Crabbing Tips - Lessons learned

During the Crabfest 2013, I happen to lose 2 of the Promar Round Collapsible Traps; initially I thought as most would, that my pots have been taken by some would-be theives. But after getting a phone call today, it re-newed my faith on the good-will of men.

My pot was found by a gentlemen while he was surfing on the opposite side of the bay; maybe a mile or so from where I initially set the pot. He happen to notice the bouy and line floating in the surf and drag it on to shore. He and his buddy found a couple more pots besides mine too.

Lesson for me was:

a. know the swell and current conditions for the area I am fishing; and do not under estimate its power.

b. Weigh you pots down with adequate amounts to keep it from 'walking' or 'rolling'. Even though I used very light rope and very little bouy floatation (thinking that there was no way the top swell would impact the trap; and that the bouy would merely duck-dive in the swell); I under-estimated the natural current of the ocean, in addition to the outgoing flow from the harbor.

c. Label your gear! I learned early in my crabbing years that there was a potential for lossing gear and however unlikely, there maybe a chance to get it back. John Lyons (from CSFC) gave turorials when i first got started and showed us how he sets up his traps, including labeling bouys and traps. You can order plastic tags with your name, number and CF# from Top-Me Products (information listed below) and ziptie them to your traps; I believe it was $15 for 100 tags. That $15 dollars just paid off by saving my $60 trap....

TOP-ME Products
5 Meadow Rd
Topsham, ME 04086-5747
Phone: (207) 729-6676

It might be difficult to see in the picture below, but its the little orange 1"x3" plastic tag on the cross bar.

Great tips Glen!  Glad you found your pots.

Rey

Thats great news Glen and thanks for the info.
I'll put that to use for sure.

Tim

a little restored faith that there might not be as many thieves out there as we think is good news! Thanks

But were there any crab in the traps? 

Glad you got your trap back and thanks for the tips Glen.

Thanks for the tip Glen!