Cray pot thieves
Submitted by markj on Mon, 2009-12-14 06:19
After having both my pots stolen while on holiday in Kalbarri last xmas, bought a couple of nice new jarrah ones with metal bases for this year. Put them out back of Garden Island, got 2 crays last weekend, went out saturday to find one pot about 100m from where I put it and the other one stolen again (looked around for half and hour and was flat and clear enough to do a visual on the patch it was dropped on). Lot of effort, fuel and expense for 2 crayfish - looks like I'll be buying my crays for xmas this year. Thieving scumbags make me sick!!
Paul G
Posts: 5215
Date Joined: 12/12/07
Yes thats a common problem
Yes thats a common problem for the recs ,plenty of pots are taken , some people have no morals.
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till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
I had two pots stolen last
I had two pots stolen last year, back of GI. I gave up potting after that.
Paul G
Posts: 5215
Date Joined: 12/12/07
I think its weekenders
I think its weekenders heading to rotto most times ,grab a pot to get a feed over there then just leave them behind .know of a few peoples pots turning up out there.
Active Gyp-Rok solutions ,Residential and commercial ceilings and walls
Big Kev
Posts: 441
Date Joined: 10/06/06
Pots Pinched
Went to check out a beach south of Bunno the other day and was chatting to a local diver he told me not to put my pots in untill after the festive season as pots go walkabout by blowin's. I'll be taking his advice.
Kev
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Whats the fine for touching
Whats the fine for touching someone elses pots?
Apparently its $2000 for not having a release weight on your boat or Kayak? That seems a little out of balance me thinks?
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
Paully
Posts: 3246
Date Joined: 15/08/09
Our Pots in Gero
were pulled this morning and then dropped elsewhere, all the bait eaten and there was lots of it, 2 cackas left in 4 pots. Would love to catch the F#$&%#@ doing it.
HuggyB
Posts: 2515
Date Joined: 03/08/08
precisely
why I dont bother anymore. I've had 3 pots taken in 2 seasons - enough was enough.
The Terrorist - coming to a fishing spot near you.........
Stev0
Posts: 113
Date Joined: 19/12/07
You will also find that
You will also find that sometimes the pots aren't actually stolen but the ropes are chopped by props and sometimes dragged some distance. We usually mark our pots on the gps if they are in new areas and have on times been able to find them with their ropes ripped out. We used to on average lose 4 pots each season at Rotto but in the last 4-5 years we have had a pretty good run which i think is due to a few people getting charged.
hezzy
Posts: 1534
Date Joined: 27/11/09
cray pot thieves
in all the years iv potted for crays ........it has been a rare event to have the ropes run over and chopped of by a boat prop ............
having just had 1 placcy pot stolen from south of bunners about 2weeks ago at the huts it was certainly a human helper that thumped it ..........trouble with placcy pots is theya re hard to mark your ID into ............it can be doen with ahot screwdriver and brand your ID into the soft placcy .......
i normally use full steel base pro slat pots that i rebuild myself , over many years i found the best way to stop pot thieves was to get a marker pen ......and carefully mark the top jarrah frame on both ends of my pots with my gear ID .then carefully get agrinder with a cutting disc in it and burn /cut the numbers deep into the frame ...............this will last the life of the pot and is clearly identifiable if it gets stolen ...................peeps may pull em on ya and rat your crays ..........but they will think long and hard about actually stealing the pot ...........pretty hard to explain someone elses gear id on your pot ......hard to return to the ramp with a pot like this too ...you never know when the owner might be lurking around there , or fisheries ,,,,,.you can also report it to the local fisheries office ...when they do there random pot checks for legalitys etc,,,ask them to keep your pot id handy ...........you never know how often this will turn up in a random check ....
since iv been doing this to my slat pots over the years i rarely lose one
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18333
Date Joined: 11/03/08
one way around this prob ,
one way around this prob , if you dive as well just drop your pots without a rope on and mark on the gps. then you just dive down tie a rope on and haul them up. i have seen this done before and can save some dollars and headaches .people must get sick of trying to find their pots out there when they have been moved or stolen. some people will do anything to get a feed
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
wopjrb
Posts: 1407
Date Joined: 05/03/09
anchor over night next to ya pots mate
if i was gonna drop pots in i'd stay out and watch em then pull em once the suns up - love to catch someone red handed ......" oy ....wat r doin mate thats my cray pot ..............lol"
roberta
Posts: 2773
Date Joined: 08/07/08
Old fart used
to put his pots out the back of GI, but after numerous pots being stolen he just didn't do it anymore. We only put pots in at Leeman and a good 5 kilometres south and out, far enough for tinnie raiders (locals the worst) as we have found too close to land the tinnie raiders will be watching and when you get your crays and re-bait they then go out after lunch and get all your nice bait, so next morning you pull your pots and all you've got are a couple of kackers or empty.
Have had problems with the pros but they were all sorted by fisheries, one pro in particular moved a friends 4 pots, as they wanted to put there pro pots in, took our friends about 30 minutes to eventally find their pots, dumped on sand, surpose one thing the pros didn't cut their floats and apparently they (the pros) had their number taken but haven't heard what happened. Think they can be fined quite heavily, but not sure.
Think anybody that steals or raids anybody pots are all lower than a snakes belly.
Ginger Tablets Rock
fishcrazy
Posts: 1235
Date Joined: 27/01/07
pros pulling rec pots
a mate of mine went to pull his pots friday when he got to where they were there was a pro there pulling them, when my mate said what are u doin was told to fuck off its their patch, he got their details and were passed on assholes
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
One of my pots is within
One of my pots is within about 30-40m of the pro's. Hope this does not happen to mine.
I will know too, as there is always crays in the pots in this location.
