Stuck pot, Tight line

TyBoo

TyBoo

Administrator
Staff member
Line gets tighter as the tide rises. Gave it 4 hours of incoming and three feet of rise. The boat was listing pretty good and it still wouldn't budge. Weighted the line and cut it. Two left out there.

Sorry about the long link but we are still on the river. No sturgeon here yet but it's too nice not to fish.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDPuCBVh ... ata_player
 
Here's a couple other boats we saw today. The nice guys on the little orange one came over and talked to us. They weren't doing full out safety checks but one of them asked to come aboard anyway just to see the boat.

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Oh, and guess what...Port of Astoria fuel dock sold me ethanol free gas today for $3.50/gallon. It's $3.54 at Safeway for the E10 right now. Don't know what the deal is. They must charge based on whatever their last tank full was. I liked it.
 
Not being a crabber, I don't know, but that line looked more like an anchor line to me. Were you crabbing in the river, or fishing for sturgeon, in that case anchored with that line? Did or could you see anything on the fishfinder/sonar?

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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ON EDIT: GUESS I SHOULD HAVE READ THE THREAD TITLE AGAIN.
HH
 
Boy that line was taught. :shock: No sense pulling more and damaging something. Did you try driving in circles around the pot? Must've been hung up on something BIG.
 
hardee":1301fqrs said:
Not being a crabber, I don't know, but that line looked more like an anchor line to me. Were you crabbing in the river, or fishing for sturgeon, in that case anchored with that line? Did or could you see anything on the fishfinder/sonar?
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That was the crab pot line. Even though it held as fast as any anchor, I would never anchor from the side. We pulled the boat as close as we could to directly over the pot and then belayed the line. The rising tide did the rest. We were listing pretty good after three feet tide of exchange but the weather and water were so calm it was ok.

You can see the deck drain screen at the top of the picture under the mass of wires and by the hatch hinge. That goes into a hose under the deck to a thruhull drain below the waterline (kind of a goofy setup). The water level shows you how far below the waterline the deck was. We still had a few inches of freeboard at the aft starboard corner, and if there had been any chop or waves we wouldn't have done it.

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The sturgeon fishing was later and a ways up the river to get away from the bait stealing crabs.

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Captains Cat":5wtcbdfl said:
Wasn't MAVERICK one of the "deadliest catch" boats in Alaska?

Charlie
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Yep. Rick and Donna. They are locals and their grandkids are friends of my grandkids. They quit the show after the producers wanted them to be more dramatic. They wanted Donna to get seasick and cry - and that isn't Donna. The boat was on for one more season after that with a hired skipper.
 
localboy":173wbut9 said:
Boy that line was taught. :shock: No sense pulling more and damaging something. Did you try driving in circles around the pot? Must've been hung up on something BIG.
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Yeah, we tried pulling straight, going in circles, forward and backward, and rocking the boat with the line tight. I think they are just silted in. Buried in sand. I am going to try once more for each of the two left out there, and then cut and sink the lines. A couple of local commercial crabbers with bigger boats and hydraulic line haulers know where they are and will try to get them up if they are in the area, but I suspect the line would have broken on the one we tried today before it came free.

They have been there for two weeks now. We came up with all kinds of ideas for getting them loose, but there are lots of other pots, floats and lines in that area and it is pretty close to Clatsop Spit which is a dangerous spot, so we don't want to get too carried away trying to save a $100 pot with a $50k boat.
 
I understand. At least you didn't lose a $100 pot by dumping it in 120' of water...when you only have 100' of line. Ask me how I know. :roll:
 
Back at it. One of the remaining two pots is tied to the side. This time I brought another pot to toss off the other side while I wait. Two hours is all this one gets. The depth is 34.3 right now (that's more of a note for me than needed info here), so we will see how much rise I get.

Another beautiful day. Foggy foggy but the radar worked. It's starting to clear off now. Wallas is going, fog is lifting and the tide is rising. Perfect combination.
 
Humph. Not only is the pot on one side still stuck, I pulled up the one on the other side after a whole hour down there and I only had 7 keepers.
 
36.5' and it's listing hard. Five more keepers in the other pot and the stuckone will get cut. That's the rules.
 
TyBoo":qw190a2m said:
localboy":qw190a2m said:
so we don't want to get too carried away trying to save a $100 pot with a $50k boat.
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I would think that the bigger issue should be that an abandoned pot will continue to catch crabs that will never be harvested...

I know nothing about crab traps, but Maine lobster regs require an escape door with a fastener that quickly corrodes...is that how it's done in you area, or does the abandoned trap continue to attract and kill crabs for all eternity, with the latest one acting as bait for the next one?
 
That's a good observation, Karl. The regs require a biodegradable fastener that will deteriorate in a month. I tie my lids shut with the same twine they use on commercial pots. So if the pots do come uncovered they should be open.

Pulled the baited pot up again after 15 minutes and had 15 crabs. Only 2 keepers though. I took a little of the bait out to use on the fish pole crab snare.
 
Thanks for the explanation...

Sure wish there were crabs in Lake Champlain...but, guess the lakers, pike, and salmon help make up for the crab shortage...plus, there's something to be said for salt-free waters...
 
Made it home with 12 crabs. The stuck pots are officially retired so I can stop worrying about them now.
 
I'm still apologizing to my cat about how we were going to scoop-up lobsters and crabs at low-tide at the property we were supposed to buy on Deer Isle...that purchase fell through, but now I own 115' feet of direct lakefront on Champlain...but, no crabs, no lobsters...

But, also, no nine-foot tides either...more like 2-inch "tides"...
And, Miss Kitty will like eating "salmonids" which includes lake trout, and actual salmon, plus, she will probably develop a taste for Walleye, too...

Wish I could join you left-coast folks on the water...and learn to crab...
 
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