Sonar buoys for prawn traps

[Norman N]

Sonar reflector made by Ecobuoy. Attach 6 ft above your crab or prawn traps and as you lower your equipment to the seabed the Ecobuoy floats 6 ft above and is picked up as a large fish on your fish finder. Only 9” in diameter. You will know exactly where your traps are on the sea floor! I have 6 sonar buoys at $25 each. Text or call me at 604-329-2736.

 

[Captain PartyMarty]

Pretty Sure this is not legal in BC......but I wish it was

 

[Rockfish]

Don't know if they are legal in BC waters or not but I can see a rational for them not being legal. From reports like the annual DFO pulling of traps in the Vancouver area, there are apparently unlawful strings of traps being used and hidden by not having floats. They simply mark drop locations on GPS chart plotters and go drag for them at night. This device would be great for the commercial level poachers to fine tune locations and zero in on their hidden trap strings when they come to pull them. I can see them having ligitimate uses but they could also be useful for less ligitimate applications.

 

[cpony]

Another down side is trolling along and snagging someone's traps. I would not be a happy camper. Some of my fishy holes are beside prawn spots.

 

[Norman N]

The purpose of the ecobuoy is not to be used as a ghost trap... the set up is just like any traditional trap set up except you have a 6’ rope attaching the trap to the sonar buoy. This way you get to see where your trap lands in the depths at the desired contour.

 

[kaelc]

The purpose of the ecobuoy is not to be used as a ghost trap... the set up is just like any traditional trap set up except you have a 6’ rope attaching the trap to the sonar buoy. This way you get to see where your trap lands in the depths at the desired contour.

Interesting. If prawning wasn't such a madhouse for me I'd try it. Be nice to be super precise with our drops, or know how bad we are off. Usually, I'm in such a hurry to get 8 traps down, 4 weights and the bouys, while keeping the kids, safe I wouldn't want extra stuff attached.

 

[Whole in the Water]

The purpose of the ecobuoy is not to be used as a ghost trap... the set up is just like any traditional trap set up except you have a 6’ rope attaching the trap to the sonar buoy. This way you get to see where your trap lands in the depths at the desired contour.

May not be the purpose from your point of view, but you can see how poachers could use this to their advantage to illegally catch prawns. Not worth it in my opinion.

 

[Rockfish]

I was thinking it could be a bigger issue with ghost crab trap strings in places like Boundry Bay. I also don't think the commecial level poachers would ever pay $25.00 for a refector float but they may acquire them the same way I suspect they acqure the traps for their poaching operation unmarked ghost crab trap strings - pull and steal them.

Some years back I had a bad experience with a ligitimate commercial crab fisher short floating their crab trab string in Sooke Bay and losing big dollars in rigger balls and fishing gear when I ran into their line on a float that was about five feet underwater ar high tide. I suspect it was a simple mistake on their part, but I have also heard that sometimes it could be done to avoid a big current moving a lot of logs and large kelp islands running into their float, if it was on the surface. If there is a float on the surface we can at least see it and try to avoid it when salmon fishing but if you are bottom bouncing your salmon gear and hit a 5 foot short float off the botton and there is no surface float to warn you???

 

[easydoesit]

Another down side is trolling along and snagging someone's traps. I would not be a happy camper. Some of my fishy holes are beside prawn spots.

Happened to me while fishing sockeye gear. Lost a lot of downrigger gear and tackle.

 

[Buckethead905]

Another down side is trolling along and snagging someone's traps. I would not be a happy camper. Some of my fishy holes are beside prawn spots.

It’s your responsibility to recognize and avoid buoys/traps that are in the water fishing. The chances of catching a little sonar buoy 6 feet off the bottom is about zero. If you were to hook up on the sonar buoy you would have hooked up on the line of the trap going to the surface anyways.