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Jere Lull wrote:

Jeff Morris wrote:

Now that that is cleared up, I'll flip sides! While I've generally been a
strong supporter of the Down East fishing communities, in recent years the
number of lobster pots has increased dramatically. I've heard people being
frustrated by traps in the Chesapeake, where you hardly ever see two within 100
feet;

You haven't been in the Northern Chesapeake Bay. There are some fields
(Middle River, Sassafras, and Bush River) where I often brush traps away
on both sides of our about 6' beam (at the waterline). It's highly
seasonal, though. Between one weekend and the next, hundreds of traps
can be set or pulled.

100' between traps is a real luxury and pretty much rates as open water.

Also going in to Bodkin Creek and around Galesville.

On the ICW, the crab pots act as a sort of extra channel markers,
although I did see one out in the middle of the Rebecca Shoal (on the
way to Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas) where the water is several
hundred feet deep.

in some parts of Maine (Stonington and Tenants Harbors stand out) there
are fields that have one every 10 feet. One's sympathies start to diminish when
you're trying to maneuver through that. Remember that Down East pots have a
toggle - a second float connected to the first with a 20 foot line that lurks
below the surface, usually down current from the pot. Fortunately my catamaran
can be powered on one engine - its impossible to survive such field with both
engines running.

I've heard that here in the Keys (FL) there are some fishermen that
put the pot floats just a foot or so below the surface and locate the
pots with a GPS in order to keep people from stealing the crabs. If
that isn't illegal, it ought to be although the person who told us
that might have been making the story up.


The other issue I have is with pots in the inner areas of commercial harbors or
marinas.

Thankfully, there's some sort of law on the Chesapeake that eliminates
most floats once into an anchorage and many creeks/rivers. It could be a
variant on Darwin: With the number of boats on the upper Bay, a float in

We took a mooring earlier this week and there were crab pots
interspersed among the moorings. Totally stupid if anyone used the
moorings as it was almost impossible to approach the mooring without
running over a pot. I'm not sure whether we snagged one or not - it
was blowing about 25 knots and the boat is hard to handle under those
circumstances.

We've had a crab pot boat on the Posoquan River come along putting out
pots and drop one right behind our anchored boat and then motor
alongside our boat and drop one right in front of the boat over the
anchor. We've also anchored off the upper Keys in Hawk Channel and
when we got up in the morning the crab pot float was wrapped around
our anchor chain. In all those cases we were able to get underway
without harming the crab pot or float

a marina approach wouldn't last long. As it is, we move 2-3 crab traps a
quarter mile or so elsewhere each season.

The charts sometimes have a 'free zone' where you are supposed to be
able to get into the channel, and if you can find it, there's less of
them there. One guide book says you don't usually find them in more
than 30 feet of water, but that's not always true.


grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html