Trap Theft & Vandalism

[PinchMe]

We have all heard the stories of buddies losing crab and prawn traps to theft or vandalism.
Well I have a few stories and a question going out to forum members.
I personally have two prawn traplines out in the Saanich Inlet, and my buddy has another one line running as well. A couple weeks ago, some unscrupulous cuss pulled his line and then proceeded to cut the line connecting the two traps. Must have had a change of heart, so decided to tie the lines together again. In the meantime the U.C.'s boat drifted into deeper water at which point the trapline was thrown carelessly back into the chuck. As luck, or misfortune, would have it my buddy happened along in his boat to check his trapline a short time after this incident. There was enough bouncy in his floats to carry the trapline, as he found it free drifting near his original location.
I have personally lost two crab traps off Oak Bay and Cadboro Bay to theft, one last week and one last Fall. I have weighted traps, and I'm careful not to put the traps down in heavy tidal/navigation channels, nor near another persons traps. Also, in June I lost a brand new prawn trapline to theft off Bamberton. Then, just this Saturday, some U.C. pulled my trapline near Brentwood Bay up approximately 40', cut the line, tied it and threw it out again.
Of course, assuming there had been catches in the traps with all these incidents, the traps had all been emptied first.
The thefts are exactly that, the U.C. obviously has no sense of community nor an intact conscience.
So, my question to forum members is this. What is the mentality of this U.C. who would pull, cut, re-tie the line and throw it all back again? My best guess is the analogy of a cat marking its territory by spraying. Maybe this U.C. is marking their prawing/crabbing territory; basically saying, "Back off buddy, I own this turf!"



Edited by - PinchMe on 07/04/2005 07:33:24

 

[yammy5]

I've done quite a bit of prawning in Saanich inlet too and had the exact same experience. I'm not sure why the UC cut's the line and re-ties it? Anyway as far as I know, it's a commercial fisherman that gets pissed off when the sporties get their traps too close to "his" trap line. He usually wraps the trap line around his back cleat and drags the traps into deep water where they sink or drift away. Interestingly, the inlet currents push almost all the traps to the middle of the mouth of Pat Bay. I found my missing traps their 3 times!! It was like a graveyard of traps there! I read the phone numbers off the other buoys and phoned about 10 guys from my cell to let them know where their missing traps were.

 

[Steely]

I have found Most times cut trap lines are from yours or the other guys traps floating and tangling up .
The guy pulls his traps and to help untangle, cuts the other guys line .
Most guys tangled with mine "ALL have too little weight to anchor them with a big tide or windy or tooo big a bouy I use 3-5 lb per trap ~~~~~~~~~~If they move the prawns will run out or not go in to the trap!!!

 

[PinchMe]

Yammy5; I'll check the mouth of the Saanich Inlet for my trapline... you never know.

Steely; I've got 3 lbs of weights on the traps plus the weight of the traps themselves, so hopefully I'm not drifting. But you make a good point about why the lines could have been cut.

Concerned Angler; It's just not practical for me to set and retrieve my traps the next morning, I'm usually out every couple of days. Although I can see how this would eliminate thefts.

Great input from all, thank you and happy angling (or trapping)

 

[bigchrome]

sorry to hear you guys get the same thing, I tried once to set at night and to pick up at first light, but someone still took them. my best advise is never to leave your trap keep them in site, as CA said. I just make a day of prawning and crabing or just fishing never both. If you dont mark your line markers then the RCMP marine boats will take your traps. So make sure you have your name and phone number.I put 4 traps to a line, each line is 240$ worth of traps and I have had two lines stolen. I can only say that if I ever catch a guy he better know how to swim.<img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle> now that I dont leave my traps I am able to save money and get a few extra to make the prawning go quicker

 

[chevyshaulass]

commercial fisherman are most likely the culperates but i can almost assure you that it was not intentional. I just finished a season of prawn fishing and ive sorta got it figured out what happens with sport traps and stuff that gets caught in the gear. What probably happened was your traps were set over a commercial string, they hauled their string up(yours still attached), as they were hauling it they were moving into deeper water beacause that's where their string led to, they pulled up your trap line, cut it to get it off of their gear, and then tied it back together so you didnt completely lose your traps, and when they threw it back down it had already been dragged out to deeper water. I used to blame things like that on commercial guys all the time but now that i have done it myself, i know the actual facts of what happens with situations like that. Im not saying there arent any trap raiders or thieves out there because i know there are, but the finger shouldnt be pointed at the commercial guys right away. In reality, it wouldnt be worth the time and effort for a commercial boat to pull a sport string(thats 4 extra traps theyll pull on top of the 300 that they would be pulling already. Hopefully that cleared some things up.



