SEPTEMBER 24,2008
The day began with an overcast sky, rain predicted in the pm and the temperature not bad, around 57 degrees at 12:30.
Our neighbor,Tim will be going with us to show where the best place to crab is at. He was the one I talked about in an earlier post who is a diver that worked on boats for a living.
Funny, if you look at my Goggle map I pretty much had that place earmarked to begin with. I was told last year by another crabber the area was pretty good.
We launched the boat at the dock. They charge you a $5.00 launch fee, which can get costly if you use it a lot. Your best bet is to purchase a yearly launch fee, which is just $50.00. If you're going to launch your boat 10 times or more, this is the way to go. I thought about it, but it's a little late this time of the year for me. Next year I will purchase the yearly permit.
Early this morning we drove our truck over to the area called Peterson point, which is really another jetty that helps protect the Marina. We noticed that a Coast Guard cutter was at the boat ramp checking out some boater. Not sure what the problem was, but I am sure it was a safety issue. These Coast Guard personnel sure do their job. I have to admit it sure looks like they had enough personnel on that one boat.
The day began with an overcast sky, rain predicted in the pm and the temperature not bad, around 57 degrees at 12:30.
Our neighbor,Tim will be going with us to show where the best place to crab is at. He was the one I talked about in an earlier post who is a diver that worked on boats for a living.
Funny, if you look at my Goggle map I pretty much had that place earmarked to begin with. I was told last year by another crabber the area was pretty good.
We launched the boat at the dock. They charge you a $5.00 launch fee, which can get costly if you use it a lot. Your best bet is to purchase a yearly launch fee, which is just $50.00. If you're going to launch your boat 10 times or more, this is the way to go. I thought about it, but it's a little late this time of the year for me. Next year I will purchase the yearly permit.
Early this morning we drove our truck over to the area called Peterson point, which is really another jetty that helps protect the Marina. We noticed that a Coast Guard cutter was at the boat ramp checking out some boater. Not sure what the problem was, but I am sure it was a safety issue. These Coast Guard personnel sure do their job. I have to admit it sure looks like they had enough personnel on that one boat.
Outside the Marina was a smaller Coast Guard boat working on a buoy marker, which I assume the lights were being replaced?
We finally got the boat launched around 12:30 and motored over to the crabbing spot, which was a mile or two away from the Marina. The bay was fairly calm with just some small waves. This was the opportune time to try out my depth finders. I have the Bottom Line Finder and also the Lowrance depth sounder . Both work great.
We almost blew it when we set out our first pot. It was a little deeper than we planned on, or should I say did not have enough rope for it. You guessed it the buoy disappeared real quick. After we set the other trap we noticed we could not see the fist buoy we set. We headed back to the general area and started zig zagging around to see if we could find our pot buoy. After we had made about 5 or 6 trips we finally spotted it. The buoy was under water about 4 feet, and thank goodness I had made up a 4 foot gaff for retrieving our traps earlier this week. Without the gaff it would have been another pot for Davey Jones Locker. Hey, this is one big lesson to learn. Use the dumb depth finders you have before you set your pots, DUH.
When we finally did retrieve the pot we had one legal crab and 8 or so just under the legal size limit. Now since we did not have the trap set for too long, with already one legal crab, I just knew we were in for two limits of crab. Well that was a short lived dream. It started to rain a little bit and since I am such a fair weather fisherman I figured its time to head back to he barn. One of the big worries is if the wind was to come up, and since our boat is not that big, we could have problems. Now its not that I can't maneuver a boat in larger waves, but why take any chances.
Made it back to the boat ramp with no problems, just a wee bit on the wet side. Mainly just showers, not a wet soaking rain.
Some things I've learned on this excursion is to make sure you have enough rope on your pots and don't use the standard white & red Buoys. They're pretty hard to see when its overcast or there are a lot of white caps. Another item you may want to add to your equipment is a crab pot pulley, which connects to the side of your boat. In the long run this can save a lot of sore muscles and makes it much easier to get the pots back up to the boat.
Naturally I have to get one tomorrow from Wal-Mart. They have them for around $32.00.
We finally got the boat launched around 12:30 and motored over to the crabbing spot, which was a mile or two away from the Marina. The bay was fairly calm with just some small waves. This was the opportune time to try out my depth finders. I have the Bottom Line Finder and also the Lowrance depth sounder . Both work great.
We almost blew it when we set out our first pot. It was a little deeper than we planned on, or should I say did not have enough rope for it. You guessed it the buoy disappeared real quick. After we set the other trap we noticed we could not see the fist buoy we set. We headed back to the general area and started zig zagging around to see if we could find our pot buoy. After we had made about 5 or 6 trips we finally spotted it. The buoy was under water about 4 feet, and thank goodness I had made up a 4 foot gaff for retrieving our traps earlier this week. Without the gaff it would have been another pot for Davey Jones Locker. Hey, this is one big lesson to learn. Use the dumb depth finders you have before you set your pots, DUH.
When we finally did retrieve the pot we had one legal crab and 8 or so just under the legal size limit. Now since we did not have the trap set for too long, with already one legal crab, I just knew we were in for two limits of crab. Well that was a short lived dream. It started to rain a little bit and since I am such a fair weather fisherman I figured its time to head back to he barn. One of the big worries is if the wind was to come up, and since our boat is not that big, we could have problems. Now its not that I can't maneuver a boat in larger waves, but why take any chances.
Made it back to the boat ramp with no problems, just a wee bit on the wet side. Mainly just showers, not a wet soaking rain.
Some things I've learned on this excursion is to make sure you have enough rope on your pots and don't use the standard white & red Buoys. They're pretty hard to see when its overcast or there are a lot of white caps. Another item you may want to add to your equipment is a crab pot pulley, which connects to the side of your boat. In the long run this can save a lot of sore muscles and makes it much easier to get the pots back up to the boat.
Naturally I have to get one tomorrow from Wal-Mart. They have them for around $32.00.
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