Depth to rope/ float ratio

Is it possible to tell how deep you are by the number of floats on a commercial cray pot if you didn't have an echo sounder? eg four floats equals forty metres of depth. Is there a depth/ rope/ float ratio? eg depth times 1.5 equals rope length,depth divide 10 equals floats[ 40m depth times 1.5 equals 60m rope length,40m depth divide 10 equals four floats]. The pro cray fishers are out in 70 fathoms at the moment so what sort of gear would they be using at that depth? Thanks


carnarvonite's picture

Posts: 8622

Date Joined: 24/07/07

Depends

Tue, 2015-03-03 20:21

Depends on what the skippers preference is.
Some boats run two floats in shallow water others run three.

When in deeper water and with a strong current you can see as many as 8-10, the last two usually are the ones that smack the decky in the back of the head when trying to throw them over. Nothing worse than steaming 30-40 miles out to find your floats are 50 feet down, you can see them but can't do anything except wait and hope they come up.

Posts: 372

Date Joined: 30/06/14

so true, king tides in Tassy

Wed, 2015-03-04 09:35

so true, king tides in Tassy on west coast used to do that to us often...our skipper was a sadist, he would string 3 floats close an with the pole about 10 feet away (I always smacked myself in face with the radar reflector on top of pole :(....)

So working the rail if you missed an forced him to come round, he would yell an scream, while having fun cos he knew it was a bitch to get first hit.

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burnz's picture

Posts: 152

Date Joined: 19/02/15

All sounds too technical for

Tue, 2015-03-03 20:26

All sounds too technical for most cray fishermen lol. Deeper water more floats and rope.

 

Why dont you get a rope with a big weight on the end and tie knots in it and drop it over the side to find out your depth? Old school.

burnz's picture

Posts: 152

Date Joined: 19/02/15

All sounds too technical for

Tue, 2015-03-03 20:26

All sounds too technical for most cray fishermen lol. Deeper water more floats and rope.

 

Why dont you get a rope with a big weight on the end and tie knots in it and drop it over the side to find out your depth? Old school.

carnarvonite's picture

Posts: 8622

Date Joined: 24/07/07

Arm span

Tue, 2015-03-03 21:32

As Burnzy says, drop a weigh over the side and count how many full arm spans you do when pulling it up. If you are approx. 5foot 11 or 6 foot each span fill be around you height---6 foot or one fathom, that gives you something to work with,
Stick some fresh fat / dripping on the weight an take note of what is stuck to it when you get it back on board, that's how we found the difference between sandy and hard bottom before sounders became cheap enough for everyday use

Auslobster's picture

Posts: 1901

Date Joined: 03/05/08

Don't go by cray floats...

Tue, 2015-03-03 22:02

...my first boss out of Jurien ran eight, my second boss out of Two Rocks ran only four, when working 50 fathoms plus...although two of the floats were the larger "meds" type. 

timboon's picture

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Date Joined: 14/11/10

 NO

Tue, 2015-03-03 22:30

 NO

ranmar850's picture

Posts: 2702

Date Joined: 12/08/12

Huge variety, really,

Wed, 2015-03-04 08:21

Huge variety, really, speaking from long experience--then you will get blokes who have been out over the edge and come and drop them in forty fathoms with 6 floats and a med--meds have equivilant buoyancy of 2 1/2 8'' floats..You'd be better off getting a cheap sounder.

tangles's picture

Posts: 1367

Date Joined: 17/12/06

yep

Wed, 2015-03-04 11:08

 good buschettis used to do that. Come into the shallows from big bank with frikkn xmas tree strings and 40fthm of rope on surface!!

Usually each float will be 1 to1.5fthm gap but as the industry every boat runs different setups.

Havn just come back from a day trip out off edge my cousins skipper was using 9 floats n a med on back then youd go past another set of gear that only used 4 floats and a big fender float. Works a treat but whenin doubt just add more rope!!I