Heartbreaking... I'm new to this game, only been a saltwater boater since last summer, and thought I'd try my hand at prawning/shrimping before the Canadian commercial season opens on May 11... ie. before a couple of private traps have no chance against the thousands of commercial pots that will be going down very soon. So spent a few hundred bucks to set myself up with 2 pots and the sundries to go along with them.
Anyway, I believe I did everything right as far as pot setup goes. End of the rope was a small 1.5lb anchor, around 8 ft along was pot #1, then pot #2 around 50 ft after that, then another 5 lb weight with the rest of the line up to the buoys. Used a small bullet shaped crab buoy around 6 ft from the end of the line then a size a1 round polyform. Pots themselves were standard round 30", to which I had added 15lbs each of lead weight to counteract current.
Destination was Saturna Island, one of the closest Gulf Islands to Point Roberts WA marina where my home port is... Prawn season is open in Canadian waters. Studied my charts, took into account all the advice I've been reading about depth, structure, slack tide times etc etc... and off I went. Dropped my pots around the West side of East Point , close to Fiddlers Cove, not as far in a Narvaez Bay.... planned for the late 200's of depth, but in the end dropped them in around 230ft of water. My goal if I am perfectly honest, wasn't so much to catch a limit of prawns as to just actually do a prepare, deploy & retrieve successfully so I at least had done it and was comfortable with the process. So I wasn't too bothered about the slightly shallower than optimal depth. So, pots in, we headed over to Shallow Bay, Sucia to have lunch and explore a bit while the pots soaked.
I timed it so we would be retrieving more or less at slack tide so we wouldn't be fighting current while trying to use a pot puller for the first time. I had dropped a waypoint, so I knew exactly where to expect the buoy. Could I find it? Could I f*ck. It was calm seas... not glass... but no chop either. A bright orange buoy would have been hard to miss. I spent 45 minutes moving in ever larger circles, but honestly I knew it was a done deal.... I had f*cked it up somehow on my very first try.
A guy I trust who has done this for 40 years tells me given everything I did to prepare, that it's most likely the gear got nicked. I guess I'm a naive Canadian, but I still find that hard to believe that this is the "most likely" explanation. It was not at all busy out there yesterday... very few small private pleasure boats out. The pots were only down maybe 3 hours... so it just seems the chances of someone happening upon them, and that someone being inclined to nick them is small but I guess it could happen. Maybe in the height of the summer on a really nice day, but whatever. I think there is a chance my gear slid down into deeper water, and my buoys were either not large enough to float and they got pulled under... or they were and the whole lot floated away. I do find it hard to believe that at least 50-60 lbs of gear was able to slide and/or float away.
Anyway, I know pretty much EVERYONE that's crabbed or prawned has lost traps for all of the reasons people lose traps... it a small consolation I guess. Just wanted to vent a little.... woke up so pissed off this morning, know what I did? Drove my a$$ down to Bellingham and re-geared up. Hurts the wallet a bit... and the pride.... but I'm a "get back on my horse and ride" kind of guy so I figure if I get even 1 damn prawn before May 11 I'll be somewhat vindicated B) Hoping to head out again this week at least once and try again. I've got a new spot pegged out.... but if anyone knows Saturna and cares to shoot me a PM as to a decent spot I'd sure appreciate it.
Anyway, I believe I did everything right as far as pot setup goes. End of the rope was a small 1.5lb anchor, around 8 ft along was pot #1, then pot #2 around 50 ft after that, then another 5 lb weight with the rest of the line up to the buoys. Used a small bullet shaped crab buoy around 6 ft from the end of the line then a size a1 round polyform. Pots themselves were standard round 30", to which I had added 15lbs each of lead weight to counteract current.
Destination was Saturna Island, one of the closest Gulf Islands to Point Roberts WA marina where my home port is... Prawn season is open in Canadian waters. Studied my charts, took into account all the advice I've been reading about depth, structure, slack tide times etc etc... and off I went. Dropped my pots around the West side of East Point , close to Fiddlers Cove, not as far in a Narvaez Bay.... planned for the late 200's of depth, but in the end dropped them in around 230ft of water. My goal if I am perfectly honest, wasn't so much to catch a limit of prawns as to just actually do a prepare, deploy & retrieve successfully so I at least had done it and was comfortable with the process. So I wasn't too bothered about the slightly shallower than optimal depth. So, pots in, we headed over to Shallow Bay, Sucia to have lunch and explore a bit while the pots soaked.
I timed it so we would be retrieving more or less at slack tide so we wouldn't be fighting current while trying to use a pot puller for the first time. I had dropped a waypoint, so I knew exactly where to expect the buoy. Could I find it? Could I f*ck. It was calm seas... not glass... but no chop either. A bright orange buoy would have been hard to miss. I spent 45 minutes moving in ever larger circles, but honestly I knew it was a done deal.... I had f*cked it up somehow on my very first try.
A guy I trust who has done this for 40 years tells me given everything I did to prepare, that it's most likely the gear got nicked. I guess I'm a naive Canadian, but I still find that hard to believe that this is the "most likely" explanation. It was not at all busy out there yesterday... very few small private pleasure boats out. The pots were only down maybe 3 hours... so it just seems the chances of someone happening upon them, and that someone being inclined to nick them is small but I guess it could happen. Maybe in the height of the summer on a really nice day, but whatever. I think there is a chance my gear slid down into deeper water, and my buoys were either not large enough to float and they got pulled under... or they were and the whole lot floated away. I do find it hard to believe that at least 50-60 lbs of gear was able to slide and/or float away.
Anyway, I know pretty much EVERYONE that's crabbed or prawned has lost traps for all of the reasons people lose traps... it a small consolation I guess. Just wanted to vent a little.... woke up so pissed off this morning, know what I did? Drove my a$$ down to Bellingham and re-geared up. Hurts the wallet a bit... and the pride.... but I'm a "get back on my horse and ride" kind of guy so I figure if I get even 1 damn prawn before May 11 I'll be somewhat vindicated B) Hoping to head out again this week at least once and try again. I've got a new spot pegged out.... but if anyone knows Saturna and cares to shoot me a PM as to a decent spot I'd sure appreciate it.
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