Amazing radar trick for crab/lobster pots
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STB
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Hey MarkPierce,
There are some limitations, but ultimately, the waters are shared. As a boater, I often like to go the shortest distance from Point-A to Point-B allowed by my draft. That isn't always through a marked channel. Once I get out of a marked channel, I could well be in good fishing ground. Once that happens, it is my job to keep my boat from destroying someone else's trap and buoy, not the other way around.
It is also the case that, sometimes, traps drag or buoys break lose, e.g. in storms. In those cases, perhaps despite the best intention of their owners, they end up where they shouldn't. I suspect most such cases result from owner's not promptly collecting their traps and inspecting their gear, but I don't know. In some cases the buoys are research buoys that are left out for a long time to collect measurements, etc.
There was also one time I was running in the ICW in Florida between St. Pete and Clearwater. I was enjoying a nice leisurely ride in the channel as I thought I suddenly saw a pop-up radar contact coming fast right as I turned a bend. I barely got of 5-taps of my horn before I saw a Hatteras sport fisher coming around, very, very fast, right at me. I was out of options and cut the throttles and drifted to the edge of the channel to let it through. My aft drifted out of the channel.
In doing so, I apparently picked up a crab trap, or a piece of rope from one, right outside of the channel. I finished the trip going slowly, with that engine at idle speed and rudder trim, mostly using that engine just for docking. It was a thin little rope and I suffered no damage at all, thankfully. I got lucky.
I was really annoyed at the fisherman for putting traps right up to the channel's edge like that. Of course, that was actually the fisherman's right and many folks did. And, of course, it wasn't my right to drive over one of them. The fisherman was the only person who lost anything that day. The buoy's tag wasn't on the rope I picked up, so I couldn't make that right for the person, either.
Ultimately, the Hatteras was the one in the wrong in the situation. I suspect they were just trying to get out to the gulf fast to go fishing and didn't want the lazy ICW to cost them a good chunk of their day. None-the-less, they had no right or privilege to drive like that and were a danger.
There are some limitations, but ultimately, the waters are shared. As a boater, I often like to go the shortest distance from Point-A to Point-B allowed by my draft. That isn't always through a marked channel. Once I get out of a marked channel, I could well be in good fishing ground. Once that happens, it is my job to keep my boat from destroying someone else's trap and buoy, not the other way around.
It is also the case that, sometimes, traps drag or buoys break lose, e.g. in storms. In those cases, perhaps despite the best intention of their owners, they end up where they shouldn't. I suspect most such cases result from owner's not promptly collecting their traps and inspecting their gear, but I don't know. In some cases the buoys are research buoys that are left out for a long time to collect measurements, etc.
There was also one time I was running in the ICW in Florida between St. Pete and Clearwater. I was enjoying a nice leisurely ride in the channel as I thought I suddenly saw a pop-up radar contact coming fast right as I turned a bend. I barely got of 5-taps of my horn before I saw a Hatteras sport fisher coming around, very, very fast, right at me. I was out of options and cut the throttles and drifted to the edge of the channel to let it through. My aft drifted out of the channel.
In doing so, I apparently picked up a crab trap, or a piece of rope from one, right outside of the channel. I finished the trip going slowly, with that engine at idle speed and rudder trim, mostly using that engine just for docking. It was a thin little rope and I suffered no damage at all, thankfully. I got lucky.
I was really annoyed at the fisherman for putting traps right up to the channel's edge like that. Of course, that was actually the fisherman's right and many folks did. And, of course, it wasn't my right to drive over one of them. The fisherman was the only person who lost anything that day. The buoy's tag wasn't on the rope I picked up, so I couldn't make that right for the person, either.
Ultimately, the Hatteras was the one in the wrong in the situation. I suspect they were just trying to get out to the gulf fast to go fishing and didn't want the lazy ICW to cost them a good chunk of their day. None-the-less, they had no right or privilege to drive like that and were a danger.
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STB
Guru
Old school or 4G, radar is radar.
That's a nice calm day, with stakes tall above the water, at relatively close range, likely with the boat moving very slowly, if that.
The radar in my old boat was an old-school analog open array. My new boat has a 4G Simrad. Can't say that I've seen a tremendous difference. The big thing I like better is that it can show virtual radar images at two different ranges. I can't say I notice a big difference in what I can see and what I can't.
wkearney99
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That's a good point. Though on the Chesapeake they tend to use all sorts of random crap for floats and god-knows-what as line. You don't get the impression they're using spools of anything extra. Nor does any line I've ever come across appear to have been made of the floating variant. But that's just local crab pots, I'd venture you're advice is a bit more on-point for more open water trap/net setups.
Ventana
Senior Member
Thank you...comes from thousands of hours towing at 2-5 knots and being so bored you play with electronics like they were today's smart phones and turned the VHF radio to the WX channel computerized voice report just for company.
I had to laugh. Been there, done that.
There are no "tricks" here it's simply learning how to use your radar.
Radar marketing makes the use of these systems look like a 5yr old can master it. .... not so.
Do a google on "marine radar course".
There are marine colleges and even online courses that are well worth while.
My Radar/ARPA/MARPA course was 11 weeks including simulator time about 25yrs ago as part of my masters ticket requirements.
Radar marketing makes the use of these systems look like a 5yr old can master it. .... not so.
Do a google on "marine radar course".
There are marine colleges and even online courses that are well worth while.
