Nickcook77
Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2024
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 88
- Points
- 13
- Location
- Porthleven
- Favourite Fishing
- Boat
Someone was asking for advice on here for putting some pots out.
As a non commercial bit of fun firstly you need to know legality of it:
You are allowed 2 horned (cray fish or lobster) 5 crab a day. You should buy a gauge to check legal sides (most will have all sizes of various species on one gauge), lobster are 90mm from eye socket to where the tail meets the body. It is
Illegal to catch females (that you can see) so if they are carrying eggs you return them. Also what we do if a female is carrying eggs we cut a v in the base of it’s tail so when it has not got eggs you can see it and still return it.
Setting up you need to know roughly the depth of water you’ll be putting pots in and ensure to have enough rope from marker buoy to pot.
What’s really important is you either have the first part or all of your rope as leaded rope. I have 1/2 and 1/2. So from my Buoy I have 25 foot leased 8mm rope and then I have spliced 10mm normal rope to the pot. You can put leader rope the whole way to the pot but it works out far more expensive. I used to normal rope te whole length but I wove strips of lead along the first 20ft of rope.
If you don’t do this at some part of the lower tide you’ll have floating rope on the surface. This is dangerous to other boats and it will upset a lot of people and you could find some one cuts your pot away.
Your marker buoys are personal preference - if they are too big they'll catch when the wind is blowing hard and they will shift your pot and you may lose it. Flags will catch more in the wind and are generally used for strings. I use 2 buoys 1 the size of a football, then about 2 foot apart one v small one. This allows 2 foot of rope to hook onto.
You have soft opening or side mouth pots these need to soak for 4 days to a week. The ink wells or hard mouth Pots need to be checked daily.
Bait salted baits for lobster fresh for crab.
I salt my own Bait and use the frames from any fish I fillet. Salt it for a fair few weeks or you can buy it salted ready from most commercial ports.
The best ground is any rough ground But even more so on high points. Most individual lobster pots are in very close, some so close you could reach it from the shore at low tide.
I used to pull all my pots by hand (which is physically pretty hard going ), I have 7 pots, I have now got an electric hauler which is pretty good. It is easier if you pull them with the wind or tide pushing you away from the pot so you are not pulling it from under the boat. It’s even easier if as you are pulling it some one is piloting the boat and following the rope,
Do not put your pots too close to someone else’s. That’s a sure way of getting your rope cut and pissing off The fishermen - you will Get left alone if You respect the other fishermen and don’t break The laws or end up causing others problems.
The season generally for smaller boats is March - September time: I normally put my pots in (weather permitting ) first week of April and take them out first week September. As the water warms the lobster will move in closer.
It is import to have a close season to allow the lobster to recover and also as storms are more
Frequent You’ll lose more gear and end up with pots ghost fishing. Also in close season you can do repairs.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of my pots and dine on lobster and crab every week and my speciality is lobster linguini.
Hopefully this will point you in the right direction
As a non commercial bit of fun firstly you need to know legality of it:
You are allowed 2 horned (cray fish or lobster) 5 crab a day. You should buy a gauge to check legal sides (most will have all sizes of various species on one gauge), lobster are 90mm from eye socket to where the tail meets the body. It is
Illegal to catch females (that you can see) so if they are carrying eggs you return them. Also what we do if a female is carrying eggs we cut a v in the base of it’s tail so when it has not got eggs you can see it and still return it.
Setting up you need to know roughly the depth of water you’ll be putting pots in and ensure to have enough rope from marker buoy to pot.
What’s really important is you either have the first part or all of your rope as leaded rope. I have 1/2 and 1/2. So from my Buoy I have 25 foot leased 8mm rope and then I have spliced 10mm normal rope to the pot. You can put leader rope the whole way to the pot but it works out far more expensive. I used to normal rope te whole length but I wove strips of lead along the first 20ft of rope.
If you don’t do this at some part of the lower tide you’ll have floating rope on the surface. This is dangerous to other boats and it will upset a lot of people and you could find some one cuts your pot away.
Your marker buoys are personal preference - if they are too big they'll catch when the wind is blowing hard and they will shift your pot and you may lose it. Flags will catch more in the wind and are generally used for strings. I use 2 buoys 1 the size of a football, then about 2 foot apart one v small one. This allows 2 foot of rope to hook onto.
You have soft opening or side mouth pots these need to soak for 4 days to a week. The ink wells or hard mouth Pots need to be checked daily.
Bait salted baits for lobster fresh for crab.
I salt my own Bait and use the frames from any fish I fillet. Salt it for a fair few weeks or you can buy it salted ready from most commercial ports.
The best ground is any rough ground But even more so on high points. Most individual lobster pots are in very close, some so close you could reach it from the shore at low tide.
I used to pull all my pots by hand (which is physically pretty hard going ), I have 7 pots, I have now got an electric hauler which is pretty good. It is easier if you pull them with the wind or tide pushing you away from the pot so you are not pulling it from under the boat. It’s even easier if as you are pulling it some one is piloting the boat and following the rope,
Do not put your pots too close to someone else’s. That’s a sure way of getting your rope cut and pissing off The fishermen - you will Get left alone if You respect the other fishermen and don’t break The laws or end up causing others problems.
The season generally for smaller boats is March - September time: I normally put my pots in (weather permitting ) first week of April and take them out first week September. As the water warms the lobster will move in closer.
It is import to have a close season to allow the lobster to recover and also as storms are more
Frequent You’ll lose more gear and end up with pots ghost fishing. Also in close season you can do repairs.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of my pots and dine on lobster and crab every week and my speciality is lobster linguini.
Hopefully this will point you in the right direction