Miller Bay Crab Thieves

Went crabbing two wks ago in Miller Bay, off of Bainbridge. Set two pots, then went around corner to fish. When pots were pulled hrs later, each pot was empty and had a side open, and the wire mesh bait containers were gone. The containers had been secured by plastic ties to the pots.

Clearly, the pots were pulled by persons unknown and the theft of the bait containers would indicate they didn't want you crabbing, at least not that day.

Was wondering if anyone had a similar experience in Miller Bay recently ???

We've had our pots pulled also from Miller Bay. Left them over night one time. Went back the next morning and had no bait and a ton of small rock crab. Kind of suspicious since we'd been limiting on Dungy's all week and the pot we put out that morning was full of keepers. I generally drop them in the bay and then fish around the dock or parellel to Suquamish. Seems to keep the low lifes from checking every pot if they know people are actively patrolling the area.

How about putting this note on the bouy:

This pot is equiped with a pressure sensitive detination device. Fatal if elevated before deactivation.

Short of actually doing it, the threat might detour some of the riff-raff.

too many big words in that sol... keep it simple- you wanna die?

I've had similar things happen....problem is, seriously.....what can you do? I'd love to take things into my own hands, but.....guess who would win? I haven't figured out a single damn thing I can do about it. Reporting is a joke....and I do mean a waste of time. Wardens can do nothing without witnessing the crime, and they aren't going to sit and watch my pots.

Anybody have a "You could do this..." to this problem?

wardens are to busy taking pet ducks from people

Commercial crabbers and the tribal crabbers over in that area don't care for sports crabbers at all. The tribes have been known to pull pots and take the crab out....One of my friends who is well known in the fishing biz told me that he was actually thankful because the tribes atleast don't steal the pots...They are just taking the crab that they feel belong to them. The non-tribal commercials really have a chip on their shoulders because of what we have been doing to try to decrease their allocations and eventually buy them out so crabbing inside Puget Sound can be more equitably divided between commercials and sports crabbers.....Here is a short story to illustrate their arrogance:

I was in Westport not long ago visiting with friends Dave Vedder and JD Wade (author of the Shellfish Guide)....JD and Dave were crabbing in and around the harbor. Sports folks had tried to crab outside the breakwater but commercial pots were all over and the commercials were chasing people away and pulling their pots to send a message that the crab were theirs....Anyway JD and Dave had set a couple of pots inside the harbor near the Coast Guard station and boat launch...it is legal to use pots inside as long as the commercial season outside is open. They left the pots for a couple of hours....When they came back to camp they had no crab in any of the pots....At first they couldn't understand it at all until they noticed that the doors on the pots had been secured shut with wire ties....That's right! The commercial crabbers had pulled their pots and emptied them and tied the doors shut with wire ties so nothing could get in the pot.

I have listened to them talk down there and talked to locals about it. The commercials will vandalize your car and boat if they catch you crabbing in their neighborhood. They honestly believe that crabbing is reserved for commercials in Westport...and apparently everywhere else too.

The tribes have been watched while they harvest all the crab in an area outside their normal fishing grounds...especially in areas that were set up as sport only..(of course none of our fishing laws apply to them ) They don't throw anything back ....they tank them and take them back to their home area and reseed it.

Enforcement is similar to the wild West days of the OK Corral....The golden rule applies...He who has the gold makes the rules....The tribes and commercials have the gold and they make sure those who make and enforce the laws toe their line....Until that changes I would set your pots and sit close by to watch them...take pictures of abuse and send in to the news media, WDFW and DNR....publicize the rape of our resources or stand back and watch them disappear.

Had to go three pages back to find this old thread, but wanted to report that one of the local crab thieves has been caught. Was reported in the local paper Wednesday. He was observed pulling 14 pots, was a gun packing felon, and lived on Marrowstone Island. If I can find the article, I'll post the link.

One for the good guys....doesn't happen very often.

like to read the article if you can find it....


btw, the commecials were packed in miller bay sat am

sorry, meant fri am 8-26

I don't crab, but reading this makes me mad anyways.

I don't agree 100% with all of the RFA's positions, but they look like the best that we have. So ante up like the rest of us and join. Without an effective political lobby the commercials will continue to rule the states waters.


Vince

Here's the article about the local thief. Sorry to take so long getting it to post. The paper didn't include the article on their web site, so I had to find the old paper (a project in itself), scan it, email it home to this computer. Then my satellite connection went down for the last three days...bla...bla....bla. Any way, I hope it's readable as I saved the scan as a .jpg.