Hard to know what to believe some times, I've seen someone off here named on the Crayfishing WA fb page as a pot puller off Ocean Reef. I also struggle to believe the person named would do so but hey, who knows.

yeah, a bit hard! unless they are caught with your float in hand or your pot on boat its a bit hard to lay blame

 I wouldn't be naming and shaming anyone unless booked by fisheries or as Bryce says caught with float or pot in hand. You open yourself to legal action.

 of "caught red handed" one would assume thats what has happened. 

They got nice and close for the photo, and old mate's waving in the first pic.

 Maybe, but can't see a pot or float to prove anything! To me it looks like 2 blokes in a boat, one of which is waving. Maybe the bloke who took the photo was trying to ping his spot! 

not sure if I like stuff like this....
had a look on FB cray pot pullers and all there is there is the same as here "caught red handed"

what's the story?

no account of incident no time etc..... no details no anything.

 We saw a green hulled fibro boat out at our pots yesterday and the day before. Motoring around and leaving the area as we approched. Our pots were out deeper than the other 300 in that general area.. Looked very suss. As we were pulling our last pot the green boat came back and kept motoring around the area. Wasnt pulling pots or fishing or doing anything we could see as being productive.

Figured he was either looking for a rope for his lost pots or was sounding the area for later reference. Anyway if we had come up empty and had a photo on the first or second day we could have named and shamed an inecent party. Both days our pots had a decent amount of crays in them.

As stated above solid proof is needed before causing someone a lot of grief. 

 A mate and I were chilling out wetting a line next to the boat ramp at Hillarys a few weeks ago whilst it was blowing 30+kts and sizeable swell. We were packing up to leave at about 11:30pm when a big ally boat started launching without any fishing or other gear on board, just 3 guys. 

They didn't seem overly experienced, almost dropping the boat on the ramp by not going in deep enough and then having a close miss with the finger jetty when motoring out.

Anyway, we were just wondering why they could have been launching then, we couldn't see any feasible reason with the demersal ban, etc being on. 

Not wanting to jump to conclusions but we were pretty sure they were going to tamper with pots.

 Everyone is not after pinching crays just cause they dont do what you do guys?

Suspicion and name and shame is BS, as if you caught them red handed, report them to the Authorities - this is a free fucking country and you may launch your boat anytime for any reason, and not have to justify why your boat is in the water, or why you are fishing near craypots..

FFS this is getting ridiculous..

Maybe the boys Hutch saw just bought the boat, and want to test it - I know i took my first boat out on the shittest day in August 2008, cause I was dead keen to test it - not pinch crays or pots..

Just my opinion..

I know it sucks to get your gear or crays stolen, but witch hunting is nonsense.

Innocent until proven guilty still Rocks in my book..

devils advocate

maybe they had just bought the boat and badly wanted to take it for a run ? did the same as cold feet above , took my new boat out on a shitty day just to put it in the water and give it a run etc

maybe fitted some new gear like radar , wanted to see it working /test it ? in the dark ?
maybe they where FIFO guys last minute getting their pots out ? back onto dry land before the fly out next day etc

maybe they wanted to keep an eye out for others pulling their gear and wanted to be out there early ?

lots of possibles including pulling others pots , but with so many pots in the water a boat hanging around or lurking in the vicinity in itself isnt proof

often i think boats hang around like that to watch and see what you may catch , then check out the ground your working on etc , or if your touching their gear as they ''SEE '' your boat in the vicinity often also and if their not catching too well may have the same thoughts as you blokes about their gear being tampered with , so they hang around and keep an eye out

hezzy

 haha, fark em! At the start of cray season everyones online saying "if you see a cray pot puller name and shame them", now its happened and its all "lets defend them"!

Fark it, if you are innocent, you have nothing to hide and would be not bothered about defending youself.

And I quote " this has nothing to do with my previous situation AND this Should be done anytime, NOT just because its cray season". Herring, Whiting, Crabs, Snapper, Squid, whatever you name it, get caught and cop a shaming bacause as has been said previously, the fisheries are unable to prosecute without catching offenders red handed.

If the owner/driver of the boat in question is innocent then I hope you dont get offended, and the person who took the picture should go through the correct procedures and then if prosecuted Name and shame, if you are still 100% sure and they were unable to be dealt with by the corrrect authorities then name and shame.

 One which is very applicable to what is being discussed. BELIEVE NOTHING OF WHAT YOU HEAR, AND ONLY HALF OF WHAT YOU SEE.  Because your patricular perceptions or viewpoint may cause you to "see" it differently to what is actually happening. Once you get both sides of a story, the reality may be somewhat different.

sandbar Quote :"Fark it, if you are innocent, you have nothing to hide and would be not bothered about defending youself."

personally if my boat and pic turned up on a post like this ....and I would be innocent..... I think I WOULD be bothered defending myself.

Maybe the lack of any details makes ppl think slightly differently.

Lets say I ran over someones rope and cut off the floats. Tried to do the right thing and tried to tie on a new one. In the meantime the owner comes over. How the hell do you expect someone to believe that you arent tampering with their pots.

I thought about this the other day as I was dodging ropes up at Ocean Reef.

I must admit, I dont know how I would react if I came accross someone doing that to my pots.

Would you believe them or name and shame them?

Either person in question hasn't seen whats happening or has something to hide?

Maybe the vessel will be in rocko Saturday, then the question can be asked. "Hi how you going mate, did you know your boat is all over social media?" see what happens from there. I am heading down to show support as I care about the fishing future. If I see the boat I will happily approach with the view that he is INNOCENT.

Stuff like this happens every day all over the world, innocent people posted on social media, guilty till proven innocent! So yes, Fark it! Too bad if I think outside the box and upset a majority. Just my opinion which I thought was valid on a public forum?

 Lot of innocent people have been actually hanged because the mob were fired up. But I know personally how easy it is to get fired up and start blasting away, certainly been guilty of it myself.

 and i should clarify what i mean by fark it, the situation itself,not the people involved. I hope the situation was a misunderstanding between the two parties.

Anyway, recent reports are we will have to wait till next season before this madness starts again.