Cray pot floats
Submitted by Norty on Wed, 2013-01-02 17:05
Hi Guys (and gals)
ok so after my last 2 cray pots went missing
I'm going to give it another whirl,
for the ease of spotting my floats from everyone elses
is it acceptable to paint them in fluro colours ie yellow / orange or
some other combination as well as the fishing licence number
would painting the pot somehow scare off the crays as
the plastic brown ones would i guess blend in with weed / reef stuff.
Is fitting a small pole / flag to the floats allowed (like on postie bikes)
for ease of spotting them, i'm normally out solo and looking for white floats
in the glare can sometimes be a bit tricky.
constructive help suggestions welcome
Cheers
dodgy
Posts: 4588
Date Joined: 01/02/10
I've seen people use pool
I've seen people use pool noodles tried to the ropes as a type of flag or indicator. Seemed to work ok for a bit of added visibility.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
C.P
Posts: 344
Date Joined: 04/01/12
Float colour
I paint mine bright orange. On a flat calm day i can see them for neary 2 km. Other days I'm nearly on top of them before i see them. Depends on the hight of the sun & wheather its behind you or in your eyes. If there are a lot of other pots around yours it makes it more difficult so you need to do something to make yours stand out. Some use two floats on each rope (only one needs your license No) or just use a stand out colour. You dont want to add too much hadrware though or it will drag too much on the rope during a strong wind. Shame you have lost two already, Its happened to me too. If you dont have a GPS make sure you get some slam dunk land marks. They can be hard to find otherwise. Maybe your original pots will turn up. Something to be aware of is that if some prick has pulled your pots for you, their boat will have drifted during the process, maybe quite a way if the wind was strong & there were crays in the pots that took time to get out. They throw the pots back in but they could be a few hundred metres from where you left them.
Rob H
Posts: 5863
Date Joined: 18/01/12
even worse, if you replace
even worse, if you replace the lost pots and fisheries find the others plus the new ones you are in the shit.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
Norty
Posts: 80
Date Joined: 13/12/12
thanks for the input guys, i
thanks for the input guys, i might have to have a play with fitting a gps locator
onto a float and see what happens.. one day..
the pool noodle idea has some merit..
wonder if i should report the missing pots to the fisheries incase they're found
drifting in the deep water channel or something..
thanks again
Norty
BOOMER
Posts: 179
Date Joined: 24/01/11
It wasn`t that long ago the
It wasn`t that long ago the pro`s used land marks and had flags on the header floats so they could find the start of there lines, nothing illegal bout doing that and is a tried and proven method of locating your gear.
4ft of PVC pipe through the hole in float flag on top and a counter wieght to hold it up right and Roberts your dads brother.
As the other boys said though want to make sure the other ones are gone not lost first though.
Boomer
Big hook,
Big bait,
BIG FISH !!!!!
Norty
Posts: 80
Date Joined: 13/12/12
thanks boomer, i went back
thanks boomer,
i went back solo for 3 days looking and then again 3 days later with a couple of buddies..
found plenty of other people pots..
but not mine.. must have spent about 18 - 20 hours all up looking for them..
either they got pulled and taken and refitted with someone elses floats or
they were pulled emptied, rope cut and dumped back somewhere
sad but not much you can do unless you catch em at it.
Cheers
BOOMER
Posts: 179
Date Joined: 24/01/11
Yep sound like they been
Yep sound like they been yanked or cut off,
Another common one is the knots come loose and let go, took Quad bike for run up the beach couple days after the season started and found 4 sets of gear washed up,where the knot had come undone.
Have had decky`s do it to me (probably done it myself as well) missing a couple pots early on in the season only to have someone throw a full set of ropes and floats on the back of your ute couple days later, ha ha pretty embarrasing cause everyone knows what happened.
Not always foul play.
Cheers Boomer
Big hook,
Big bait,
BIG FISH !!!!!
jewish
Posts: 22
Date Joined: 01/08/12
I agree with all the above
I agree with all the above posts
but can I just say I have been Cray fishing for 20 years and the old man used to be a pro.
imo the best pots to use are pine slats, double baits basket, metal bases with heaps of weight in them. Reason being when the swells up or the SWer. There is a fair chance the waves will pick up the float and move your pots. Also the idea of the metal bases is that it sinks into the sand and Cray love to sit in sandy bottom caves. You want heaps of weight in the so the pots don't roll with the swell on the bottom. The amount of times I have been diving and seen plastic pot rolling on the sea floor.
hope it helps
Belly Fish
Posts: 499
Date Joined: 09/03/12
Touch Wood, but
I've been amateur crayfishing for around 30 years now, in the metro area, and touch wood never lost a pot.
In my opinion, lots of pots that go missing get cut off. If you're not already doing it, do yourselves a favour and tie two knots in your rope (about 15cm apart) around 2 metres down from the floats. Wrap some sheet lead in between the knots. This forces the rope under water and avoids having excess rope on the surface on clam days, which is when I reckon most pots get cut off.