Crab Thievery My Thoughts --> Stay Close

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

Oh man there goes that idea. But my trap has the cotton string that is supposed to deteriorate after a length of time to let out crabs through a bigger hole. Wouldn’t having a zip tie be the same as a padlock because it wouldn’t deteriorate either?

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

You can lock it up and booby trap the doors against thieves but as long as you have the cotton opening as dfg prescribed you are good to go!

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

And the thieves wouldn’t be able to cut the cotton string and get in?

Watch out for a tall dude on a paddle board in board shorts!!! Said he’s buddy sent him out to check his pots “yellow bouy” mines purple/ magenta I told them to fr I told him no worries...

I had just put it there...

After removing  Fn jumbo pic later I’m OTW still

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

And the thieves wouldn’t be able to cut the cotton string and get in?

My response was regarding locking the main compartment question.
Some crab pots are 95 percent netting so the thieves could cut through the pot wherever they wanted regardless of where the cotton in located.

What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

And the thieves wouldn’t be able to cut the cotton string and get in?

My response was regarding locking the main compartment question.
Some crab pots are 95 percent netting so the thieves could cut through the pot wherever they wanted regardless of where the cotton in located.

Well I have a Folding Danielson crab pot but I guess if they really wanted to get in they could. I mean a bolt cutters could really get into anything. There really is no way to stop thieves from stealing you pots. Unless you have any depth alarm on it. Or a buoyless crab pot that can bring up your crab pots from the seabed. 

Had one of my pots get opened this weekend, emptied out and dropped back empty. Saw the boat there by my gear, just did t get there in time, my gear was the only in the area. Shitty but still ended up with a limit. At least they coulda closed it back up it was still full of bait.

That's just wrong.  Bad enough we have to worry about getting ripped off on dry land, shouldn't have to deal with it on the water.  Glad you did well despite it.

Had one of my pots get opened this weekend, emptied out and dropped back empty. Saw the boat there by my gear, just did t get there in time, my gear was the only in the area. Shitty but still ended up with a limit. At least they coulda closed it back up it was still full of bait.

My buddy and I left our pots to soak on Saturday night.  On our way out Sunday morning, off in the distance, we saw a group of three boats floating around what looked to be our pots.  As we b-lined to toward our pots, the boats took off.  3 of the 4 pots were empty and the Promar pots looked off kilter.  The remaining pot had shorts.  I'm not saying we were raided but it sure felt like it. 

We picked up and dropped in another spot for an overnight soak.  We put small zip-ties on the four sides of each pot as indicators of poaching.  Came back Monday and the zip-ties were intact.  We also had some crab in the traps as well.  The interesting thing was that my buddy's new Promar pots' tolerances were off, and had we not zip-tied the pot, one of the walls would have opened.  That could have been a reason why the pots were empty and looked strange the day before.  My older Danielson pots were still tight.  While I'd like to blame poachers for our sparse catch, the zip-ties helped show me that my marks sucked.   

Had one of my pots get opened this weekend, emptied out and dropped back empty. Saw the boat there by my gear, just did t get there in time, my gear was the only in the area. Shitty but still ended up with a limit. At least they coulda closed it back up it was still full of bait.

My buddy and I left our pots to soak on Saturday night.  On our way out Sunday morning, off in the distance, we saw a group of three boats floating around what looked to be our pots.  As we b-lined to toward our pots, the boats took off.  3 of the 4 pots were empty and the Promar pots looked off kilter.  The remaining pot had shorts.  I'm not saying we were raided but it sure felt like it. 

We picked up and dropped in another spot for an overnight soak.  We put small zip-ties on the four sides of each pot as indicators of poaching.  Came back Monday and the zip-ties were intact.  We also had some crab in the traps as well.  The interesting thing was that my buddy's new Promar pots' tolerances were off, and had we not zip-tied the pot, one of the walls would have opened.  That could have been a reason why the pots were empty and looked strange the day before.  My older Danielson pots were still tight.  While I'd like to blame poachers for our sparse catch, the zip-ties helped show me that my marks sucked.   

Mark, thanks for this. It shows just how important it is to try to stay open minded.

I really dislike crabbing at HMB because I never do very well there. Even though I’ve wondered about poachers, I think that the real problem is the usual stuff that separates the fishermen who come home with a great catch vs. those who get skunked: Luck, location, presentation, bait/lure. I say this because I’ve gone out there with my good buddy Guihan Hunter, and he routinely limits, often with jumbos and I end up putting my traps pretty close to his. We drop them at the same spot at the same time and he scores, but I don’t [emoji24][emoji24]. Yes, we hang out in the vicinity and are pretty sure we haven’t been poached, so mine is the sad story of bad luck and not the best skill.

On the other hand, I have had traps (Danielsons with trap doors) at HMB come up with no bait and no crabs after soaks of a few hours [emoji848]


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What can adding a padlock to the trap help? Or do they just trash/move the trap? Since I have never experience dropping a pot out in the open before.

Traps are required to open via degrading cotton string. A padlock would defeat that purpose and put you in violation.

I believe that this is an incorrect statement. You could lock the main opening and still have the rotten cotton on a separate opening.

And the thieves wouldn’t be able to cut the cotton string and get in?

My response was regarding locking the main compartment question.
Some crab pots are 95 percent netting so the thieves could cut through the pot wherever they wanted regardless of where the cotton in located.

Well I have a Folding Danielson crab pot but I guess if they really wanted to get in they could. I mean a bolt cutters could really get into anything. There really is no way to stop thieves from stealing you pots. Unless you have any depth alarm on it. Or a buoyless crab pot that can bring up your crab pots from the seabed.

Maybe tie wraps are the ticket. Because it's easier for the thieves to cut a couple of tie wraps to the main opening than to cut out a new hole in your traps. This way you would know for sure that you were raided if your tie wraps were gone.
Instead of wondering if you did or not. Just make sure to bring plenty of tie wraps and bring back the used ones to shore. 

Just came back from crabbing HMB.
Had the discussion about pots getting raided with my friend the night before. He didn't seem too concerned.
We had 5 pots out on an overnight soak 8 miles from HMB about 5 miles out.
First pot was 150 yds off the mark. Three crabs and the salmon head and wire tie were missing.
Second pot had 15 crabs.
Third pot was a bit off mark, 5 crabs.
The other two were on spot and loaded.
I think pot #1 and #3 got raided.
A the zip tie is an excellent idea to at least give you an idea if you were ripped off or not.
Fishing was glacially slow. I did manage a 9.5 lb ling though.
We ended up with 30 jumbos for 3 of us. Had to throw back well over a dozen.