Lobster Pots!

I seen an angry post about Lobster pot men there recently and it got me thinking about a few experiences I have had too, has anyone had any bad experiences with them and the floating ropes that tend to be attached to them?

Here is one senario that springs to mind.
You snag a floating rope around the prop and it does not sheer through. The pot has been placed in a strong current and while you try and free the mess the pot then snags the bottom. Your prop is now the boats anchor point, if the pot does not give and the current is strong enough your boat is going down depending on its size and weight. The worst offenders are 1 gallon drums which are not suffiently boyant and float about 2-3 inches under the water with a strong tide running.

Gets off soap box
:roll:

Ive been fishing a 16ft orkney and now a 19 ft fastliner for probably 15 years out of Portnablagh, Donegal and havent run over a pot rope yet-The way I avoid them is by keeping my eyes open and not going balls out where I know there might be pots. Even if the leader is a bit long everyone should know as long as u are downwind of the float u can go as close as u like to it!

I've had a few run-ins with headlines in my time, usually at dusk and low tide where the float, usually those cursed little 5 inch things with a salmon cork as a leader are difficult to see in poor light and choppy water - at low tide you often get dozens of yards of headrope sitting on top of the water.

I've also hit the straps between pots at low tide where the pots weren't kept tight as they were being shot so that the straps were floating up in a big arch in the water.

Provided you don't rip the outboard or the transom off, it's easy enough usually to get sorted. A different matter in a boat with an inboard though where the prop is in under the boat.

You couldn't watch yourself for pot leaders around the Donegal coast...dunno how bad it is elsewhere around the country.

I think the point that Brian made is what is really the danger. I mean floating rope in the middle of the sea is simply ridiculous, there is no justification for having that kind of hazard unmarked to anyone. The two incidents that we had was at low tide when there was no tension between each lobster pot resulting in a huge bow in the rope which spanned 300+ yards across the surface, and regardless of where the pots are positioned its impossible to spot blue rope in the sea when the conditions are any way dark, hazy or windy and too if you were traveling at any kind of speed. There was an article about this in Sea Angler a few months back and the amount of horror stories from anglers who did not see surface ropes and got snagged up was frightening to say the least. The areas which we have had bad experiences include Tralee Bay, Brandon Bay, and parts of Bellmullet. These areas have pots on reefs in the middle of the bays which is astonishing, there is one thing to expect pots around headlands and close to rocky shorelines but over reefs in the middle of a bay is something very hard to gauge regardless of tidal flow or how each pot is marked.

Sorry am I missing something-are pleasure anglers allowed to fish over a reef away from the cliffs and a lobster fisherman(who will soon not be able to partly rely on catching salmon) isnt. I think the bottom line of Sandmans posts should be rembered by all anglers. Also who do you think will get to you first when you call on the radio for help-probably the lobster man. Also theres more and more crabs being fished and most of these pots are over sand so leaders could turn up anywhere.Keep your eyes open.

Remember we live to fish not fish to live!!!!!

I would say your missing something huge as the pleasure angler does not leave behind his fishing tackle for other anglers to catch their engine props in!!!! And very true if I had to fish to live then I guess I would have very differnt views on things like this but I don't and so my safety and my ship mates safety comes above someones living!!

helo lads one time i lashed a pot rope out of it near howth my 20hp jonson engine nearly riped the wood off the back of my boat,,it was a bad days fishing but a good thing was it was the only thing i cought..and when i pulled up the pot there was a lobster and a conger in it,,me and the brother n law ate them and i have the pot in my shead and a 100 feet of rope,,,not too bad wa.....

I suppose that's one way to tackle the problem. Wouldn't fancy trying to eat the conger myself. Rick Stein couldn't make them eatable, IMHO :shock: Wouldn't fancy having my Johnson wrenched off either :lol:

You have got to love the Guest's approach, that's certainly would eliminate the problem and I would say the first to you then would be the lobster pot men!! :lol:

having fished on a crab/lobster boat and having my skull fractored and me shoulder cracked by the derick and block smasing into me after a double on the rope went into the screw I know better that any of the dangers of this. This was me fault as I was not paying enough attention to the slack rope i was pulling in on the hauler.

When steaming how often do you have somebody sitting up forward watching for ropes,debry this is even more important on outboards at you can not see over the bow when steaming.

If you take a lobster basket, this is stealing. If you just walked 50 yards up the beach to talk to somebody would you let somebody take your rods.
A basket costs about 45euro not to mention ropes and floats. thats a good few lobsters.
I see people launching boats all the time, they get around the pier and its full throttle. most lobster basket are shot around underwater features, so use them as a warning. I don't know of any place around culdaff pier or along the coastline that basket are shot that i would have a engine doing more than turning over never mind runnning hard enough to rip it off.

I have seen 40cm large orange bouys pulled the water by the tide. these can be just under the water. just a point to remember.

So my point is these baskets are somebodys living yes they are dangerous but maybe being more aware when close to shore and when entering and leaving harbours they would not be as much a problem

Keeping your eyes open is very important. But these buoys are not just around rocks and headlandss. The whelk potters have them scattered everywhere and anywhere between Courtown and Blackwater. Whats more, they move them around constantly! I would not have too much of a problem with them if they were looked afte responsibly but on many ocasions, particularly in Dublin bay i have found floats with no pots attatched floating randomly, Pots with 'tails' flailing a long way along the surface for no apparrent reason and pots where there was too little rope causing the float to be pulled under the surface like a floating WWII mine! Now that is really dangerous! Fancy getting your prop caught in that? These things are a scourge and when i find one in that condition (when i have gotten tangled in them) I cut the rope and feel no remorse about it. :?

