How to actually catch something this season, occy pot (aka waste of space)

So a good mate of ours has one of those plastic occy pots, that is square, with the flashing crab that goes at the back, has the snap shut trapdoor etc. despite it being deployed amongst crayfish country that has yeilded good results (on the crayfish front) for the past 2 years, the bloody occy pot hasn’t caught so much as a cold! 

Having tried the same ground as where the crays come from (you get the odd Occy in cray pots each year after all), different depths, replacement of the “pressure sensitive” flashing crab, adjustment of the trapdoor tension etc, the bloody thing has never caught a single occy in its life.

 

so my question is this, has anyone else got much the same pots? Have they caught anything? What sort of ground is it best to deploy the overpriced, and overrated octopus hotel in? Sandy bottom, or straight on the reef etc.

any pointers would be appreciated. The goal is to have this overpriced disco pipe (the crab flashes apparently) catch at least 1 or 2 occy’s this cray season. Advice and responses on the matter would be appreciated. Scano

____________________________________________________________________________

 

 


choc's picture

Posts: 670

Date Joined: 05/01/12

 Second hand toilet bowl.

Mon, 2018-11-26 20:19

 Second hand toilet bowl. Best occy pot you can get.

sunshine's picture

Posts: 2613

Date Joined: 03/03/09

Bloody funny read

Mon, 2018-11-26 20:24

But I can understand your frustration, seen plenty when diving Cockburn Sound in everything from a few metres to 15 metres......just sitting in holes with a circle of shells discarded by them  

devhay's picture

Posts: 328

Date Joined: 27/10/14

Curious to know what peoples

Tue, 2018-11-27 08:38

Curious to know what peoples thoughts are for where to drop them too, we knocked up some less fancy ones last week with stuff I found kicking around in the workshop just some concrete in the bottom of some 100mm PVC conduit. Looking to drop them in when we head out to pull the craypots this week.. was going to aim for weed beds similar to squidding ground

Pretty keen to get some pickled occy going and some bait for once the demersal ban is done

____________________________________________________________________________


Posts: 450

Date Joined: 29/04/18

 Your on the money  devhay,

Tue, 2018-11-27 09:01

 Your on the money  devhay,  weed beds is we're  we put them in the sound and do pretty  good 

____________________________________________________________________________

 Happy dayz 

Dale's picture

Posts: 7930

Date Joined: 13/09/05

Tue, 2018-11-27 10:36

Yep, when I was kid on Garden Island, the weed beds were the best places. 

____________________________________________________________________________

"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."

Mr Wolf

 

 

Posts: 52

Date Joined: 10/11/11

I have three sets of doubles

Tue, 2018-11-27 16:55

I have three sets of doubles with my cray pots behind garden island and I clean up with the trigger traps though if you get two occys in the one trap one of them will kill the other and start eating it. Get them even without the trigger going off just replaced the lights today as they only last 90 days just make sure they are in the weed or the fill up very quickly with sand 

Posts: 52

Date Joined: 10/11/11

I have three sets of doubles

Tue, 2018-11-27 16:55

I have three sets of doubles with my cray pots behind garden island and I clean up with the trigger traps though if you get two occys in the one trap one of them will kill the other and start eating it. Get them even without the trigger going off just replaced the lights today as they only last 90 days just make sure they are in the weed or the fill up very quickly with sand 

Posts: 518

Date Joined: 04/05/08

 Run them whenever i have my

Tue, 2018-11-27 19:14

 Run them whenever i have my craypots out.Place near the pots.Average 1 occy a per double trap a week.Dont pull them too often if your pull ever couple of days its a waste of time.Leave for a week at a time

Full moon best/Place on some sand next to weed if you can see it.Also i try to position the opening to of the trap facing towards the north east so they dont fill with as much sand if facing sw.Most of the time occys are in there and havent even pulled the door.

Also autumn and winter is best and most productive for targeting occys in my experience.

Jackalchub's picture

Posts: 599

Date Joined: 10/03/12

I’ve got some old school

Thu, 2018-11-29 00:48

I’ve got some old school pipes set up with concrete bottoms that I haven’t put in yet, what are the rules with floats? do I need gear ID?  

Posts: 450

Date Joined: 29/04/18

 You dont need gear id and as

Thu, 2018-11-29 07:33

 You dont need gear id and as long as their  not holding  pots / trigger  traps you can run as many as you like , we do still  put our id on though  just in case we rock up one day to find someone  else helping themselves  to our pots,  which  does happen  alot  

____________________________________________________________________________

 Happy dayz 

little johnny's picture

Posts: 5360

Date Joined: 04/12/11

You got robbed

Thu, 2018-11-29 20:51

There crap.glow crabs excellent gimick. Don't know your area so can't really comment. Plenty of good other comments to work on