Lobster pots

[haydude]

Any advice welcome.I bought 3 pots. No idea what to do so advice on deployment areas,bait,laws etc?

I advise to set them with very well visible buoys and flags and far away from leisure navigation routes.

Failing that I hope you get them lost the first time. I have very little respects for people who takes from a limited resource like the sea without giving it anything back.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

Chaps here mark their bouys well.

One chap was fed up with others hauling and raiding his pots.

Most pots are hand hauled here.

This chap opened the weed covered rope twist and wired in a dozen or two very sharp 3" hooks in close groups of three at 2'0" centres for a 10'0" length about 40'0" from the surface bouy.

His thought was the barsteward will pull up an then get one handful of hook, then in panic will grab (about 2'0") further down the rope with his other hand to relieve the pressure/weight of the pot in the first injured hand.

He will then have both hands with a sharp hook(s) set deep in each and a heavy pot bouncing with the swell.

Nice.

Then the chap would check who had 'injured' hands and 'deal' with them, but suspected that the barsteward would not touch his marked pots again.

 

[25931]

Mark them with a flag on top of a metre long stick as is done in civilised places.
Jim

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I advise to set them with very well visible buoys and flags and far away from leisure navigation routes.

Failing that I hope you get them lost the first time. I have very little respects for people who takes from a limited resource like the sea without giving it anything back.

I dont understand why you disrespect the OP. It sounds as if he is taking for his own use, rather than commercial exploitation. He is also seeking opinion on size and legality so as not to take immature lobsters or disturb others who ply their trade in this way. Do you think we should all just starve to death and become compost? Maybe the OP could buy lobsters imported from Main, freshly frozen and transported by 747 cargo plane for road distribution to the Supermarket. Now that is taking without giving anything back. Weird logic man.

Anyway, as long as he poops and pees overboard, he is giving back.

 

[Ubergeekian]

Any advice welcome.I bought 3 pots. No idea what to do so advice on deployment areas,bait,laws etc?

West Coast of Scotland practice is to string 'em out along a length of floating polypropylene line with the smallest possible buoy on each end, then leave them across the entrance to anchorages, narrow deep-water passages and so on.

 

[puddock]

West Coast of Scotland practice is to string 'em out along a length of floating polypropylene line with the smallest possible buoy on each end, then leave them across the entrance to anchorages, narrow deep-water passages and so on.

I must have sailed on the "other" West Coast ..... can't recall any problems with pots/ markers.
Even here at Peterhead, I have only seen a couple of 'not so visible' markers, that was dark grey and about 6" diameter !!!!
Maybe there are dozens and I just haven't seen them

Most fisherman seem to be pretty professional about it - I suspect it's those out to 'make a bit of cash on the side' that aren't quite so conscientious.

Needless to say, that is just my opinion based on the areas I have been to, others may well have had different experiences.

Ron

 

[1955patric]

Yes he will

They are still there in Aber, saw them today, but what beats it all is the dildo that has shot a string in the middle of the channel in milford haven, I mean to say it can cause us to have a seriously bad day, but a 100,000 tonner wont even notice his polyprop line!!
Stu

On the ship I'm serving on at the moment we have had to have 2 emergency drydockings in the last 5 years due to fishing line getting past the rope guard and into the stern tube seal.
It then melts into a solid lump on the shaft and chews up the seal rings - result the oil is displaced out of the stern tube and the stern tube bearing gets wiped. It is a MAJOR issue.

 

[vyv_cox]

Most fisherman seem to be pretty professional about it - I suspect it's those out to 'make a bit of cash on the side' that aren't quite so conscientious.

In Greece we see some obviously professional pot markers, with flags and radar reflectors but far more semi-submerged 4 litre oil bottles, wine containers and footballs in nets. I assumed these to be the property of the amateurs but my Greek friend tells me they are also professional ones. The law limits the number that each fisherman can lay, so of course they lay far more unofficial ones.

Last year we motored over one that was unseen until we hit it. It was a few blocks of polystyrene tied together with cable. The polystyrene had gone green, almost invisible in the water. The cable joint gouged a long scrape down to the iron on my freshly grit-blasted, epoxied, faired and Coppercoated keel. By the end of the season it was a rusty area about 30 cm wide.

 

[Searush]

How long should pots be laid before lifting? is 12 hours (overnight) adequate as I like the idea of dropping over my stern when anchored for the night & having fresh food for dinner the next day.

Much of the stuff I see seems to have been in the water long enough for any trapped lobbies to have died & become bait themselves several times over.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

How long should pots be laid before lifting? is 12 hours (overnight) adequate as I like the idea of dropping over my stern when anchored for the night & having fresh food for dinner the next day.

Yes. Lay at dusk and lift early - they seem to move nocturnally which the local inshore fishermen usually dont. So everyone is happy.