My Radar/ARPA/MARPA course was 11 weeks including simulator time about 25yrs ago as part of my masters ticket requirements.
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Your radar is doing a superb job in very good conditions. It even shows thre or four small wavelets close of the stbd bow. I wouldn't expect any better.
Cheers/ Len-ret'd marine radar tech. & partime fisherman from foggy Fundy.
tadhana
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So far I've not been able to dial my radar in like that. In the Albemarle and on the Chesapeake we get a lot of buoys. On the Chesapeake they are generally in 40' and less water most of the season. In the Albemarle there is no water over about 30 feet so they are everywhere.
MichaelE
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So what’s the settings. I’m very interested.
Bluewater2
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West coast of Florida and do voyage at night. So interested.....
dotgone
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Count me in Please.
Fog is never far away and the crab pots are unending.
Fog is never far away and the crab pots are unending.
kimdabe
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I just installed a new Garmin Chartplotter and Radar. Spend much time on the Florida ICW where crabbers just love to put their pods in the middle of the channel. Love to hear more about your radar settings. Kim Dabe
Have you tried this yet in Maine?
Everyone thinks they know pots until they get to Maine - and then they realize it's not the same as other parts of the country. It's not unusual to have three different colored buoys from three different lobstermen 15ft apart - and they aren't in lines. In Maine there's one buoy at each end of a line of pots - and a "toggle" buoy often 10ft away - sometimes just below the surface.
I'll give your radar settings a try next summer in Maine but I'm skeptical. I've had no trouble seeing pots in Maine on my Garmin radar but it's hard to keep situational awareness and steer while staring at a screen with 100 blips. The only way it works for me is with eyeballs.
Everyone thinks they know pots until they get to Maine - and then they realize it's not the same as other parts of the country. It's not unusual to have three different colored buoys from three different lobstermen 15ft apart - and they aren't in lines. In Maine there's one buoy at each end of a line of pots - and a "toggle" buoy often 10ft away - sometimes just below the surface.
I'll give your radar settings a try next summer in Maine but I'm skeptical. I've had no trouble seeing pots in Maine on my Garmin radar but it's hard to keep situational awareness and steer while staring at a screen with 100 blips. The only way it works for me is with eyeballs.
psneeld
Guru
If directed at me...no ....I have not navigated in Maine nor do I wish to till lobstering is outlawed there....
At the mouths of some creeks on the Chesapeake the float density may reach or even exceed Mains lobster floats (at a few times a year).
I would not try to pick my way through them either on radar...luckily there is usually a buoyed channel through them that you can see on radar fairly well.
My point was only to show in some conditions, even much older radar could spot single buoys., navigatingvthrough a minefield of them to me would not be advisable.
At the mouths of some creeks on the Chesapeake the float density may reach or even exceed Mains lobster floats (at a few times a year).
I would not try to pick my way through them either on radar...luckily there is usually a buoyed channel through them that you can see on radar fairly well.
My point was only to show in some conditions, even much older radar could spot single buoys., navigatingvthrough a minefield of them to me would not be advisable.
If directed at me...no ....I have not navigated in Maine nor do I wish to till lobstering is outlawed there....
At the mouths of some creeks on the Chesapeake the float density may reach or even exceed Mains lobster floats (at a few times a year).
Not even close. I’ve boated on the Chesapeake for a few decades and Maine is worse by orders of magnitude. Not to mention a level of inconsideration that not even Eastern Shore watermen would engage in.
psneeld
Guru
I have seen concentrations of crab floats in the Chesapeake in the past that have been so tight I couldn't really manuever my 37 sportfish at idle through them...they were sometimes only 20-25 feet apart.
I am talking only creek/river mouths for maybe a couple weeks in the spring and maybe fall....yes ...I know Maine's fishing grounds at this level are far more expansive.
I haven't been in Main that much but my few experiences told me they were tight up there, but are they really closer than that? Orders of magnitude?
I am talking only creek/river mouths for maybe a couple weeks in the spring and maybe fall....yes ...I know Maine's fishing grounds at this level are far more expansive.
I haven't been in Main that much but my few experiences told me they were tight up there, but are they really closer than that? Orders of magnitude?
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Yes, your bow wave has to push the floats aside. Less room than your beam.
Narrow rock lined channel with no maneuvering room and a lobsterman stopping right in front of you and tossing more over the side. Not just once, not just in one location.
On moorings, in mooring fields in harbors and your boat is bouncing off trap floats.
Conversation I myself have heard. Harbormaster: “They aren’t supposed to but there’s nothing we can do. The last harbormaster tried to enforce the law but his family got death threats.”
Narrow rock lined channel with no maneuvering room and a lobsterman stopping right in front of you and tossing more over the side. Not just once, not just in one location.
On moorings, in mooring fields in harbors and your boat is bouncing off trap floats.
Conversation I myself have heard. Harbormaster: “They aren’t supposed to but there’s nothing we can do. The last harbormaster tried to enforce the law but his family got death threats.”
twistedtree
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JDCAVE
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Inquiring minds want to know: why don’t they use strings of pots with floats on both ends for fishing? That is what is done in the PNW for crabs. Far easier way to get around fewer buoys.
Jim
Jim
twistedtree
Guru
Here in Mass they are on strings like crab pots. But toggles (the second, closely attached float) are an evil invention apparently unique to Maine. As is the massive over fishing. And our lobsters are better to boot.
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