Distance from anothers crab trap floats ????

[whynot]

Well with all these crabbing rules it sure is easy to get confused .I had heard that you had to keep your crab trap floats 50 feet from someone else's crab trap floats . Now I see thats wrong . First my brother heard it from a DNR lady officer that there is no rule .

I checked in the 2007 Md. fishing guide and it says [ It shall be unlawful for a rec crabber to set or fish a trotline or collapsible traps within 100 feet of a trotline . Nothing there that I could find about c traps to c traps . Listening to others is not the answer . You have to read the rules yourself .

Tony

[mikie]

Why would you want to drop your traps so close to someone else's that you would have to worry about whether or not it was legal?

[whynot]

It came up because someone moved his traps 20 feet from my brother's traps today when he saw him catching a few crabs . Maybe there should be a law [God forbid not another one] since not everyone is courteous . With the tide moving and working the traps he eventually had his traps in my brothers line .

Tony

[Burchbeer]

Tony,

I had someone a few years back set his traps right next to mine.

I want a wide berth and give others the same. People are idiots.


I kept crabbing and ignored the prick.

He was elderly and I figured it wasnt worth it. I had crabs. He didnt. I have developed more of a soft spot for older folks with the way my dad has become.

Still, there isnt too much of an excuse to try to squeeze someone out where another has already developed a lay line or trap line IMHO.

I have had friends though lay very close to me and I same when the pressure for catching crabs is on. Then it gets comical.

DB

[Rudder88]

That is why we cannot carry sidearms

[rexking]

So how close do you consider too close? I did move my traps this past Saturday out on the Elk, close to another's trap line but nowhere near 20', and driven more by a need to escape the wind than get close to this guy. The post seems to indicate this was on Sunday, so I suspect this wasn't me but being new to crabbing, was unsure of the unsaid rules. With that said, 20' seems obviously way too close.

[plasticfish93]

I was under the assumption that a 50' foot rule applied...............obviously I was wrong, ( I guess I pissed off a lot of crabbers in the past 35+ years that set their traps on top of mine..............because I normally challenge them and their location when this has happened)............... I think this would be a good suggestion for DNR and the "Rules Committee". This year I actually had one guy lay his traps in between mine............he claimed there should not be a problem as his floats were of a different color. Basically I told him to packed them up and run parallel to my line...........and a previous poster is correct.........that's why we should "not bear arms when on the water"..............

[whynot]

Rexking it wasn't you . I try to stay at least 100 foot from everyone . That's only 40+ long paces . Sometimes I'll lay 2 or 3 lines of 15 or 10 parallel . Then I lay a lot closer . If I run over my floats then it's my problem . I'm not screwing up someone else .

I had one guy trotlining by himself and layed kinda close to me by mistake because of the wind and tide . He apologized right away and said he would move his line. I told him it was an honest mistake and I would move my traps over . He was so upset that he had messed me up and before I could move my traps he was picking up his line . The shame was that he got one of my floats with pvc piece in his prop in the process and it took us 20 minutes to get the pvc and float from where it had wedged between the prop and cav. plate . We parted friends with nobody upset and then had a ball when the crabs turned on and we were getting one in every other trap . Your probably not going to believe this but he was a small time LCCer doing it for a living . There are some nice guys out there but if I would have layed into him before he apologized there would have been a war and ruined both our days . Mistakes happen . I've made more than a few . This is why everyone should give others a wide berth so the problems don't get a chance to happen .

Then again there are assholes out there who if you get within 200 feet from them will give you a load of crap . Some BS about I'm taking their crabs !!!! Then my disposition changes if they start in on me . This is true of some , not all of the comm boys from eastern shore that come over here and try to take over the rivers . I've had them drag my trot line float on purpose because it was in their way when they were making their turn to go to the other end of there line . It was 500 feet from them .

I think it was RJ that told a story at Crabfest about some ES crabbers that told him to move because he was in their spot that they had crabbed in for a couple of days . Now that was a bad move .

Tony

[done workin]

This is the whole reason that when crabbing I carry my range finder with me. I now carry it during spring rockfish as well, for obvious reasons. I fyou want have fun playing guessing games with the crew, take one with you and see how good the crew is at guessing distances on the water.

Granted there are some days when I will get right up the minimum but will never get within it.

There's not a whole lot I'm sure of but I'm sure that my range finder is more accurate than somebody else's eyes. I wait until they are at the float I want to measure from and then measure the boat. If the trotline flaots are big enough I can measure from them.

100' is ALOT closer on the water than say in your backyard.

One of my friends (Who by the way has VERY GOOD eyes) told me this year that when laying my line that we had 100' to go until we got to the barge that was drilling pier pilings. Knowing where I lay and how much line was left to be put out, I just smiled . We got to the end and put the boat in neutral.

I turned around and said 100'!!!???? we have more than that to go now and I just put 100' out since you said that. Aw, you're full of it was his answer.

Picking up a 1oz inline sinker sitting in the boat I encouraged him to try and hit the end of the barge. Giving it a pretty good toss, it still probably fell 30' short with a gentle splash.

End of the distance discussion.

[whynot]

Most people couldn't estimate 100 feet on the water if their life depended on it . I was a surveyor and I wouldn't even bet on myself . Range finder neat but going back to orig post " there is no rule on Dist from one persons trap to another persons. Common sense is the name of game . Shame some don't have any .