Edited by - chevyshaulass on 07/03/2005 12:43:59

 

[PinchMe]

chevyshaulass; makes an excellent point in defense of the commercial prawning industry. These people are simply trying to get the job done; and probably view sporties as more of an annoyance than anything else. A suggestion would be to provide tons of bouancy up top to support the weight of your traps, just in case you cross lines with a commercial causing a cut, tie and toss into deeper waters.
Also, I didn't realize that commercial trap lines can runout to 300 traps... I'll be steering WAY clear of these in future, and should probably be thanking them for the re-tie on my prawn line.
Am I correct in stating the way to differentiate between commercial and sport bouys is that commercials have a permit number with NO name and phone number?
Also, when they lay their lines, do they tend to start shallow and head to deeper water or do they try and run out their line at a consistant depth?

 

[the runt]

I also had some problems with my pots.I now use 10lbs.of weight [old barbell set works great.Or the tide runs hard and youre buoy goes under.and you think someone took iv'e waited for the tide change and got it back i now use one of those big balls instead mabe this will help somewhat.

thanks the runt

 

[Dave H]

Many moons ago I knew a guy who commercially fished crabs at Port Renfrew.
He was having problems with someone pulling his traps so he set them out then went ashore nearby with a rifle. Soon the suspect arrived and started pulling the traps.
A couple of well aimed near misses and he had no problems with THAT guy again.
Bit harsh I know but I think people who steal should all be shot anyway.
No reason to steal in a society as obscenely rich as ours.
None whatever.

Take care.

 

[chevyshaulass]

commercial buoys are marked with the boat name, registration number, and phone number and the letters PRN on the top of the buoy. There are 50 traps to a string which are spread usually about 70 feet apart so a commmercial string can cover a lot of area. A boat with a normal license fishes 6 strings with 50 trpas each and a boat with a stacker license fished 10 strings with 50 traps each.

 

[PinchMe]

Dave H - funny story, my kids are just as pissed about the trap problems and I am. Zack, mid-kid, said how about putting a mini-cam on one of the floats; Bo, my teen, said how about a remote control device that auto inflates bouancy bags on the traps, so no line or bouys, it just floats to the surface... interesting!

Chevyshaulass - thank you again your information on commercial trap lines was just what I was looking for. I intend on steering WELL clear of these lines in the future!

Tight lines all!

 

[starcraftttom]

this is a old post That I can across in my search for secret prawn holes. the remote float thing got my attentions. A few years ago on lake washington, down here, I achored up to go swimming with a friend and our kids. When I pulled anchor to leave I hung up on a bunch of crawfish traps on a line. I found a tag with a phone number. I called the guy because there was no bouy and I thought they were lost traps. turns out that the guy was having so many traps and crawfish stolen that he gave up on the bouys and started scuba diving to check his traps. He told us to take two dozen crawfish and reset the traps,nice guy.

teach a man to fish and he will steal all your best spots.

 

[kronic_fisherguy]

Use the biggest off color float you can!!! I use big Scotchman in a bright flourescent Yellow. This scares poachers off because of the long distance visibilty especially whem mixed among the traditional red colored floats.Takes a person with yam bags of steel to pull up a string I cans see from a mile away!!!The best prawn spots I have found were when the commercial guys were fishing . I looked for structure that looked good but not really big enough for the commercial sized sets!!
kronic

 

[alley cat]

As Dave H said about the crab fisherman(I talked to Gus Liske.....maybe the same guy!) and his response was that does not make sense as the sports fisherman could come along and just cut his floats and make life absolute hell for him, even if he had to drag to pick up the connecting lines it would play havoc with his sets, so it would be in his best interests to not anger the sports crowd .
As with other posters on this topic I always sit over mine until I am done then retrieve and keep the theft and aggravation down to manageable levels.


AL

 

[nedarb2]

my friends dad was telling me that when he was young he would fish renfrew all the time, and his crab traps would continuosly get raided, so he wrote on the float "your sighted in with a .22, pull this trap and die" ..supposably he never had a problem after

To fish or not to fish,
What a stupid question!
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he will sit on a boat drinking beer for a life time
TGIF =Thank God It Floats