prawn/crab pot puller

Has anyone out there made a crab pot puller? I see Cushman Marine has some very slick rigs, and I'd like to copy their design. I have already made a davit and have used it pulling by hand. My next trick will be to make a electric 12v puller with a line pulling shiv.

Here is my question: where can I find a motor suitable for this application? Obviously Cushman has found some somewhere but I hv had no luck. I would be willing to trade some Hood canal prawn fishing expertise for some motor knowledge.

TIA
Brandon

I've seen some guys use starter motors. I'd stick with a gas powered unit myself...as long as you take care of it it'll last. Another thought if you want electric think about using an electric downrigger as the drive.

Gooose

I wouold investigate a electric windoe motor.
12 volt
about the right speed, and may already have some gear reduction built in.

or Electric winch motor (warn winch)

Thanks for the replies. Several people have said the gas powered pullers are better. Maybe my question should have been what are the pros and cons of electric vs. gas pullers? My thought was that 12v electric would be quiet and smooth and gas would be loud and herkey-jerkey. Is pulling power a problem with the electric pullers?
thanks again
Brandon

Rig up a small anchor windlass on its side by your davit. These can be easily operated with a simple toggle switch from your dash. coil the rope around once and pull tight.

I have an electric puller from Cushman and they are a lot slower than gas. .8hp vs 3hp. The gas pullers are not herky-jerky, but are noisy, smelly, can leak, etc. The gas units are also more susceptable to the corrosive effects of saltwater.

Spend $25 on a pully that you can mount on a Fish-on rod holder base and pull by hand. You'll save money, get some excercise, and impress your lady friend with your big muscles.

Andy

That works peachy for crab, Dogfish. Everyone I know that has pulled shrimp pots by hand either gets a power puller or gets out of the shrimping business

The Cushman ones look like they source their motor and switches from Grainger. I would get a Grainger catalog or a McMaster-Carr catalog or check their online sites and go from there...

-N.

I took my wife shrimping this last year... just the two of us no motorized puller... Holy Aching Muscles... My wife she tried to pull but for every two feet she would pull it would drop another foot. I could just see all the little shrimpies swimming away. Anyway we got our limit in 4 pulls of the pot... I couldn't lift my arms for a week...

I'm working on my pot puller but he wont be ready for about 15 years or so...

Whine, whine whine!

I've pulled pots for four years now, and I usually have a guest or two on my boat. This means that I get to "assist" them with their pot pulling. Granted, after helping to pull up to 12 pots, that I am a bit sore, but it is not an impossible feat.

Buck up and do it the old fashioned way, you weanies, and get a pair of those Atlas blue gloves to save your hands. If I have to spend more on the equipment than I can just go buy them for, I'll just buy. (I'm just ribbing you old weak folks, so don't take it personally.)

Carquest in Olympia has a good selection of motors.

Aunty M, your on!

Andy

Hey now my whining gets me a feel sorry for you massage every time we pull shrimp out of the freezer... I just have to remind her just how hard it was to pull up all those pots...

Damn good thing my wife dont check the bb... I wouldn't want her to find out...

be carefull what challenge you accept there dogfish... If auntym has the McKay pots your in for a world of hurt... Aunty make sure you weight those down good (10 lbs at least)... You wouldn't want the tide to get them... :p

The pots can't be any higher than 18" and no more than 2.5' squared, so how is your pot a double pot?

I remember the storm we had in May of 2000, clear calm morning with flat, I mean FLAT, water. By the time we got done pulling pots on round #2 we HAD to motor into the wind to even have a chance at geting the pots up. Luckily we had 4 limits by that time, but holy crapola, them were some mean waves.

Mine are square, but they are only a foot tall. Your measurements work, and thanks for the clarification on the double. My father-in-law built mine many years back when you could fish two pots, etc., so they have seen their fair share of use. Mine are only wire mesh with a 10 lb weight in the bottom, and I use two bait containers per pot, plus all of the empty cans of puss in boots. Your's sound like they are built hell for stout. It can't be any harder than pulling in a pot full of jellyfish in a 40 knot gale, though. Been there, done that.

Thanks for all the posts, it's nice to hear everyones different ideas and tactics. I think I see a suitable motor at grainger, but now i'm considering a gas motor. Im glad I have untill May! Ill post a picture of the completed davit/motor combo when I'm done.

We usually camp on the DNR beach near Tsusko(sp) Pt. If any of you are near there for the first Hood Canal prawn opening please stop by (we will have cold beer)

Hey bellingham,

OK, well here's some comments from someone (me) that's never used a pot puller, so take them with a grain of salt...

I belong to the North Olympic PSA, there are a lot of old guys in the club (think Sequim) that do a lot of crabbing/shrimping. They are divided into two groups: the ones that have an electric puller, and the ones that wish they did.

There are many guys in the club that have gone from gas to electric and never gone back. Complaints I've heard about the gas ones: loud, smelly, cantankerous (even the Honda's) high maintenance, cumbersome, and dangerous... they don't stop on a dime, and on most of them, they have big, hot mufflers that you have to reach across to hit the kill switch, it's usually on the wrong (outboard) side. The complaints I've heard about the electric ones: they are slow, and sometimes weak (older models)

Lots of guys complain that either kind, if it just has a small pulley up top on the end of the boom, and the rope comes down to the motor, lower on the boom, if it's that style setup, they complain that it makes a mess of the boat, the rope slips a lot, the rope is all wet, etc.

The more commercial-style pullers, with the large driven davit up top, they grip and squeeze out the rope and from what I've heard, tend to work much better.

I've also heard that the reason that the electric ones are weaker is not because the motors can't be built as powerful, it's because most people don't run heavy enough wire to the electric motor... remember, you're drawing some serious amps there... so if you go eletric, run super heavy wire.

So I've looked at different puller designs for years, and listened to all these guys, and I think if I were to build one myself, I'd use a big driven davit like the commercial crab pullers, and either put the electric motor up there on the davit on the end of the boom.

Or get a electric-hydraulic pump, like those used on snowplows and such, and mount the pump near the batteries, and run hoses up to a hydraulic motor mounted on the davit on the end of the boom. Of course if you had an inboord engine, you could probably mount a bracket on that and run a hydraulic pump off your inboard engine to power the puller.

Just more food for thought.

-N.

StormN post pretty much said it all. One thing to consider about electrics is definitely power.
My best bud has a crab/shrimp pot building business and some of his most recent designs are a bit to effective...imagine 33 dungies in one pot...the guys honda puller barely got it off the bottom. Electric unless it was huge wouldn't have.

BTW breakfast on Hood Canal is fresh out of the cooker steamin hot crab...yummy. Makes my float float upright.

Gooose

You pansies, wimps etc. just need to take my course-Muscles by Sparkey.

I'll have you all whipped in to shape and ready to pull pots by next years Hood Canal shrimp opener!! Guarenteed!!!