mine only ever get dropped in NW scotland.
Its like being in another world. The commercial boats are friendly - one has even lifted mine for me once, when we were due to come home, but it was too rough to get back out in my boat, and delivered them back, with contents and a few 'extras'. They've given me pot bait to try instead of my usual mackie/coalie mix (made a huge difference) and advised me wheres the best places to drop them. One in particular has even lent me extra pots for a week or 2
I've had some canny crack with the fisheries patrol officers in the Mishnish, who also have given me pointers as to good/bad spots, and the one time I've actually seen em out 'working' they were more interested in how I was doing fishing wise than what I was doing
I dare say the regulation is needed though - just look at all the 'mackeral' threads for the reasons. The more I see/hear/read about our stretch of coast, the less I like it. Just a small number of greedy feckwits **** on the bonfire for everyone else