North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Just a word of warning when in Shoal Bay - two blokes who checked at least one of our crab pots.

Three of us went to Shoal Bay Saturday morning for a crab and a bit of a fish. Half of the pots are new and not cheap, so that combined with the fact the tide was a bit too low to be cruising around the bay with the kind of clearance we have, convinced us to stay in the King until high tide.

Dropped all of our pots up King creek around 10 or 11 o’clock. Didn’t cable tie the pots. We were working our way back to the creek mouth (to fish the hole that’s there for a bit) and had entered the last straight before the mouth and we could see a boat at our second pot. They saw us, seemed to put it back and motored over to us. The bloke told us our pot was all wrapped up in some snags, so he was fixing it for us. We said okay, not believing a word, and they turned around and left the King heading back towards little King.

When we ran into them, they were up to our second. Don’t know if they checked our first, don’t know if they were going to keep checking the others, but they left King creek as soon as we talked to them.

We saw them again a couple of hours later. They were fishing the rock bar in the King at the big right hand bend. We had two pots in little drains that run into the creek right near the rock bar. One of our pots had become exposed due to poor placement and a miscalculation on the low tide, so we dragged it back in. Old mate, being the good bloke he is, asked us if we were crabbing for hermit crabs.

i/s “Well, you’ve checked more pots than we have.”
h/s “Yeah, we’ve got 12 crabs already.”
i/s “I’m not talking about your pots, I’m talking about our pot you checked”
h/s “It looked like it was abandoned.”

Then his mate chimes in: “We didn’t take anything anyway.”

We left it at that, went upstream and left them there. None of our pots were stolen when they easily could have been. I don’t know if any others were checked.

Now this is all bs. The pot they checked (and admitted to checking because it was ‘tangled’ and/or because it was ‘abandoned’) is still a nice silver with fluoro blue mesh. Basically looks new. Oh, and it has a red float with a name and number on it. Yeah, it looks just like it has been abandoned. I reckon it was in the water for about an hour when they decided to be ‘helpful’. I don’t care if my pot is ten foot in the air. You don’t even touch other people’s pots.

You can make up your own mind whether you believe either of their excuses.

I don’t want to encourage people to behave like vigilantes, but if you see a skinnier caucasian bloke around 50 with grey hair missing a couple of front teeth in an dirty aluminium/yellow punt, with a 15 hp Mariner outboard, with homemade metal crab pots, keep an eye on your pots. He seems to think anything left for an hour or so, that looks almost brand new, has been ‘abandoned’. His mate reminded me a bit of a tropical santa clause. Not being rude, just can’t think of a better way of describing him. I’m not saying they stole any crabs (too far away to tell), but I know for sure they checked our pot. We saw them do it, and they admitted it. Didn’t think to take a photo.

Boosting around Shoal Bay isn’t that easy. That plus 12 crabs before midday says to me these blokes knew what they were doing, and they know the rules.

Anyway, we took seven crabs for the day. Threw back about 5 undersize/Jennys. No luck on the fishing at all. Few gold cans, and a good day overall. Just a bit annoying when you have to keep an eye on your gear, especially when it looks like they know the area so probably have been around for a few years.

I know the suggested fixes – use dillies, use cable ties, hide your pots. Just a word of warning to be extra cautious if you see this bloke around. And don’t worry FFF - no defamation. I didn’t accuse the guy of theft, I’ve told you his excuses, and I told you he admitted to checking our pot.

Cheers

KZ

It's always a shame you have to keep an eye on them... I get pretty nervous now days seen my pots taken, zip ties missing and people high tailing away from my gear..

Sadly I just sit there and bottom bounce the front of the creek I crab now so I can keep an eye on everything lol.

Serious you caught on numerous times checking your pots and they admitted to checking your pots. You are a more calmer man then me as I would have smacked the rest of his teeth down his throat.

You could have taken a photo of this idiot and put up on social media.

What I hate is trolling and your lure hooks someone's pot rope, so you go back to get the lure off, which can take a few minutes coz they stick in the rope pretty hard ... and then the owner comes around the corner ...

Matt Flynn wrote:What I hate is trolling and your lure hooks someone's pot rope, so you go back to get the lure off, which can take a few minutes coz they stick in the rope pretty hard ... and then the owner comes around the corner ...

It looks even worse when you have to pull the entire pot in just to get that lure off as well.. ... jokes!!! Never actually done this.

