Stolen crab pots

[Fishermans blues]

I'm a small boat owner through a love of seafood and not being able to catch much from the shore. So when I set me 3 pots ( nowhere near anybody else's and in a position where we consistently catch nothing) I don't expect them to not only be stolen from but stolen altogether. As we were on our way to the ground we fish,I noticed a couple of fenders, matching the ones our flags used to be attached to. I knew these were ours as I could see from the shore that ours were missing from the place we set them. Long story short ive got 2 of my pots back (with damage) so I'm still missing 1, but 1 of the other 2 had the biggest crab ive ever seen in! Cheers for showing me the new ground, yes I'll be potting there and yes I'll be watching them. So the next time you try lifting my pots, if the pots don't get you, I will.

 

[Kev1n]

Roughly what area were they in?
I fish two or three pots between Cullercoats and St Mary’s Can and haven’t had much bother with them although now I just fish them from the shore as it’s easier getting to them. I “lost” a couple to start with but that was probably because they were not weighted enough. Another drifted half a mile from where I left it.
Yesterday’s seas were big enough to move pots and push a load of kelp onto the beaches, yours could have been moved by the same swells, causing the damage on the way.

If you want some new ones, I have a set of almost new, wooden ones in my shed that I'm thinking about selling for only £15 each to make a bit of space.

 

[northeast1]

As Kev says probly just the bad weather moved/damaged them.

If you had lost them all together it could of been down to a boat cutting them off if caught around the prob, you seem to have yours marked up well with flags from what you say but the ones marked that are just a black oil container that you cant see in a choppy sea until your right ontop of them, deserve to be cut off by a rope cutter on the prop as they are putting people at risk...i stay well clear of any pots as not worth the risk of boat damage.

Anyway at least you got them back, trial and error i guess but as i said prob just down to rough sea and not anchored well, be nice to see some pic's in the future of what you get when you lift them.


I used to drop 2 pots over but its too much fuss, only wanted lobsters not crab and never had a keeper yet just lots of crabs and a few fish.

 

[Fishermans blues]

Not sure how you send photos but when I have somebody with me who knows what to do I'll put a pic up of the said crab! Was lovely, I had it for my bait today haha. Honestly lads, sabotage wrote all over this... My flags were proper ruined, there was no flag or polystyrene left and looking at people's bits of bamboo n gaffer tape I went overboard with them! ( I get tie wraps for free, there was millions of them on).even the position they were in doesn't add up, I fish them near longscar Rock in hartlepool... I found them round near elephant rock! For those that don't know hartlepool it's about half a mile out to sea, swap direction and about a mile up the coast. I hope it is just the state of the sea but these are bloody heavy!..For a living im a cable puller, you know about it when you've pulled the second one haha

 

[lannen42]

Some people hope all goes well for you bud

 

[alcaucin]

I would put it down to weather, you'd be surprised what damage the sea can do. My mate has lost a few and he's been doing it a while with all the gear so if it damages his I would think yours would get damaged too. The joys of fishing