I have to agree with Luke here, trying to get out of Howth Harbour is like trying to tiptoe through a minefield with small bottles and containers being used as floats. Each time you leave the harbour the pots are in different positions, this also goes for Skerries, Bray and Greystones.
There is a noticable difference in the way pots are laid around the grounds in Wexford and those in the Dublin/Wicklow areas, at least in Wexford they have a marker flag and they use good sized coloured floats (woud this have anything to do with the amount of charter boats in Wexford who would not stand for Micky Mouse setups?). I have personally got caught up on loose ropes off these pots and while in the past I have done my best to unhook and return the rope in one piece, but following an incident last year where I got badly tangled in a rope with a fast running tide - no more am I going to put the lives of myself and crew in danger - in future a sharp knife will be close to hand.
Damien

Hi Damien good to see Telesport still out in force around the coast. I have to agree with the Anglers view on this one. Of course the Lobster man who fishes hard to earn his living is at a loss if someone cuts his ropes or damages his equipment but like I said originally someone’s life comes over someone’s living. There have been a fair number of points raised about being extra careful and not flooring it and steering clear of areas where Lobster pots are but the basic fact remains that they are dangerous and no matter what excuses are put forward there is simply no excuse in my opinion for unmarked hazards in the open sea, namely floating rope. As much as it may anger a lobster man its understandable for an Angler to cut a rope if he feels it is posing a danger to himself and his crew. In addition 45 euro plus say another 30 for ropes and floats is nothing in comparison to the cost of replacing a damage prop and the gears on an outboard!! I would rather pay 100 euro to a Lobster man instead of having to fork out upwards of 1500 euro if the gearbox was damaged, never mind any boat damage or say transducer damage etc. Here is a scenario too, lets say I get caught up in ropes and my engine gets damaged do I bring the ropes and pots back to the lobster pot man and ask him to contact his Insurance to pay for the repair costs? Does anyone maybe know of such a case? Also why should an angler have to reduce his speed and not "floor it", would you tell a motorist the same when coming onto a motorway as there may be unmarked obstacles ahead, don't think so, in such instances any dangers on our roads are sign posted and proper warnings are in place. If an Angler wants to go full throttle I don't see why he can't, if things are properly marked then it is the anglers stupidity not to see them, if not properly marked it is the lobster pot mans stupidity. I am willing to accept scenarios to allow for a reduction in speed or extra observation but like I originally pointed out how can you prepare for an unmarked floating rope in the middle of the sea. It’s a delicate debate but I think there should certainly be more onuses on the Lobster man to ensure safety for others at sea whilst protecting his lively hood.

while shore fishing recently at portrush harbour i noticed some nutter had put a couple of pots down around the harbour mouth with the rope way to long on them and an excuse for a float(black in colour!! :shock: ) attached. accident waiting to happen! some people just must not think. :roll:

Sorry to offend some of you but I think leaving rope floating more than a few feet away from a float/bouy is just plain negligent . As I understand it if you come onto my bit of land , even without invite , and injure yourself over a length of rope or wire I've left hidden there you can and probably will sue me . So what's the difference ? Please tell me I'm wrong and I'll save myself a bit on public liability insurance .
Why not loop it or something to keep it nearer the float ? I guess that wouldn't be so convenient for the retrieve but it may save someone a nasty accident .
I got tangled up when I was yards away from the bouy and it wasn't very funny . But then I'm just a blowin who lives up in the mountains .......
cheers
nick

If you shoot a lobster basket you need to be sure to board it at any time of the tide.
So if you set up the rope say for the high sping tide water depth + tide pull say 60ft then on low tide of the same tide you could have as much as 20ft of loose rope hanging off the pot. So depending on Tide either in or out the fisherman is A. responsible or B. a mad man trying kill everybody.

How much thought do you put into tide states when your steaming your boat. You might be fine steaming around a headland and an hour latet smack into a bach.

Sorry Scara really not too clear what point you are trying to make? I like most Anglers use GPS, Maps, Sonars and Dept finders to guide me and tell dept, area reference and tide state as well as constant observation from crew members not driving.

I will give you my back ground to come up with this remark.
I was brought up in a commercial fishing family, I have fished Salmon drift nets, commercial crabbers, prawns in the Irish Sea and in the smalls off dunmore east in the porcupine off the west, on white fish boats in rockall out of Greencastle. Helped my father over the last 20 years take out anglers on his boat . I have lived on the coast nearly all my life, I watch boats launched everyday.

The point I'm trying to make is that i really believe that 70% of private boat owners do not have the skills,ability and common sense to be let out on a boat on there own. Now there is some very good sensible people but there few and far between.

id say 70% of commercial fishermen and lobster men drink thier catch down the local and that's why we can count on them to rape the sea repeaditily and wonder why "the crabbing is so bad this year" and of course leave dangers for the rest of us out there fair play to them :shock: jesus boys do you reckon some boys on this forum are a little in favour of commercial men instead of us anglers must be on the wrong web site :roll: