Prawn Trap Albert head

[Mongoose]

Hey, on Saturday night (6:15pm) i set out my prawn trap 1/4 mile off albert head in 225 feet of water. it was my fisrt time prawning ever and today i came back and it was gone[V] look about 1.5 miles away where i dropped it but nothing, it had a 10lb cannon ball and 2 yellow crab floats and another small white float. i looked long and hard but my little gas tank was running out so had to head back. have you seen it? did someone take it???. im going to fill up the boat and run out where it could be at 6:15 today. help

 

[bankers hours]

Just an idea... As there is a lot of current out there... you should check on a slack tide. If the current gets strong enough, the floats can go under. Once they lose the boyancy battle... they can go down quite far. I learned this lesson when I put a trap out while fishing in Haro strait. I thought it drifted away...I gave up looking for it and continued fishing. A few hours later it popped back up. The 2 floats were all shriveled up from the pressure of going deep under water. There were no prawns!

 

[Gone Fishn]

Did you have plenty of line???? As bankers said those floats can quite often get dragged under... and you def. cant go too big on floats or have too much line!!!

 

[scottyboy]

big floats always unless calm waters with little current

 

[Mongoose]

well in total i had 3 floats, a big crab float, BIGGER crab float and 3 feet away was a small white float so it would look like a commerical trap.i was in 225 feet of water and i had 300' of line. what time(s) is slack tide?

 

[Time]

Tides are here.
Click on locality.
http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/cgi-bi...ype=showZone&language=english&region=1&zone=9

 

[Mongoose]

cool thanks, ill fill up the boat and head out there at around 8ish, hopefully i find it and with some prawns in it

 

[orion91]

Let us Know

 

[knucklebuster]

quote:Originally posted by Concerned Angler

Hummm-- dont know what happened to your trap-- but heres the rest of the story

A week or so ago, I was running into Comox harbour -- the area has been effectively stripped of crabs by the commercials in the last three years, but a few are still available, so you can expect bouys and lines.

I saw a buoy ahead of me so I steered approx 100ft away from it In the chop I didnt notice that I was running directly into some line just barely under the surface. Wham! Right into a whole mess of poly --it was attached to the float 100ft away!!! No damn line weight attached. The idiot who set his trap in 125ft of water had approx 300ft of line attached to it. He had feebly bundled it up and let it float away from the float.


Well- I was dead in the water-- I had to chug into Comox on the kicker. I pulled all the line I could into the boat and found that I had cut the trap off.

Well- I am now the owner of a new buoy and a whole bunch of line in pieces of up to 170ft. The owner is NOT getting anything back--

Its the most the idiot can expect-- but I am sure he is whining about someone stealing his trap-- tough!

Was there a name and # on the float? I would call the guy from a pay phone just to tell him what a dick he is.

 

[scottyboy]

hopefully your motor is ok

 

[Mongoose]

still havnt found my trap, but ill take some good binoculars and head out at slack tide (8 pm ) today. hopefully the winds dont pick up. i think my trap is heading out to sooke

 

[Tsquared]

If i see it from my deck by Witte's, I'll give you a buzz!
T2

 

[Mongoose]

thanks,i would be out there right looking for it now but the wind is back, its a new trap, 300' of line, has 2 bait cups with lots of holes drilled into it, one 10lb cannon ball in it, and a 2 yellow crab floats one bigger then the other and one small white float. if anyone is fishing out around albert head or where my trap could be keep your eye out for it. much appreciated its probaly 1/2 past albert, i dont know if my boat can get out there (limited on gas) im launching from the James bay boat ramp.

 

[Mongoose]

how far do you think a trap could drift from albert head with 10lbs of led in it in 3 days? mile maybe 2??

 

[orion91]

Well the first time when i put mine in the water it drifted away but i found it the next day about 1.5 miles away and that was on the sunshine coast.

 

[Rob Warren]

It depends if it stayed on the bottom or fell off a ledge into deeper water. If it went out into deeper water it would drift with the tide. I think the general flow there is out to the pacific.. Well if it did go out and into the tide I think it moves up the coast at about 2-3 knots an hour. The traps would create a bit of drag so they might move at 1/2 speed of the tide? In 48 hours in theory they could be 75-150 miles away or so. Sry about ur luck.

 

[bankers hours]

How big our those floats you had on there.... With a 10 pound cannon ball in there....it may not be floating.

 

[Rob Warren]

Yah good point, It would also depend if your floats could acually hold the weight of it all. I acually found two of my missing prawn trap lines two different times.
The first time I was fishing about 5 miles from where I set them down. the water depth was about 800 + feet and I saw an orange bouy out there. I thought to myself what fool would set out here so I trolled close by it and I noticed it kinda looked like mine!!! I pulled up my trolling gear and went for a look and sure enough it had my name number and whatnot! I couldn't believe my luck/misfortune I wondered how the heck did it get over here floating around. low and behold it even had about 5 pounds of prawns in the two traps. heh
The second time I was fishing them at the same area as before I went out to check them and 1 of them was completely gone. After some swearing and feet stomping I went in and cast blame to someone stealing the trap. Much to my dismay I got a call from a guy in Prince Rupert two days later he said that they pulled a log boom from Nanaimo up there and when they got there they found my bouy stuck to it and to their surprise kept pulling the rope and my traps where still on it. He said he has never before seem the traps make that trip he says that usually the rope breaks and all that is left is the bouy. btw thanks for the prawns he said. lol turns out he lives in Nanaimo too so he brought the traps back home with him so I went over to his place and picked them up. Thank goodness I don't use that cheap yellow rope, I use longline rope it is usually $100 or more worth of gear you got out there so don't go cheap on your rope.

 

[Mongoose]

well, when the wind dies down ill be looking for it. I do have enough floats to float the trap +line + prawns if any. i think i should be launching my boat at pedder bay looking for it lol, but ill check albert head at slack tide. then???? ill just wait for a call from like china or some where else. should of dropped it some where else

 

[SSfisher]

A friend of mine went for a trip around vancouver island a week or so ago, came back with his boat full of crab and prawn and longline floats. Many from out of country. He said there were more than he could fit on his 30 something foot troller. Just thought it was kinda funny how they all seemed to end up on remote beaches off the west coast.