Hard enough to get out ther as you say. Plus launching fee, fuel, bait & every thing else that we pay for only to find that some other prick has got there first & taken our crays or stolen the pot.

I have posted similar comments before & there will be other members now who will respond with comments such as 'you are wrong, you just didnt have enough ballast or some one ran over the rope, you should have gone out earlier' etc.    

I'm with you, people do interfere with our pots & it absolutely gives me the shits  

 and so I begins again, just let me get some pop corn cooking first.

Just make sure you get you facts straight before you start going off half cocked out on the water, I had a couple of run ins last year & got abused & threatend for simply going about my own business. 

 Don't worry, fisheries are all over this when they get wind of toads stealing and pulling pots etc. We all know they are under resourced, it's up to us if really concerned to push local gov ministers to put more resources into it. I remember a sting set up by fisheries where I fish mine. They camped out for a few days and caught the pricks red handed pilfering pots. But it still goes on up there and I know it's local residents that do it as there is very limited access to the ocean there. I've had it done to me, and the nice wankers rebaited my pots. Sadly this will go on over the season as there seems to be an over supply of morons on the water, gladly they are limited up my way.

 Had my pots out off mandurah last year, and touch wood, they were not pulled once to my knowledge, always one the spot I marked them, I did have them picked up and thrown into the reef once by the swell, had to get a diver to retrieve them for me, so I loaded them up with weight, I put that much wait in them we needed two blokes to pull them up lol, but if it helped with them not getting pulled they will be heavy this year too, 

Where did you have them in?

I'm puttin in mine soon hope it's not happening around where i'm dropping them. 

 u can possibly put a small bag of dye just under pot n as it comes up it staines the boat all over. U cant remove it n the guys that pull the pot n get done will have nowhere to hide! Worked a treat up here one year n the bloke who did it didnt stand a chance!

 We were in close early and slowly moved out to the five, following the whites, as soon as the whites stopped running we pulled our pots out, had caught plenty for the season as it was, no point catching if your not going to eat them, and I gave my family heaps too, it was a good season

c crazy , while I feel your pain and yes it does happen ,
I had boats tied onto our floats diving , divers in the water on top of pots,
other boats drop pots within 5 metres of ours, which is way too close,

many times over the years I reckon we have been knocked off
like your getting crays in all pots coinsistently, then suddnely another blokes pots near you , hes there at sparrows pulling his, you rock up as he is half way through his gear , and find your closest two pots suddenly catch sfa , then your next two 300 mtres away both have crays in em ?

what can you do ??
pretty much sfa,

best thing iv found is
1 to go as early as I can to check them ,
2 go as often as I can to check them
3 go at different times, ie= don't have regular pattern , if anyone is watching you pull them , they wont be sure when you will turn up
4 make em as heavy as you can , deters pot ratters and pot thieves
5 cut /grind your pot gear id into each pots top timber frames , works as no 4

hezzy

Caught a guy red handed last year pulling our pots , had photo's car rego and his vehicle had a business logo on the side. Went to local fisheries and reported it but nothing happened. To add insult to injury he dumped the pots away from the area we had them set so we had to go and reset them. When this thing happens it causes a lot of trouble because we set along with a lot of other local fisho's in much the same area and trust each other to do the right thing and if we hadn't seen him doing it you then think your mates are thieving from you.

I wonder if these work under water?
It won't stop them from pulling your pots but they were stolen or washed away by swell you would be able to find them again.
https://www.thetileapp.com/how-it-works

 There are no ethics,thats why my pots are now light fixtures in my bar,crabs taste better anyway lol.

I wonder if there'd be a market for a little tracker beacon that you could use to find your pots, or perhaps even something more basic like a little device that lets you know if your pots been checked. Maybe even with an annoying super loud buzzer.

I know how to create them if anyones interested (it's just a bit of design work to do if no-one wants one or would pay for one)

 I still reckon in time they will have gps implants and you will be able to whack a small camera in them which is linked to an app/your iphone so you can see what is inside them at any time.....and whether it's worth getting out of bed to pull them

like your idea westy...and people would love it but IMO half the fun of potting is pulling the pots and having the surprize

like your idea westy...and people would love it but IMO half the fun of potting is pulling the pots and having the surprize

one thing that should be mentioned , but rarely is about pots that go missing also is ,

when a pot is new , especially with steel bases that have been drilled with new holes in the steel , those holes should be smoothed out a bit before you put new bridle rope through them , even more important if theri rec made with no timber across the bottom frame

make sure the rope is close as possible to the size of the drill holes,
when i make pots, i alwasy smooth out the holes &make the rope a tight fit through the holes as iv found if you dont , your rope can be chaffed through in no time flat , by the constant back and forth rubbing movement from the floats and ropes in the wind as they sit on the ocean surface,

small thing but it makes a big difference in not having pot ropes cut through in a short time

having said that we just ha dour first pot yesterday moved and pulled by some clown , he ripped the battens off at the door , probably as he grabbed at the pot to haul it in boat, pot caught nothing , yet the other 3 all did well ? so it happens

hezzy

I had to laugh yesterday. Some moron had put their cray pots in the channel through 3-mile directly out from Hillarys. I hope the person that steals those pots has more nous than their original owners.

 Pity we cant press the great whites into service guarding pots... might help their pr image too. ;-)

 Got checked by Fisheries at the ramp this morning. Had a very good chat about Pot pirates, sounds like they are going to put a bit of effort in this season to combat the problem. 

 on everyone ,holiday season not far away, sad to say only going to get worse,thats why i dive once a week,get a feed ,pots are open prey ,sad but true,old floats old crapy rope with lots of knots ,and engrave your pots ,anything new up top prime target..good luck guys..

I think that's all good news that Fisheries are going to have a good look out for the pot raiding bastards. Lifting other peoples pots is about as low as you can get in my opinion.

 I dont recall a year when Fisheries said "we arent going to make an effort to stamp out pot theft this year"

i know, I plan to have my own pots one day, people pulling them can only be beaten by pulling them your self at sparrows fart!!

As for people stealing / moving that's low!, very very difficult for fisheries to combat! 

Let's take the Freo region for example, exactly how many fisheries boats would be working the water on any givin day from say south garden to north stragglers ? Maybe 1 boat a couple days of the week max, More chance of the police beating ice.