Copycatting Polecat

[scotty80]

With the Flats over and Hickory Shad done, I found some time to work on crab floats. The White Shad are just starting !

Anywho, after talking with Jerry at SFII and several b-mails latter, he gave me the encouragement needed to try construction of his floats. I have tried several different set ups in previous years and not been happy with any of them. So A trip to Walmart for the Orange noodles & A cheap SS bowl, Home Depot for the PVC, Local hardware store for propane refill, and the local tire store for used wheel weights was the project of the day.

I melted down the weights and skimmed off the clips and slag. All done outdoors with gloves and safety glasses. Designed A State of the Art casting facility out of exotic lumber ( see pic [wink] ). Had A few rejects but all in all, went OK. Can't wait to try them in ( hopefully ) A few weeks !

Thanks again Jerry !

[scotty80]

Arg, no pic.

[scotty80]

Finally figured the pic thing out thanks to jumbo1 & John Pierce. Here goes again,

http://images.snapfish.com/3439858723232%7Ffp4%3Enu%3D3257%3E584%3E282%3EWSNR CG%3D323294%3C5449%3A8nu0mrj

[Fat Jimmy]

Yep, that looked like my basement a couple of months ago! I guess we'll just have to call each other Jerry's kids this summer when we see each other's floats standing up bobbing in the breeze! [tongue]

[mikie]

I especially like the gas cans about 4' away from the propane burner. (sorry - retired Fire Captain)

[POLECAT]

Now how am I going to be able to find my traps with most of the bay filled with copy cat floats????[grin]

One note of caution: Make sure the line length is greater than the water depth. Those floats do not have the buoyancy to float a topless trap if the line is too short. In the past I used these type floats only on cloth ring nets. They would float the ring net if the line was not long enough. Last Wed. we discovered by accident that wire traps will pull the float under if the line is too short. Good thing I was the "alert" one who noticed we had two floats under the surface. We immediately did a 180* turn and rescued them. I hate losing gear! A good rule of thumb would be to add 4 additional feet to the water's depth to allow the door(s) to open and the tide's increase in height.

Scotty,
In what part of the process does the Porta-Potty come into play?[grin]

[C-Hawk18]

Gas Can?---which one of the three!

Also I hope that's a Diet Coke can under the burner ....sure looks like a Silver bullet.

[JB Crabs]

Are you sure you didn't count 4 gas containers plus could that be a outboard motor fuel tank on the right side of the picture?[angel]

Looks like my garage also about two weeks ago

[john pearce]

glad you got the pic to go thru, Jamie probably deserves most of the credit.[smile]

[Steve F]

I know if you need to copy from anyone its Jerry, he one of the best guys on this crabbing board and does not mine sharing any of his ideas. Jerry knows his sh## and has help me out in the past, Thanks Jerry