doran crab pot thefts

That sucks Cam WTF! 

If you wanna have fun with them, find old heavy objects, tie them to milk jugs and drop them....

let them waste time pulling of crap!!!!

Never had my traps stolen but I have pulled my pots after a full nights soak and found 1 full of crab and the other only a few small dung and a couple beers. They took my crab and left me a couple cold ones. Not a real far trade  but better than loosing my pots. Never know it might work in reverse, leave a note, take the beer and leave the crab.

sounds like we need night goggles, paint balls, I know you want chain guns, but people sue. Lay in wait around the buoys, just out of light reach, and then light them up! Sounds like a cool Friday night to me! Who is in? Glen, I like your idea too, like a few old tire rims. Awesome.

Too bad we couldn't get someone with a rebreather to sit on the bottom and wait.
I bet at least one of the culprits would fall out of the boat by having the begeezus scared out of him.
My guess would be no PFD too. Night time, clandestine operation, no PFD. Win, win, win situation.

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I was thinking enviros or Peta as well. And wondering why someone dosent report to the game warden let them set up the sting. They love catching people who try to be legal. I'm sure this would be fun for them. I like the night vision thing but could it be a power boater. I'd use a pellet gun myself.

For the past alternate days, I'd been leaving my traps at hmb. One day last week two of my traps were open and luckily one legal dungeness hanging on the net, last Wednesday I went back and same thing happen, this time one trap open and the other one lost the bait cage. Hopefully I am coming back tomorrow to check it again if weather permits. I am hoping my traps still there. Randy

Go out there with some dive gear and just tie every other buoy off to the bottom... Bastards. Not much lower than a thief. 

Too bad we couldn't get someone with a rebreather to sit on the bottom and wait.
I bet at least one of the culprits would fall out of the boat by having the begeezus scared out of him.
My guess would be no PFD too. Night time, clandestine operation, no PFD. Win, win, win situation.

Or just tied the pin of granade on the bouy of your pot and see what happened when they pulled it!!!!  .



Kiel

Maybe someone can confirm, I didn't see it in the regs., but I was warned at Doran once by someone that zip tying or otherwise making a trap prone to self-baiting was illegal and up to the call of the warden. I believed it since my door had decomposable twine on the hinge, but maybe it's just a merit thing?

I got 3 pots stolen last year and a couple stolen almost every year at Doran, when I was there last time I noticed at the ramp a boat with about 12 traps and most of them with different color and style buoys , I am not saying they stole them but it looked suspicious.
Sometimes if the line is floating a long way boaters will cut the line to get back at the people that don't weight their lines too

Yeah, Kiet/FriedBluegill got one of my promars and one of Kiel's stolen on an overnight soak.    Someone may have been pulling my rings at night, since a couple of times I pulled them one or two the bridals had come undone on a couple of them. I think the farther out you set them, the more likely this is to happen to them...unfortunatly.

At half moon bay last year I saw three guys in a tin motor boat start pulling my pot.  I was keeping an eye on it while jigging for rockfish from about 50 yards away.  They had been looking at me right before and I had waved at them.
  I tried to pedal over but they saw me, dropped the pot before they even got it up and motored off in the other direction.  I couldn't see the numbers on their boat and found the whole situation to be very frustrating.
  My buoy had the extra rope  taped to the buoy with red duct tape. So no way they thought it was theirs.  Looking back I realized they had been going buoy to buoy to for the last hour or so. 
  The only thing I can think of to do differently if it happens again, is to get a picture of the guys.  Having a rifle would be more satisfying but I don't think the authorities would approve.

This kind of behavior is rampant in the Puget Sound as well, maybe even worse than here.  Several techniques they employ there are time release buoys, or setting pots at the low tide with just enough rope on small buoys that they submerge, then come back the next low tide.  I got taken for 1 pot while I was at Lawsons on Monday, keep any eye on your stuff guys!