PJAY
Posts: 1005
Date Joined: 12/05/09
back of garden island seems
back of garden island seems to be the place not to put your pots....i had three knocked off last season as well?
The Kimberley....perfect one day and more perfect the next!!!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18333
Date Joined: 11/03/08
doesnt matte weather their
doesnt matte weather their pros or recs , its still theft or would you call it poaching
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
roscopico
Posts: 31
Date Joined: 22/06/09
09-12-14 16:14new one way
one way around this prob , if you dive as well just drop your pots without a rope on and mark on the gps. then you just dive down tie a rope on and haul them up. i have seen this done before and can save some dollars and headaches .people must get sick of trying to find their pots out there when they have been moved or stolen. some people will do anything to get a feed
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
My brother in law went to
My brother in law went to pull his pots one morning out from Golden Bay and as he got there, the diver who raided his pots was just leaving. Few well placed house bricks he had in the boat found there mark when he dropped them down causing the diver to surface. Then the accusations started and the diver swam off. Never had many issues after that.
Cheers
Dale
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
Cammos
Posts: 606
Date Joined: 30/06/09
Certain?
He would want to be very bloody sure he was in the pot. Pot pullers have to realise that they drop pots right in or around the ledges that divers hit. It is rare to dive for crays and not come across a pot. I am sure there are some divers doing the wrong thing, but throwing bricks at them could kill them! Is a cray worth it?
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
You do see the occasional
You do see the occasional tangled pot, probably best to avoid them knowing that people toss bricks at you if you're near them.
skrewloose
Posts: 335
Date Joined: 27/08/09
i was on a pro boat for the
i was on a pro boat for the last two years and we never took any notice of ammie pots most of the recs are just parenoied or cant tie proper knots we pulled bout 5 ropes last season that were just floating around the five .pros dont want to risk their licence for a extra 2 or 3 crays
lox ambassador
flagpole
Posts: 285
Date Joined: 14/05/09
happened to me all the time
happened to me all the time last year off gero. so i dive for them now much easier. once the catch rates die down thats when it always happens. you should see the numbers of floats off town they are everywhere.
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
i find
I find by putting treble hooks inbedded in my rope, my pots dont get touched any more!
jersey
Posts: 393
Date Joined: 12/06/08
Roscopico
Is right,the fisheries state that all pots must have the licensed owner details clearly marked,the reason they do not allow pots with no markers is that they can check the escape gap is right I do not blam recreatiopnal pot fisherman getting pissed off but I think the advise about dropping pots with no rego float is flawed.jersey
Jody
Posts: 1578
Date Joined: 19/04/07
Wade is onto it
lol
Wish I'd thought of it
Lost 5 pots over 2 years, and had lots moved (read emptied) Can't be asked anymore.
TWiZTED
carnarvonite
Posts: 8707
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Blame
I'm not sticking up for the pros but a lot of the tme when someone claims he has had his pots pulled because it came up empty and with no bait in it that they cannot reason that the crays can find their way out.Once the bait supply runs out and once one cray gets out the others will follow.Another bit is that they are such good fishermen that its impossible for them to bring up an empty pot.
Sure some pot pulling does and will happen but 99 times out of a hundred its by another amateur,the penalty for pot pulling for a pro was $5000 per pot and the loss of one pot off their licence taken immediately ,with them now at an all time low price of something like $12,000 each its a stiff lesson to learn.
For years I had my wife and my pots in at Two Rocks.One year we lost 3 of the 4 pots the day before the season even started[we were allowed to soak them before the season started then]and another 4 during the rest of the season,all you can do is shrug your shoulders and make some more.There was a german chap around that time who had a reputation of pot pulling who had his car burnt in the carpark after being see through a telescope poaching someone elses pot.
gregk
Posts: 169
Date Joined: 03/02/09
pro pots
i started the season of before the pros out from pt peron i was on sum good legdes when the pros started they bombed the hell out of it with the same colour floats i thought that my pots would gone but it was all good same last year they gave plenty of room i would see them out there and not get in there way when they came near i just gave them some space all good
Cammos
Posts: 606
Date Joined: 30/06/09
Last Season
Last year I had pots out, but after pullng 4 pots 12 times over 4 weeks, with one undersize to show for it I decided I was crap at it, and have it away. Never occured to me that someone was sniping me. I put them back in later on and had some better luck.
King-Prawn
Posts: 56
Date Joined: 27/05/09
North Mole
Had two knocked off from North Mole last week. Got 9 crays in one pot the week before they were stolen. Spewin
mikw
Posts: 60
Date Joined: 01/02/09
some cheeky fu@#er carved
some cheeky fu@#er carved there initials in one of our baitlids, if i catch this mystery person that goes by the the initials BB, they may find they will be raplacing there boat windscreen
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
Thats
Thats taking it to a new level Mick...might have to do an over nighter out there to catch them. How you been going, getting a few. Have you got any fishing charters coming up?
mikw
Posts: 60
Date Joined: 01/02/09
yeh, getting a good feed of
yeh, getting a good feed of crays. if the pots dont produce we jump in and fill the quota diving. seen a few dhuies getting around diving as well so looking forward to getting out there and catching a couple. first fish charter is saturday, wheather looks great, and we have a few places avaliable if anyone is interested.
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
Back out
Spewing wont beable to make it for that date. But at the end of Jan, i will organise a fishwrecked trip out with you guys.
wogboy1963
Posts: 67
Date Joined: 26/02/08
Ink them Out
Was told by a regular potter that they use a blue ink in a small ballon which breaks when going through a whinch or pulled over a side of boat. They can not deny it when theres f##king blue paint all over their boat and their hands, clothes ect. Then its on for young and old.......sorts them out real quick. Hope you find the other pot!