I think it would be if I witnessed it, probably why the wife won't let me take it haha

Be interesting to know what the legalities of checking someone else's pot is... Is taking a crab from someone's pot classified as stealing... Given that the owner of the pot may not even know that he has something in it... Just putting it out there...

I agree with Balou - photo and social media... Scum of the earth. You'll probably find the bloke's missing teeth were from a previous pot checking trip where he got caught... Some people never learn.

Matt Flynn wrote:What I hate is trolling and your lure hooks someone's pot rope, so you go back to get the lure off, which can take a few minutes coz they stick in the rope pretty hard ... and then the owner comes around the corner ...

Never had it happen, but agree that sounds like it could look like a dodgy situation to explain. Having said that, I'd definitely TRY to explain. These blokes came up with two explanations, both bs. The thing about the truth is, it doesn't change the next time you tell someone it (was my rope tangled in snags? Did they think it was abandoned). Definitely not what happened on this occasion. The blokes weren't trolling, they never said they had anything caught up on our pot, and it was up a drain.

balou wrote:Serious you caught on numerous times checking your pots and they admitted to checking your pots. You are a more calmer man then me as I would have smacked the rest of his teeth down his throat.

You could have taken a photo of this idiot and put up on social media.

Just saw them the once Balou. The second time they'd pulled up for a fish. Like I said, no cable ties on the two pots near them. They were both empty, but who knows. Not accusing them of things I don't have proof of, but the admitted to checking the pot. It's their explanations that have to be wieghed up. Still dodgy though, whatever the reason (except maybe the trolling the lure into a pot rope reason - definitely not the reason here though).

Next time I'll have the camera handy.

Not a big advocate of violence on the water, but definitely think this sort of person should be named and shamed. If people see his boat now, they might think twice about how far they go from their pots.

Thanks Balou.

Thanks for the warning Kingsley....yes I also don't advocate violence but when they give you a bullshit reply and they obviously don't give a shiz then you know they are low life scum!

I like eating the crabs as much as anyone... if you've gone to the trouble of launching etc etc .. why bother stealing just chuck a few pots in.
I only fish with 4 pots now, cant be bothered keeping an eye on a heap and worrying about losing pots n crabs
this shites supposed to be a bit of fun for a feed...
reckon I might be getting old n jaded....... just cant be bothered with the dickheads anymore

kingsley_z wrote:

balou wrote:Serious you caught on numerous times checking your pots and they admitted to checking your pots. You are a more calmer man then me as I would have smacked the rest of his teeth down his throat.

You could have taken a photo of this idiot and put up on social media.

Just saw them the once Balou. The second time they'd pulled up for a fish. Like I said, no cable ties on the two pots near them. They were both empty, but who knows. Not accusing them of things I don't have proof of, but the admitted to checking the pot. It's their explanations that have to be wieghed up. Still dodgy though, whatever the reason (except maybe the trolling the lure into a pot rope reason - definitely not the reason here though).

Next time I'll have the camera handy.

Not a big advocate of violence on the water, but definitely think this sort of person should be named and shamed. If people see his boat now, they might think twice about how far they go from their pots.

Thanks Balou.

I been on the receiving end of someone bs accusation recently.

My bro in law and I were in micketts creek recently on a week day crabbing. We came into micketts 2 hours before the top of the tide and we saw 10 pots along the first bank at the entrance. We decided to head upstream 3-4 km to drop our pots. We did a couple pulls for a half dozen crabs.

A boat came back into the creek to check his pots. We were trawling at the time so the boat came up to us. He asked if we seen anyone else in the creek and we said we had only been there a couple hours and haven't seen anyone. The 3 blokes was polite enough so I asked them how they on the fishing and crabbing front. They said they just got 10 crabs and reckon there pots have been checked cause they should have got more.

They claimed that they got out of micketts on the other side of low and no else could have got into the creek. I said we haven't seen anyone then it turned a bit nasty. They started firing up and called me a thief which I polite told him to f.off. After about 5 mins of choice words I said we could sort it out at the ramp but they were all talk.

These little pr..k could not get in there heads that if checked their pots surely we would leave 10 in there for them to enjoy.

My bro in law visiting from America was shocked we nearly got into a fist fight over crabs especially how easy it was to catch a massive feed on every trip.

Crikey, p...ed at "only" getting 10 crabs, that's the NT for you!

Just be thankful it's not like Queensland fellas - on weekends there's that many pot floats in some of the creeks you need purple floats to you know which ones are yours.