Pullers or Not?
Had an interesting experience today. With the weather being ok we decided to go and re-bait the pots with the brother in law fish. Have left them since Christmas as the motivation was low after stocking up and supplying the relatives with their very expensive Christmas lunch.
We have our pots in deep and to this day I don’t think we have been pulled as getting 40kg up from 30 odd metres is a big ask without a winch. They seem to be always where you left them.
Anyway, we turned up at our spot and started setting up our winch, matting, etc, etc. Whilst we were doing this another boat turned up with 4 young guys on it and they were “hovering” around our pot. We headed over there as they were setting up to pull it. WTF, I told them that it was my pot they were about to pull. “No mate, it is mine”. Can you read, my numbers are on it and it has characteristic ropes and knots? My other pot is just over there and these are the marks on my plotter! After another insistence it was his pot I think it finally clicked that it was mine and the apologies started to flow. The excuse was that my float and rope pattern (pink colour) was the same as his, and the pattern of set of the two pots was how he did it as well. I watched them head out further to pots that I knew were out there, although it was probably another mile+ out.
Now I am a fairly trusting person and always play by the rules so I put it down to an honest mistake. Why would he try to pull a pot when I was there? He turned up after me and saw I was there but still was setting up to pull it? But, with current GPS technology it is difficult to miss your pots by a mile or more?
I don’t know, but it was a good thing that I was there as the pot had legal crays in it. Benefit of the doubt but a little bit suspect I reckon.
Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.
uncle
Posts: 9350
Date Joined: 10/02/07
think we need to give him the benefit of doubt
don't want to go early, seems a few have lately
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
dodgy
Posts: 4563
Date Joined: 01/02/10
Pretty keen to hang around
Pretty keen to hang around if he knew they weren't his pots. Pretty hard out out there if the share farmers have to fight over the pots
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
D_d_001
Posts: 1522
Date Joined: 09/03/13
It is strange that he went to
It is strange that he went to pull a pot with another boat around if he knew it wasn't his but .....personally there is no way that I could mistake pots to be mine a NM away from my own.
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
benefit of the doubt this
benefit of the doubt this time I reckon. honest mistake. someone couldn't be so brazen to pull another's pots when someone else is so close, coukd they????
Fish! HARD!
out wide
Posts: 1535
Date Joined: 30/12/08
Brazen thief
arse wipe IMO..just does not give a toss type. No one can mistake his pot a mile off course.
Bout time
Posts: 47
Date Joined: 05/07/12
still would of taken his boat
still would of taken his boat rego incase he tried it again imo
hezzy
Posts: 1519
Date Joined: 27/11/09
mick , you say he was
mick , you say he was hovering around the pot ??
couple of things come to mind ,assuming your out off the coast a bit ?? yeh ? without jumping on the guy straight up ..but
if your pots are out deeper I would assume you have them gps marked ??yes ?? so you would assume this guy would have his also marked ??
so why would he hover around yours ??then go in to pull them ?
if he thought they where his it makes sense to just go straight on up to them to me
if his where another nm out how did he get it wrong on the gps so far off the mark ? of his own ?
the only way you would be sure is if you had of gone out to ''his pots'' and checked his gear id and floats etc ?? see if they matched your as he said ? seems you did not do that mick ??
lots of possibilitys , but it happens , he may have known your pots where there and decided to check /hang back , see if you where the owner or just setting up to fish only , then he moved in ? ..whats the % of him being at your pots to rat them at the same time as the owner is ?? pretty slim if your offshore most days ..would a pot puller take that risk?? and if you where the owner ??what could you do if he told you his story ??believe it or have doubts?? with 4 onboard your not in the hunt are you ?? maybe not though ?
you would only know if you had of checked out his gear further out to see if his story was straight
we had 2 pots checked by someone this week , they where both about 70 metres off the gps mark ,further out to sea in a n/westerly direction , they must have drifted on the south easterly before dropping them back on flat bottom , both where empty .... not much you can do
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Mick C
Posts: 605
Date Joined: 26/12/13
Hezzy
Hezzy,
Hovering means turning up after us and setting up to pull the pot. GPS marked. Don't know about him but perhaps he didn't have a plotter? Still, a NM is a big miss. I didn't go out and check what his pots looked like so you are right, I guess I will never know.
Yes, why would you set up to pull a pot with a boat close by setting up a winch? Perhaps I'm wrong but I will call it as an honest mistake. Checked the pots fairly late today and they hadn't moved and had crays in them.
Appreciate your comments and sorry to hear about your pulling experience.
Cheers.
Mick
Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.