1st missing pots of the season

[stephen_t]

hasn`t taken long this season for my pots to go missing [smiley=angryfire.gif]

I checked them just before the storm tonite and 2 were goooone.
The statement of "Corzo, theres a huge chance that your pots werent stolen mate but floated in the current.This accounts for probably 80% of so called stolen pots mate." I don`t think so... not when you find your crab pot marker up above the high tide mark. with a nice cut rope still tied on it... [smiley=disappointed.gif]

if this comment is true I would like to go up the creeks to find a few hundred of these floating pots..

not to discredit the person who said this in some case yes it does happen.

I have heard of several different ways of spiking pot ie
razor blades on the rope, thicker type of rope...
does any one have any good ideas. If I have a pot go missing I at least would like to think I made that son of a b%#ch bleed.

unhappy camper [smiley=angryfire.gif]
stephen T

[smiley=disappointed.gif]

[snappa]

stephen....

well you are not alone and i like what you said if they are going to steal them
MAKE`M BLEED
i believe they re-locate them untill a later date so keep looking days after and eye off the boats carry pots and looming around every where.
my method
my method maybe right or wrong
enbed hooks into the rope but dont forget you did it speaking from past experince.
when they are stealing the pots mainly late afternoon or night, they do not have time to be watching the rope they are pulling untill its too late. >

[imnotoriginal]

Be careful doing that stuff guys, it's a world of litigation now. If you seriously injure someone you could be in for a bloody big bill courtesy of one of those law firms. I understand your wnating to exact something in return, but just be sure they don't end up with a bigger hit on you than a couple of crabs and a pot.
Joel

[bungie]

Took a test run of my boat up the river from Jindalee yesterday afternoon. Came accross several pots with 3m of rope in 11m of water. They do float away. No I didnt stop to steal em, pass em going up stream and they are in a different spot when go back down stream made me curious. And if they are your pots ........... I think they are near pinkenba now

[PG]

If there's hooks embedded in the rope, couldn't they have just got snagged there by some unlucky amateur fisherman and broke off? I'd also make sure they were bloody sharp so they dig in deep...heh heh
The only suggestion I can make is to sink the pots in pairs and tie a rope between them with a thin rope tied to a mangrove or tree. Be sure they are labelled and place them in an obvious place so you can drag a pick anchor to hook them and retrieve them when you're ready. Perhaps tie a coloured tag on a mangrove or tree parallell to the pots? I dunno if a GPS is accurate enough. Is this legal? Well yes it should be because the laws say you have to have them tagged and "...when not fixed to something they must have attached a light coloured surface float, not less than 15cm....." So if they are fixed to a mangrove or similar by a thin breakable rope, you can drag for them and then pull the pots in, pull up on the thin rope and nobody will even know they were there.
I know a few old fellas who used to just sink them tied to each other but they must be fixed to something or a float.
Sound possible?

[peterbo3]

Morning all,
Couple of ways to beat the sharefarmers/thieves.
1. Tie your pots of to a mangrove with 80lb mono then mark a spot up or down stream some 20 metres away with a piece of pvc tape to find them later. Everything looks different on a higher or lower tide.

2. Set your pots (4) without floats some 10M apart but join them with 5mm line. Use the tape or your GPS to fix your spot. To recover use your reef pick as a hook. If the current is really fast in the area add a brick to the end pots.

There is some stuffing around in these methods but if you sink em at the bottom of the tide you know they will not be visible later & you should get a feed after the next high.

Watch out for watchers!!! [smiley=curtain.gif] [smiley=curtain.gif] [smiley=curtain.gif] [smiley=curtain.gif]

[corza85]

yeah mate i didnt say that my pots flaoted away i said that the were stolen and someone made a suggestion to me that they could have floated away but after giving the details of where i had them they agreed that they couldnt have floated away


cheers...........corza

[Brett_Finger]

Big fella,
next time wait in ambush!!
you are alowed to tie your pot off on structure,so at low tide tie your pots off under the water to mangrove roots ect.. but be sure to have you pot marked clearly with approiate details on it.
Hookin,Brett

[BORGY]

I have also been the victim of pot theft....
Razor blades etc....In the Queensland there is such an offence as "Setting Man Traps" ( got a mate who is a solicitor) and if the cops get you for this , you will spend some time in jail..
I agree scum should never get away will stealing pots, but they know who they are and some of em are probably reading this...the weaker ones will never own up to it..

[deb]

I agree with Brett, mate, we sat and watched and waited, but instead of being in the tinny with BBJ's 25hp, we took the tinny back to ramp, and came back down in dreamy with a touch more oomph behind her. Nothing like watching share farmers, try to outrun a fibreglass in a river, it don't happen, and the wake when we turned was enough for the desired result
Get a mate, sit and watch, the farmer we washed down, was in a small tinny, this guy was well known for this I found out later.

[Gazza]

Dreamdays , your 'action' was admirable # ,but be careful to not "tag" tinny owners, as pot-stealers.

IF the guy was "well known for this" , easy enough to find out a valid address #

Be real funny #> > > #just to knock on his door a couple of times, and politely ask "any stolen pots here !!!!! mate" and casually drive off ,nothing more.

[bugman]

While your at it, can you find my 4 missing pots off Nagala.

bugman

[Anchors_Away]

hello

sink your pots
pick out of the way places and avoid picking the same spot as others
some times when looking for my pots i pull up other pots
i guess they picked the same as me to hide theirs.
good luck

[deb]

Heh Gaz
Don't have worry about tinny owners being pot stealers, we got two of them!!
Missing pots?, its always a good read looking at the Thursday Auction pages, particulary the smaller houses. Least you can buy them back cheaper than newies

[stephen_t]

Thanks for all the replies folks

there are some good ideas to slow/reduce the "sharefarmers/theives" form taking my pots.

peterbo3 suggestion of the pots being inline with a 5mm rope is a great idea [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] or BF sit and ambush pratice(now I hav a new 30 yam on the bac of lukes old boat) could be a good idea for me in small creek situation.

borgy`s "setting man traps" if these persons who do steal/cut/tamper with other peoples pots thinks that there there fisho`s out there mad enough to try and get even [smiley=rifle.gif] they might just might slow down on there thinkings.. ??? cause maybe we will or maybe we won`t? [smiley=evilgrin.gif]

It is just sad that we cannot dart down to our local creek chuck in a few pots overnight and check them the following night.

but like fishing you can`t just chuck out a bit of bait anywhere you have do do a lot of prep work first ie setting up the pots to sink them, using plenty of rope(corza85) brick and using a reef pick...

Bring on the prawns I say atleast no one can steal my net(untill I duck into the servo )

cheers
stephen T