queensland Beware the Crab Pirates

[Cliffy]

Went fishing up the North Pine with the young fella and daughter no. 2's boyfriend Tom Friday night, motoring down-river first to put out the 4 new crab pots we'd just invested in. Great session fishing livies to some snags and holes in the channel resulting in a 5-foot pike eel :woohoo:, 3.5-foot stingray :S, and 3 really, REALLY big runs before being busted off (heavier gear needed next trip, obviously!). Packed up around midnight and motored back to check the pots, eager with anticipation. Pot 1 came over the side with a juvenile muddy, pot 2 came up with 2 barely legal sandy's (both of which also went back to grow into another days dinner), and since the crabs had got bigger with both of the first 2 pots we were pretty keen to pick up no's 3 and 4 - except that some mongrel b@stard had stolen the bl**dy things!?# :angry:. You fella's who set your pots up the North Pine make sure you keep an eye on them - I reckon we'll set them in sight of where we fish next time and keep some artillery to hand to sort out the mongrels if we catch them at it next time...

[vonny]

Know what you mean. Had one flogged last weekend near the Pine River bridge:angry: . Only put them in within eyesight now

[Rocket75]

Too right about the pot inspectors, been plenty of that around. Bastardos!

Sounds like good fun on the livies though, definitely some big units in there (with lots of piercings!)

Rocket

[nuckle]

lol some one should make some sort of alarm that when someone other than yourself trys to pull a pot a massively noisy alarm goes off..... that would be funny to see :laugh:

[Cliffy]

Talking to a mate tonight, he told me a story about some bloke he knows who's now had so many pots go AWOL that he dumps them over the side without a float, marks them on his GPS, and hauls them in with a grappling hook...maybe not entirely legal but a great way to stop the crooks getting their hands on your gear

[Cliffy]

Rocket75 wrote:

Too right about the pot inspectors, been plenty of that around. Bastardos!

Sounds like good fun on the livies though, definitely some big units in there (with lots of piercings!)

Rocket

Too true, mate...with regard to the piercings, I reckon if you could get your hands on just one of those big suckers you could almost open a tackle shop :silly:

[obone]

Cliffy wrote:

Talking to a mate tonight, he told me a story about some bloke he knows who's now had so many pots go AWOL that he dumps them over the side without a float, marks them on his GPS, and hauls them in with a grappling hook...maybe not entirely legal but a great way to stop the crooks getting their hands on your gear

Yeh I have seen the pro crabbers do that in the creeks on the inside of Fraser. Except they just memorise where they put them and just motor up and jag them. I was amazed the first time I saw it!

Joel

[Feral]

I remember Nugget having a whinge on his radio show about this. Apparently it is legal to do so as long as the pot is tied to something that will hold it stationary.

Now this is what I am pretty sure Nugget said, so dont flame me! But he had spoken with the Fisheries blokes, and their opinion was having the pot tied to something as simple as a house brick would meet this requirement, which apparently is what the pro crabber in question was doing. (In the logan river I think)

Mind you if someone is intent on knocking off pots, it pretty easy to see them on a sounder still, so it would not be a fool proof method, particularly if they saw you drop them somewhere like a river or creek.

[Bommie]

Cliffy I always stay with my pots and if I venture a little away I make sure I have my binoculars, slingshot(I mean bait dispenser) & marbles;)

[Dinodadog]

I set 2 pots within sight of where i was fishing up the pine one day and around the corner came a boat, pulled up at my pots and started pulling them up, I yelled out to them and they dropped the pots. I motored over to them and asked what did they think they were doing, their reply was noooo man we never touched your pots we were just having a leak. The 2 blokes were high on drugs . When I told the wife she said ,stupid bastard they could have knifed you.

Dino

[rayke1938]

One of the pros down our way who works the redland bay channel is renown for cutting off floats of anyones pots that he deems to be too close to his.

Cheers

Ray

[chubbstar]

I allways take my camera when fishing, I'll take photos of them pulling my pots before I say "HI":angry: . Make sure you get the Rego number of the boat in the photo. Then report the basterds......

Jayson

[reef_raider]

we have had a fair few stollen from the pine, last time was when we wer about 300m away around a corner, i think its the same people doing it a lot bcoz they leave behind the floats and ropes most of the time

[Fisher_90]

Left ours in at schultz last nite and returned (to our suprise) to find 8 pots.

[reef_raider]

yeh schulz isnt too bad as there isnt too much boat traffic whereas pine river is always busy

[Cowfish13]

We lost one in the Passage once. Bastards:angry:. Even with only one pot left we found a spot where we managed 3 Crabs in the left-over pot and 3 on the line:)

They stole an old dodgy one though so it wasn't too bad. But they also stole our float and rope:angry:

[CrayfishMates]

Yeah thread barbed wire through the last two meters of rope and remember to wear gloves when pulling them up..