How do you store your crab/ shrimp pots, buoys, and lines on your boat on the way to the fishing grounds ?

I'm searching for a space conservation plan for those items.

Also do you mark the lengths of your pot lines ?

Thanks, Peri

I like the above idea for shrimp pots with 400 ft of line. for crab pots i only run 40 feet of line and hardly use that much. I have the cheap square crab pots that open on one side. so at the end of the day and on the way out I store the rope and bouyes in side the pots. I have rigged the pots with clips and both ends of the ropes with clips. so when i get there i open the pots take out the bouys and rope, bait up, toss the pot and clip in the rope, then the bouy at the other end. it works really good for me in my small boat.

AuntyM,

Do you put out all 400' of line each time even though the depth may be only 280' ? (and just sink the extra)

Also, do you have a pic of the extension cord reel ? Is that a garden hose type 'thingy', only smaller ?

thanks, Peri

For crab:

1. folding Danielson traps go on the motorbox with a bungee
2. leaded line is in 40' segments. If I'm going deep I just use 2.
3. buoys are separate, they get stuck them wherever there is room

At deploy time, everything clips together and goes in the drink. I don't really take too much time stowing it before and after, since it all gets thrown overboard early in the day, and doesn't come back in the boat until we're done.

Shrimp is a whole nuther story -- non-collapsing traps, 10x as much line that has to be rolled up carefully to avoid tangles, etc.

I fish out of a 14'er and space is a premium, I've got it worked out pretty good in my boat.


crab is pretty simple... I use the fold up danielson traps. Each trap has a bridle with a loop. My rope is broken into 50 and 30 foot lengths with a clip spliced at one end and a loop at the other. all my bouys are rigged with a clip and one end as well. whatever depth I decide to drop at just clip the appropriate lenght of line to the bridle, drop it and clip the bouy to the loop in the other end of the rope... I can fish any depth just by adding lenghts of rope or changing up the long for the short... I carry enough rope to fish all pots at 100' if neccessary.


Shimp is a little trickier cause you are dealing with so much rope. But, If you coil your rope carefully and half hitch the coils just right you can fit 350 ft of rope inside a pot for storage. That way basically all you are dealing with is pots... One lenghth of 350 ft can be coiled easily into 4 bundles and half hitched. The half hitches, if done right, will slide over the top of the bundle and you're ready to deploy with no knots or twists.

The bouys each have clips and can be clipped onto the loop at the end of the rope after deployment.

If anybody is interested I can take a few photos and post. Not gonna waste my time if no one is interested.

I'm interested!

Just got a tip yesterday from someone shrimping around Edmonds (SnoKing PSA member?) on how to handle all the shrimp lines. Tried it today and it worked great.

Here is what I used: 20 gallon garbage can, four 325' line with a loop on one end and a SS clip on the other end and detachable bouys with SS clips.

To fill the garbage start with the looped end of the first line, then attached it to the next line (using the clip) until all lines are stored in the garbage can. To let pots out, simply go in reverse order disconnecting lines as you go and attaching buoys to the looped ends.

In my case I was able store four 325' lines without any tangles and didn't have to wrap all those lines around the pots for storage.

Crab traps and lines I never really worry about since I only use 75' of line.

I've found that if you use a old garden hose reel and take it apart and add 16"sections of 2x2 wood you can fit 2400ft of 1/4" polly rope.Just have snaps on the ends of each piece of rope then it all rolls up nice and neet.For mounting use C-clamps.

Line gets unclipped from the pot and buoy and coiled into a bucket. My buoys have a 4 foot length of PVC pipe through them, and I just stick the pipe into a fishing rod holder. Keeps 'em out of the way and gives me a nice salty look.

Dan

Once you've tried the garbage can method as described above, you'll never go back to any other way. Never a tangle and you can put 4 lines and your weighted (oversize) buoys in as well -- maximum use of space and flawless performance, IMHO.

(drill holes in the bottom for drainage)

slab, i hear or read that you had some of those salty types in your boat and did really good. iam going this week end again and will be out early this time . I hate to launch a mucko so i will run down from everret. this last week end I only got 11 total. but we sleep in until 10 and did not hit the water until noon each day. what time in the tide do you think is best?

elkrun,
Here is my setup. Just keep in mind I fish out
of a 14'er and dont have the luxury of room in
the boat for garbage cans, buckets and hose
reels.


I use a single 350' length of rope, in this case
bundled into 3 separate bundles. here is the
pot with all the rope inside.




here are the bundles pulled out and ready for
deploy. I only undo one bundle at a time while
I'm deploying.




Here is a close up of the half hitches at the
top. If you do it right you just slide the half
hitches over the top and you're ready to go
with no knots or tangles. It took me a couple
of deploys to get it perfect.



It doesn't take up much room in the rafters of
the garage in the off season either.

Lots of good ideas here...

Dan (Slacktide), do you put your buoys in the rod holders upside down, or don't you weight the bottom of your buoy pipe?

Murphy, does that garbage can have straight sides or tapered ?

Peri

Starcraft,

Water current is more important than tide -- some place have lots of current during a tide run and some don't. You don't want heavy current, especially when it's rough water. The waves yank on the buoys and vibrate the pots and repell shrimp. But then sometimes the bite dies when the tide is completely slack - so I like some current.

Peri, all garbage cans I have seen have somewhat tapered sides (so the garbage falls out).

Piper-

I run a similar set up. Do you attach those downrigger clips to one end of each rope?

Thanks for the pix.

Elkrun
what you are seeing is actually just one rope bundled in to three separate bundles. I use a clip for clipping to the pot and my bouy has a clip that clips to the loop at the end of the rope.

For my crab rope, yes, all my ropes have a clip at one end and a loop at the other. that way I can daisy chain them together. I rarely crab in more than 50' so I usually run just one rope.

Peri- I saw those pre-made setups in the store for $15, and realized I could make a double-bouy version for half the price, a signifigant savings for my four traps. For weight, I've got about a foot of 5/8" steel rebar siliconed inside the pipe. I don't need to worry about rust because the pipe has endcaps cemented on. Since I don't have the lead donut weight, they fit fine in the rod holders with the heavy end down.

BTW, if anyone needs 'em, Pacific Industrial Surplus south of the stadiums on 4'th ave usually has shrimp and crab buoys for $3.50 and leaded line for 8 cents per foot.