cheers again